Surprising South Dakota
One of the hardest parts about this blog is finding something to write about. It’s not for lack of content, but because it’s hard to sum up some things in just a few hundred words. South Dakota along Interstate 90 is one of those places. I was amazed! South Dakota is a. State I never felt like going to…ever…and now I can’t wait to go back. The natural scenery mixed with the kitsch roadside stops make it one of the coolest places I have ever visited.
In Mitchell, South Dakota was the Corn Palace, which touts itself as being the only corn palace in the world (like they had to tell us that). Ever year the Palace cuts corn cobs in half and nails them to plywood, thus creating gigantic murals of different scenery and it’s actually really awesome. Mitchell is the town that leftover corn built. In fact knowing where their bread is buttered, City Hall is attached via lower-level entrench to the Corn Palace. It serves as a small music venue and has served as a stage for many a great artist, mostly ones our grandparents would appreciate. They have the obligatory crap sales stuff so you can get your souvaniours or other “Cracker Barrel front room” type products. They have ice cream for the kids and booze for the parents, along with all kinds of good old home cookin’ restaurants. The town itself has a plethora of antique shops too, which seem mostly like fronts to sell the crap from grandma’s house after she passed away, but I did see some really good, underrated finds there as well. For instance, there are a lack of Victorian homes there, yet a lot of Victorian era furniture and lighting fixtures for cheap in these shops.
Farther down the road was Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. This was a very interesting place. The town is built on an old drug store that grew up big and became a tourist attraction and along I90 you will see signs urging you to stop there for hundreds of miles before. It’s the Western version of “See Rock City” or “See Ruby Falls.” They have old time everything there from photos to dining plus a few saloons across the street and places selling Black Hills gold everywhere. While at Wall Drug, I ate a good dinner that consisted of sliced beef, green beans, masked potatoes and gravy, a dinner roll, and a slice of blueberry pie…all for just $23. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that price tag on my dinner for what I ordered, but it was good. I’m not sure if it was $23 good though. This is another town where the city hall is right next to the tourist attraction and for good reason. There are jewelry and artisans all around along with your obligatory junk shops selling toys imported from China that will break in two days. The whole place is actually really cool and I want to go back sooner than later.
The I90 Corridor is basically a nice family friendly stretch of interstate through South Dakota that also includes casinos and these were some of the saddest casinos I have ever seen in my life. Aside from that, there were many Native American places selling “authentic Indian” goods and selling out their owe heritage, which doesn’t set well with me personally. All told, if you’re looking for family fun, a lot can be had in the I90 stretch of South Dakota.
Thank you for reading this piece from Michael Beebe. For more about Michael, please visit TheMichaelBeebe.com or VagabondingAmerica.com.
Picture a young Michael Beebe, fresh out of La Porte High School in ’93, diving headfirst into the world of hospitality with a busboy gig at the old La Porte Holiday Inn. That hustle led him to an Associate of Science from Purdue-North Central in ’95 and a Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management from Purdue-Calumet in ’97 (those schools are now merged into Purdue-Northwest, by the way). Michael’s early career was a whirlwind—running a 140-room hotel in Indianapolis, where he learned the ins and outs of the industry but realized it wasn’t his true calling. What did spark his passion? Teaching. He found himself thriving in front of students at Ivy Tech Community College and Lake Michigan College, sharing the art and science of hospitality management. Oh, and he also moonlighted at WIMS radio in Michigan City, juggling both on-air and behind-the-scenes roles with his signature high energy.
Politics? That’s been Michael’s sidekick since he was 18, registering to vote with a fire in his belly to make a difference. He threw his hat in the ring for La Porte County Council in 2010, where he got a crash course in the power of social media marketing. Undeterred by not winning, he campaigned for Indiana’s General Assembly in 2012 and took another shot at the County Council in 2014 and 2016. Though he hasn’t clinched a seat yet, Michael’s relentless drive to serve shines through. Lately, he’s been pouring that energy into helping other candidates who champion personal liberty, amplifying their voices with his knack for strategy.
Here’s a twist: Michael once co-owned a tattoo shop, despite having no ink himself. As the business manager and marketing guru, he leaned hard into low-cost, social media-driven campaigns to put the shop on the map. That experience fueled his love for digital marketing, and now he spends his free time crafting websites and boosting businesses online—a true labor of love.
These days, Michael’s living the dream as an independent contracted transporter, crisscrossing the country while getting paid to soak up new places and cultures. When he’s not exploring, he’s parked somewhere scenic, laptop open, building his digital consulting company, Spark Plug Strategies, or penning his thoughts. He even wrote a few books.
Based in La Porte County, Indiana, Michael’s embraced a “decentralized laptop lifestyle,” blending work, travel, and passion projects into a life that’s as dynamic as he is.