May 30: Sandhills Drive In, Alliance NE

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It’s Day 150 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I drove two and a half hours almost due south from Roy’s Black Hills Twin Drive-In in Hermosa SD to the Sandhills Drive In southeast of Alliance NE.

According to Cinema Treasures, the Sandhills opened in 1994. It’s a single screen and can hold about 250 cars. A commenter there said in 2014 that the drive-in had made the conversion to digital projection, but Drive-Ins.com said it didn’t reopen for the 2016 season until June 24 and was still using film.

A 2007 article in the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, said that owner Gerald Bullard opened the Sandhills and had stayed with it since. “When we opened this drive-in, it was extremely successful,” said Bullard. “It used to be on a night like this we would fill to capacity, of 250.”

In that article, Sandhills manager Reva Hewgley said they average between 30 and 50 cars each night. Bullard said that reports of the mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus encouraged some patrons to stay home. But he increased the size of the screen in 2006 and hoped to keep the drive-in going for at least “a few more years.”

Some reports say that the Sandhills shows movies on Saturdays and Sundays starting in June. Then there were those other notes about still using film. The official web site and Facebook page offer no clues, but the easiest conclusion was that I wasn’t going to watch a movie here on a Tuesday night in May.

Miles Today / Total:  143 / 19293 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 68

Nearby Restaurant: Steak. Drinks. Big-screen sports. Old-school atmosphere. It all comes together at Ken and Dale’s Restaurant in downtown Alliance. The service was friendly and efficient, and the ribeye steak came out just the way I wanted it.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The Quality Inn here had everything I needed. My room had a fridge and microwave, and the continental breakfast was enough to get me back on the road.

Only in Alliance: In a word, Carhenge. Just north of town, a collection of vintage cars were formed by Jim Reinders into a replica of Stonehenge and painted gray. Carhenge was dedicated at the June 1987 summer solstice, and it’s directly in the path of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse.

Next stop: Winner Drive-In Theatre, Winner SD.

May 29: Roy’s Black Hills Twin Drive-In, Hermosa SD

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Drive-in screen at twilight

photo from the Roy’s Black Hills Twin Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 149 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. This time it was “only” a half-day’s drive, four hours from Mobridge SD to Roy’s Black Hills Twin Drive-In in Hermosa.

Roy’s Black Hills Twin is one of the wave of 21st-century drive-ins. Opened in 2012 by Roy Reitenbaugh, it claims to be the first drive-in built with digital projection.

Reitenbaugh talked with The Daily Republic of Mitchell SD in 2013 about the challenges of getting the new drive-in built. After getting the idea, “it took seven years to find an investor and a location at the same time,” he said.

The construction of Roy’s had to wait until issues were solved to meet county and town ordinances, including build permit and floodplain concerns. Even obtaining sign permits has been a challenge. “I didn’t know it was going to be that hard,” Reitenbaugh said.

The concession stand at Roy’s has a bit more than just the usual drive-in suspects. Pulled pork sandwiches, side salads, and especially walking tacos can’t be found just anywhere.

What a great way to spend Memorial Day, relaxing in my car and watching an excellent drive-in movie on its opening weekend. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales probably isn’t an excellent movie (without the drive-in part), but all that action and CGI are just what we need on the big screen.

Miles Today / Total:  247 / 19150 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales / 68

Nearby Restaurant: There’s the kind of pizza that gets served in a buffet and there’s the kind that’s hand-crafted with personality. So lunch at Lintz Bros. Pizza was different than the previous day’s pizza and chicken extravaganza. I had some Lean Greek pizza, which is supposed to be sort of healthy, and the “pig wings,” which made no such claim. And some Boulevard Wheat Beer to wash it down.

Where I Virtually Stayed: To stay somewhere close to Roy’s the choices are the cluster of hotels near Mount Rushmore 12 miles away, the cluster of hotels in Rapid City 17 miles away, or the White Tail Ridge Bed & Breakfast two miles away, just west of Hermosa. I missed out on driving twisty two-lane highways late at night, and I got to eat rhubarb waffles with blueberry sauce for breakfast. Score!

Only in Hermosa: As mentioned in Roadside America, here in the shadow of Mount Rushmore, you could find 15-foot tall busts of three other American presidents. Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and John F. Kennedy may have been advertising the nearby, now defunct, Presidents Park. Check out this Google Street View of the busts with the drive-in screens in the background.

Next stop: Sandhills Drive In, Alliance NE.

May 28: Pheasant Drive-In, Mobridge SD

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Drive-in screen at sunset

photo from the Pheasant Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 148 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I spent most of my day in North Dakota, a state with no active drive-ins, as I drove for six hours between Warren on the northwest edge of Minnesota to the Pheasant Drive-In in the northern South Dakotan town on Mobridge.

The story goes that, in the 1950s, the original Pheasant Drive-In was built close to the Missouri River. So close that when the Oahe Dam formed Lake Oahe, the drive-in was rebuilt at its current location in 1960. But construction on the dam started in 1948, so why would anyone build a new drive-in where they knew it was going to washed away? Anyway, it’s still very close to the Missouri River; you can see it from the lot.

Ron Maier bought the place in 1976. In the middle of the 2012 season, a storm knocked down the screen, and the Pheasant was closed for six weeks until it was repaired.

According to a September 2015 article in Cooperative Connections (pdf), Maier said business happened to pick up after he converted to digital projection. “This past year has been excellent, just phenomenal,’’ he said. “We’re seeing a lot of repeat customers, a lot of people bringing their grandchildren. It’s maybe some nostalgia. They kind of remember the good old days.’’

At the end of last season, the Pheasant had a smart, interesting promotion. Patrons could bring any size container up to a gallon (!) and get it filled with almost any fountain soda for $1 “while supplies last.” What a great way to expend your syrup before it goes out of date over the winter break!

I was lucky that the Pheasant had just opened for the season this weekend. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 became my most-watched movie so far this year with my fifth viewing on this night.

Miles Today / Total:  387 / 18903 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 / 67

Nearby Restaurant: What could be better than a pizza buffet? Maybe a pizza buffet with fried chicken. That’s what they’re known for at Pizza Ranch. Sure, the buffet also has salad and veggies and other healthy stuff like that, but after another long day of driving, I just wanted easy, tasty food. This worked.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I went across the bridge to the Grand River Casino & Resort for the night. My room wasn’t as fancy as some casino resorts, but it had a fridge, a microwave, and a coffee maker. The rate was also better than a lot of resorts.

Only in Mobridge: According to Roadside America, residents of Mobridge claim that the bones of Native American leader Sitting Bull were stolen from his original grave in Fort Yates ND on April 8, 1953. They encased the bones in a steel vault embedded in a 20-ton block of concrete, then buried the whole thing on top of a very visible bluff overlooking Mobridge from across the Missouri River, and built billboards to direct tourists to the site.

Next stop: Roy’s Black Hills Twin Drive-In, Hermosa SD.