Waking up this morning was a little challenging, but luckily, I really had nothing major planned. With all our visits to the Black hills over the years, I have driven past Reptile Gardens hundreds of times, and wondered if it was as cool as it looked from the outside. Knowing nobody would be up for going except me, I figured now was as good as time as any. So, I woke up, ate some food, shook out my tent from the wet and dirt of Glacier, let it dry in the warm sun of the morning, and then prepared for a day at the reptile gardens.
Heading out from the hotel in Hot Springs, SD, I again drove past the president heads and towards the black hills. I made my way to the Reptile Gardens, parked the car, and wandered in to buy a ticket. This place did not require reservations, and I had no trouble getting in without.
With my ticket in hand, I started through the grounds, marveling at the gardens, the animals, and all the people with kids. I saw amphitheaters for the snake show and the gator show. Noting the time of the presentations, I wandered around to take in more before hand. I saw a small contained prairie dog village with new pups. I saw large tortoises wandering around in what appeared to be a petting zoo setting.
Eventually, it became time for the snake show, and I made my way to the top of a set of bleachers and sat down. The area around me filled up with families full of children, some happy, some not so happy. One family sat in front of me with a small sullen little girl of maybe 5-7, who as she sat, looked back at me to make sure she was not keeping me from being able to see as her little sister sat on her father's lap. A father and his 2 kids sat next to me, and the daughter said hi as she sat down. The little girl sitting on her father's lap would smile and say hi occasionally throughout the show.
The show consisted of a young looking boy, who opened with a joke about his age..."I bet many of you are wondering how a 12 year old got the privilege of playing with these dangerous snakes. Jokes on you, I'm 13." The first snake he brought out was a non-poisonous snake, per the young man, which was lucky as it continuously turned and struck the gentleman in the arm and hand to the point he started bleeding. It was then that the young man decided to put the snake away. The final few snakes he brought out were less aggressive, which was good since they were all poisonous. Overall, he did a great job teaching us all about the different snakes. Later, I would learn most of his presentation came from the signs in the building that housed all the reptiles. Either way, it was still good.
Once the show was over, I filed out with all those families and kids, and headed to get something to eat for lunch before the gator show. Well satiated, I again tucked up into the bleachers for the gator show and was surrounded by exceptionally kind and well mannered children and their parents, who were maybe less aware than their children or maybe concerned about the strange woman talking to their children. Hey! They approached me. I think kids can see I'm just a big child at heart. Anyway, the gator show was presented by the same gentleman who presented the snakes. All I could think about was the bleeding hand wound provided by the snake show a few hours earlier. The young man stated he was only 2 weeks old in handling the gators and asked we let him know if there was danger lurking. That was great fun for the kids in the audience and great concern for the adults watching this young man get surrounded by gators. He survived and so did the rest of us. As those were the only 2 shows available, I spent the rest of my time wandering through the snake/reptile exhibits in the reptile house as well as wandering through the bird area and testing my nerve with free range birds. Thank goodness those birds were well behaved and not flying at my head. Phew.
Having covered the entirety of the Gardens, I wandered outside and across the parking lot to the Dinosaur museum and Doll/Toy Museums (you get 2 for 1, so why not). Of course, I could not refuse the dinosaurs, and I enjoyed wandering through there as a little boy was going through with his family, and happened to quiz me on some of the dinosaur names. At one point, his mother asked him the name of a dinosaur and he stated it was Chickenuggasaurus - larger than T-Rex, can eat 3 T-Rex at once. I laughed at that as did his mother. He caught up to me at various points throughout and would tell me about whatever dinosaur I happened to be standing next to at that time. I still think I need to fact check some of the things he was telling me.
The dinosaur museum is not very big, and getting the Toy museum along with it, I wandered over and through. Lots of really old toys (from before my time) to some within my childhood time. There were creeping clown dolls and then the indian dolls that made me think of my sister. I was never allowed to touch her cool indian dolls growing up, and it looked like I would not be able to touch these ones either as they were behind glass. It was neat to wander through. They had a gift shop area, where I looked for a fire truck for my nephew, but had no luck finding on that was small enough, age appropriate, or the right price (cheap!). So, I headed out from there and back to my hotel.
Along the route back to my hotel, I stopped at Candyland (duh! I run on sugar). It was interesting and scary. They had miniature golf with unnatural blue water running through it and Hershey bar creatures smiling at you. I had already learned at the dinosaur museum that playing miniature golf by myself was kinda lame, so I didn't even ask to do it at Candyland. I purchased a few items, and then headed on along the loop.
Because the black hills just seems like a large series of loops, I once again passed the Smokey Bear wood carving. This time, I stopped for longer and took more photos of the various wood carvings as well as what I could see from the window of the teddy bear museum, which was not open for visitors.
Finally, I made it back to the hotel, after stopping for Dairy Queen. I packed up everything except what I was planning on wearing home, and snuggled into bed for the night. I needed to be well rested for the drive home tomorrow.
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