I wake a bit hung over, but not too bad really, for one who has seen his dinner pass before his eyes (and here I must agree that presentation is everything) only four hours back.

I do take pictures of the sunrise. Today we anticipate hitting the Rapid City area, where Rushmore and many more marvels await.

We had seen giant buffalo the previous night driving in, and they are still there this morning. No wonder there are so few left - they stand perfectly still! Anyway, Photo Op!

This following section is about the Plain-est we see. It still has its own beauty, though...

Pam: Was it this section o' travel where we stopped at the prairie home and saw the prairie dawgs? Remember the bus load of Amish folks? When we went into the gift shop/tourist trap, Juliana asked if the people getting off the bus were from the Little House on the Prairie - a fair assumption as they were certainly dressed for it. Also, when we went to buy peanuts for the prairie dogs, the lady taking our money was a somewhat sour woman with little sense of humor and even less understanding of children. The woman said there was a video about the people who used to live in the prairie home. She asked Juliana if she knew who the people were. Juliana, who knows all about such things of course, replied with confidence that she knew exactly who they were -- Maw and Paw and baby Carrie and Laura and Mary-who-goes-blind (all characters from Little House on the Prairie books). The woman looked blankly at me. Apparently she has not read the Prairie books, which I would have thought to be required reading for her job. Anyway, a cute kids story.

The rolling hills and clumps of trees - already tough to traverse by Conistoga wagon - devolve to corregated complexities of puddin'-stone - the Badlands. Pete and I walk out at one stop -- it's close to 110 degrees. Pete says more than once with awe: "This is Ancient History!" I agree completely.

Wall Drug is like those roadside stops that are partial fabricated old-west towns; in fact, it's an entire fabricated old-west town. It's good for about two hours of walking around and checking things out. I spend money there. I believe Wall, SD is named after the actual physical WALL that settlers hit here as they fought their way west. It's a good place to stop and get supplies, anyway.

We plan to spend a little more time than our usual stay in the Rapid City area, to see a good selection of what's here. I think we do quite well. We find a cabin-based hotel room at Keystone, central to the festivities. We have perhaps overhyped "The Presidents' Heads," but truthfully it's something you just don't skip on this drive.

Reptile Gardens and many other attractions await us. They have billboarded us for a day and a half. I thought I had Pete sold on the Reptile tihng, but he and Juliana are tired on arrival at our cabin-based motel in the Keystone area.

Pete is a good guy; he gives in to my asking nicely and accompanies me to the Reptile Gardens. (I gotta tellya, this place has more "interesting" snakes than I've ever seen except the Berkeley Vivarium, and the most amazing *poisonous* snakes anywhere!) They have some record-length snakes there, and some highly unusual ones. Along with basketball-playing chickens and funhouse mirrors. Further, as we leave the central dome, we find summer staff with a nine-foot python, bearded lizard, and hermit crabs we can see up close and touch. And a prairie dog enclosure that includes a tunnel you can go in, where at the end you find yourself looking eye-to-eye with the P.D.s through a plastic dome. The gift shop, naturally, is huge, but Pete and I both get good value for our money (I'm pretty sure Pete would be happy skipping all of the exhibits and going straight to the gift shop).

I fear I'm a bad uncle here, because I get really fed up with the innocent selfishness and failure-to-listen of a six-year-old boy who is only doing what comes naturally - which I indeed even remember myself doing at that age -- but I'm still not really grown up, and I to be selfish too! Remember, please, I had no uncles who were brothers of my dad or mom, so I have no precedent for uncle-hood and am flying by the seat of my pants, uncle-wise. The kids are so self-focused; I hope I do right by them, but it is enormously tiring. I love them both so much, and I am confused when I get mad at them (I am really generally confused, mad or not). It's tough to ride the simultaneous emotional roller coasters of twin six-year-olds 24x7 after a good 39 years since I last lived anywhere near that much with a kid of that age - myself (and it wasn't easy THEN, either!). Honestly, I am near tears by the end of this day, because I feel am just not prepared to deal with it. But Pam and I talk after they're asleep; I resolve to give it the old college try (drop-out that I am), and things are fine by the morning. However, I will get my own room for most of the rest of the nights. I just need a little more space.

When we finished the trip, I gave Peter one of two beaded snakes that I bought at Reptile Gardens - a token of friendship that I hope he'll remember fondly.