Welcome to Interior!

This is Pat. He is one of the 50 or so people who make up the small South Dakotan town of Interior. We didn't meet too many people. But from our small sampling, they were friendly, and enjoyed the "mellow" feeling of living in such a laidback, out of the way place. Looking at Pat he seems like a happy go lucky guy, but I think this small town is a place he went to, to escape from something bigger, to help him forget about some sadness in the past. I think that's the reason many of the people living in such a small place go there.


As we left the Badlands and began our way back to our campground, we passed a few signs for "The Wagon Wheel", a bar in the town of Interior, South Dakota, that according to the signs serves this, "Ice Cold Beer". We figured we hadn't stopped at single bar in a single state yet, so what better place to go that a dive bar, in a dive town, half a mile outside of the Badlands.

Now the Wagon Wheel isn't just the local town bar. Oh no. It also serves as its' gas station. Pay inside the bar, and then pump your gas at the pump across the street. We walking in, slowly, mildly afraid for our lives, while locals at the "mini-casino" machines found inside, gave us some quick glances. They weren't nasty looks, just glancing over to see if they knew who was coming in. You get the feeling they either see a lot of strangers, or mostly people they know by name.

We went to the bar and ordered a couple of Miller Lites. The bartender gave them to us and told us that would be 4$. Christine and I were kind of confused by this. "Wait.. 4$ each?" asked Christine. "No, 4$ total, 2$ each," the bartender replied. We explained to him, that being from New York, 4$ for a beer was about right, and we were just a bit confused initially by the price. He simply shrugged his shoulder and said, "Small town, ya know."

We started talking to the bartender for a bit and learned his name was D.J. and he was actually an import from California. We asked him about the school we had seen coming in and how many kids actually went there. He told us about 20 students, total go there. Or roughly about 5-7 kids less than a single NYC school CLASS has. He went on to say how once they graduate, the nearest middle and high schools are a good 40 miles from there, and they have to make the trip every day.

He went on to say how there is really no police presence of any sort out it Interior. "About once a month or every month and a half a statey will come in," he said, "but that’s about it." When we asked if the town had a mayor he replied, "I think you need more than 100 people to be considered a town, and no there is no mayor." He went on to tell us that the nearest hospital was probably 100miles away. Now that is the type of thing that really would have put a damper on my 'get bitten by rattle snake, so I can go to the hospital, away from the bugs' plan.

This is about the time that Pat walked in and business picked up.

As Pat walked in D.J. noted how “this is good people coming in,” and he introduced us to Pat as he sat down. D.J. then poured Pat a Bloody Mary…8 parts vodka, 1/2 part tomato juice, the “Pat Special.” This deviated from his norm of a Bloody Mary with a beer and tomato juice mixture, which is his normal drink of choice. Now, Christine and I had never heard of this but apparently out here it is common place to have Bloody Mary mixed that way. How common you might as? It comes in cans, and is actually not half bad. Lighter and bubblier than your normal vodka laced Bloody Mary drink, with a nice carbonation that helps it go down.

Pat was ecstatic to hear we were newly weds and began talking about his own wife and family. It was sweet to see how much he cares about his wife, and how fortunate and lucky he feels to have her. He then went into how many kids they have, “Two, well we had four, but we lost two of them, we won’t go into that. So two.” Pat then took a large swig of his Bloody Mary and Christine gave me 10$ to go win her money playing video poker.

As I am playing video poker with my back to the bar, Christine is talking to D.J and Pat about the Badlands and how I was a bit nervous going into it. She called me over to explain why. "Well my old roommate from college was telling me that if you like run out of gas, or have a break down in the wrong section of the Badlands, like Indians will come out of the mountain and pillage your vehicle. "

There was a brief pause and D.J. responded with, "Well I am Indian and I haven't pillaged your car yet.. What do you think this is 1880!!" Ugh. Have I mentioned I hate Donny. "Of course that's not true," D.J continued, "That sort of stuff doesn't happen any more it's 2008. Have I mentioned I really, really hate Donny. D.J went on to tell a story of how some Swedish tourist asked him a similar question based on Dances With Wolves and it got the guy punched in the face. I of course, immediately apologized, and said I didn't mean to offend him, and that in this case, my ignorance of the area and people there led me to think it as true. Besides, how could Donny be wrong about something like this?

At this point I go back to playing video poker and D.J pours Pat another "Pat Special," this is bad news for Pat as his wife is coming to the bar to hang out and he isn't aloud to drink hard liquor any more. Apparently they frown on that after going through detox. I am not sure if the drinking was as much because he lost two children, or because he literally has nothing nothing else to do in a town this small, as someone pointed out later.

Janice shows up. She looks tired, and pissed that Pat called her to come and meet us. She works in the Badlands cleaning the bathrooms at various viewpoints. On her off days she works in a local hotel... cleaning bathrooms. Pat meanwhile, claims to be the local handy man in town and can fix anything. Of course, in a town of 50people, just outside of a desert, one has to question how many lawn mower engines one can fix, to support a steady income.




Now a lovely couple walks into the bar, who have no business being in Interior, so it is clear that these people are tourists, like Christine and I. They sit down a order a pizza, and we all get to talking. Funny enough the last place there were was at Indy for the race, and are now staying at the same camp ground we are. Seemingly tracing our steps a half a day or so behind us. They were nice people, from Detroit, and wound up spending some time talking with them as well.

By this point in time it should be noted that Pat was hammered, and he kept on coming up to us and Detroit couple and saying, "Welcome to Interior!"

We wound up meeting the Detroit couple the next day at breakfast and we reflected on the previous evening at The Wagon Wheel. The people, Pat, the small town. How there isn't much to do other than go to a bar. All the locals we spoke to, D.J., Pat, and Janice all said the same thing about Interior, it is "mellow", but really nothing else positive to say about it. I guess I just found it odd that people would choose to separate themselves so much from the rest of society. I can understand appreciating it being "mellow", but they really had nothing else to say that was good about living there. Just weird for me I guess, but to them home.

Interior: A nice place to visit briefly, but I wouldn't want to live there.