Wall Drug

Wall Drug

Wall, SD

Reviewed June 10th, 2005

"Bigger better restrooms in new backyard!" shouts the wooden signs over the doors of a couple of sets of men's and women's throughout the tourist gift store complex known as Wall Drug. I instinctively had a bad feeling about restrooms that offer an apology before I even opened the door. Sure enough, the poop smell in one was strong enough to kill a wildebeast or at least the dangerous toadfish. The others were similar: ugly little hovels with barely enough room to maneuver. This sucks, I thought. Get me to the "backyard" and this better be good. The "backyard" is really a depressing courtyard, an open air fun house filled with freakish automatons, gorilla, Custer and Indian statues, a monster jackalope and a dead, stuffed pony outfitted with a saddle and stairs so that parents can readily mount their tot on this old corpse for a convenient photo-op. This, along with the T-Rex that screeches and spews fog every 12 minutes was sort of what I expected from the place so I was not disappointed. It was fun to gawk at everything for a minute or two. Never the less, I still could not suppress my anxiety and my desire to get as many photos as possible before getting the hell out. In the backyard you'll find more signs declaring: "Deluxe Restrooms Straight Ahead" and "Restrooms Historical Photos."

Both of these statements are as realistic as an eight foot tall jackalope. The "deluxe" restrooms had more space; nothing else differentiated them from the smaller ones in the front or from restrooms you might find at the airport or any other generic establishment. There were no "historic photos" or any other decorations inside the restroom aside from a little bit of graffiti in one of the stalls in the men's deluxe restroom. The women's wasn't even open. A sign said "closed for cleaning." Wall Drug gets a rating of two because I dislike idle bragging. With the sheer volume of crap on display at Wall Drug from a hooker mannequin with peeling paint to card playing statues, deer heads and even a stuffed bison, they could have easily made the restrooms interesting.

- Justin Teerlinck

RESTROOM RATING: 2
View Website   Send this review to a friend