Cowboys and Indians -- Again

I start the day by visiting Raptile Gardens: the largest collection of reptiles in the western hemisphere, and a "must-not-miss" according to my guidebook. Interesting and fun little stopover. They have the world's rarest snake (only two in captivity in the world), the world's deadliest snake (another rare one in captivity), etc. I catch the alligator show and the snake show, and still have not seen all the animals, but have to leave because it was getting dark (forecast was rain for this afternoon) and I still had to see some other sights. Wish I had more time. Oh well.




Mount Rushmore is impressive. It's a national monument to our nation's freedom; so there is no entrance fee -- free to the public. HOWEVER, there is an $8 parking fee. grrrr. I didn't stay long. Once you've oohhed and aahhed and taken the pictures, there's not much else to do. (But it is worth a visit at least once.) And it did begin to rain. So I head on out to my next destination.

This one was way more interesting. The Crazy Horse Monument is still being built. After over 50 years, it is still, I would say, only 25% done. The story behind its construction is fascinating as told by the 2o minute "orientation" video. All the work is done from funds raised from the public (admission fees, souvenir sales, etc.) -- no money from the government at all. (The federal government has offered $10M grants twice, but they refused to accept it.) There is a huge collection of native american art and craft on display, as well as historical pictures depicting the era.

It is a monument to Crazy Horse, of the Lakota tribe, and to all the Native Americans who were here before the white man. The Black Hills are considered sacred to them, and this location (just a few miles from Mount Rushmore) is "where it should be", according to tribal elders. When finished (no estimated date), it will be over 4 times the size of the Mt Rushmore monument. I think it is so right, what they are doing. If America can still, to this day, celebrate Columbus Day, i.e. the start of Native American genocide, then there definitely should be a monument to those people, larger than the white man's!

There was a Native American author who had a display table and was selling his book(s) on Crazy Horse. He had other bestselling books there as well. He was a fighter pilot in Vietnam and he was talking to a lot of the visitors. Now, I have been mistaken for Chinese in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, etc., Japanese when I'm in Japan, Mexican in California, etc. But I've never been mistaken for Native American. Well, this guy asked me if I was, and I guess I was mean, but I said I was from the Apache tribe, and in fact was named after a famous chief. Then I show him my ID with Geronimo as my middle name. That convinced him!

It was getting dark now so I head into town and have dinner at the Firehouse Brewing Co. A microbrewery in an old firehouse. Met these two guys over dinner at the bar, one of whom was from Rhode Island. They were just in town for business. He gives me his contact details, and if schedules work out, we're gonna do something when I get to RI.

After dinner, I head back to my hotel. Not yet ready for bed, I head to the hotel bar. Have a couple of drinks, meet these other two nice people (also here on business: from the bay area no less!! Palo Alto and Pleasanton!) and they keep buying me drinks. Needless to say we were sloshed as we headed back to our rooms.

No pancakes this time, just cereal.