My husband and I just got home from a 2,000-mile trip to South Dakota. We especially liked stopping in little towns along the way whose populations were smaller than Whiting.

So many of these little towns have kept their wonderful old buildings from the late 1880s intact, which make their downtowns aesthetically appealing to visitors.

Of course each of these little towns has something to boast about. We saw the "home" of the cranberry festival, the butter festival, the bronzed presidents, of bicycle city whose giant monument is dedicated to Ben Biken ... give it a minute ... and, of course, the heads at the Minnesota State Fair where each princess' face is sculpted out of butter.

One of my favorite places was Mitchell, S.D., the home to the famous Corn Palace. The building is covered with themed mosaics, which are changed every year and are all made out of corn. Those in Mitchell refer to it as the world's largest bird feeder. I had no idea that the Corn Palace was more than 100 years old.

It started back in 1892 when a couple of astute businessmen wanted the world to see how great their corn products were and came up with the idea of decorating a building completely out of corn. As an old punster, their advertisements all along South Dakota appealed to me. They said that the Corn Palace was "amaizing," and a clever "cornucopia of design," just to name a few. And there was certainly a "kernel" of truth is all their claims as their billboards "stalked" us all along the highway.

Of course the king of road advertising is Wall Drug Store, which claims that they even have billboards in Africa and Switzerland. There's not much in Wall, S.D., except the drugstore but it's been enough to draw probably over a million people there since the mid 1930s.

The owners, Dorothy and Ted Hustead, moved to the tiny prairie town of 326 people in 1931. Discouraged by a lack of business, the Husteads longed for a way to get the visitors who were driving past on Highway 16A for western vacations to stop for a moment in Wall.

Now remember this was a time when cars had no air-conditioning and it was a long, tedious and hot trip. Dorothy came up with the idea of offering free ice cold water and proceeded to make signs along the road ala the Burma Shave campaign. Soon they had to hire extra help to serve all those tourists who stopped in Wall just for the free water and while there, found a few more items to purchase for their trip.

The creators of the Corn Palace and Wall Drug Store are just perfect examples of the old American pioneering entrepreneurs who found their niche and were smart enough to cleverly advertise their gimmick.

But as wonderful as this vacation was, it's like Dorothy says, "There's no place like home" and little Whiting with its own unique festivals and historic downtown is a lovely place to visit as well.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. The opinions expressed are her own. Reach her at puccini99@aol.com.