South Dakota Day 1

Our first day in Rapid City, South Dakota started late but 15 hours in Sherman the day before made us reluctant to crawl back in. We couldn’t decide what to do. I wanted to see Mt. Rushmore but it was hot and hazy. Maybe it would be clearer tomorrow. D. had the Wind Cave high on his list and that is where we pointed Sherman.
As we leave, D. leaned out the window to see if he has cell phone coverage. He doesn’t.
I asked him if he thinks he’s missing out on anything.
He said he wasn’t but kept fiddling with the cell.

At the visitors center, we sat through a video. It explained the geological forces which shoved the Black Hills up, creating the cave from limestone and pools of water. We saw pictures of the cave’s unique rock formation, called boxwork. We learned how the cave “breathed”, when the atmosphere pressure above tried to equalize with the atmospheric pressure in the cave. It created a “wind” from the cave.
It was mildly interesting. The kids were ready to go on the tour. Ronnie, in particular, wanted to see the rocks.
The guide started by telling us not to touch any of the formations. The oils on our hands would destroy them. I saw Ronnie put her hands behind her back.
What a great little kid she is.
The guide led us in about ½ mile. There were dim lights along this particular tour. I hadn’t brought my glasses. I couldn’t really see what the guide was pointing to but the kids did. They started clicking away with the cameras. D. carried plenty of extra batteries on him and whispered half way through that, when we return above ground, we needed to find Radio Shack. Quick. We are more then half way through the thirty we had brought from Washington.

About then Ronnie handed over her camera. I figured her battery went dead. I changed out the batteries but she didn’t want it back, instead clung to my hand. A few minutes later, she said the cave was making her feel weird.
I whispered back we are half way done and yes, it is a little scary to be soo far under ground. She continued squirming. A minute later she repeated herself, twisting more on my hand. She felt funny. She felt weird.

Well, I said a little less sympathetic, its TOO late to not do the tour so she needed to hold it together. But she became more insisted. She really was feeling sooo weird. This cave was making her WEIRD.

Annoyed, I start to come up with bigger and better threats.
Does she want to be the ONLY Sibling who didn’t finish the tour?
Does she want to go back….. ALONE?
And while she tearfully denies all the above, a light bulb goes on.
Ronnie do you have to pee?
No she says through gritted teeth I have to poop.
O poo.
We are 180 feet underground, only half way through the tour and I didn’t have the faintest idea what to do. D. came over. He tells her to sit when the guide is talking. I wasn’t sure how that would help but had nothing else to offer anyway.
I started counting the minutes by guessemation.
15 minutes more
12 minutes more
11 minutes more.
Then had to start all over because I obviously was way off base.
Is this thing ever going to end? Would everyone just please stop asking questions?
B came over and hissed at Ronnie to get up off the rocks. Doesn’t she know she is DESTROYING the Wind cave?
D. swatted her away. B looked on disapprovingly.
Finally, finally , finally, the guide summarized her tour and pointed to a little crevasse in the wall. The exit had been near us for the last quarter of the tour.

Later, D. asked Ronnie if she feeling better and she said yes, but she just couldn’t be sure the cave wouldn’t give her diarrhea again.
D. asked me if I enjoyed the tour.
No!



Once back on top, D. wanted to return home but we were so really close to The Mammoth Site, I wanted to go see it.
“ Wouldn’t it be cool to see some Woolly Mammoth bones?”
“Nope” D. said “It will be cheesy and stupid.”
“How are bones going to be cheesy and stupid?”
He didn’t know but he was sure they could make it cheesy but IF I wanted to see cheesy bones well then, fine, lets do it.
I checked with the kids. Seeing cheesy mammoth bones sounded just fine to them.

During the short drive there, D. adjusted the cell phone. When we reach the Mammoth Site, he’s pleased. He DOES have coverage.

We had extraordinary luck. The next tour started in 5 minutes. I rushed Ronnie to the bathroom, just in case. When we returned, the others were in the souvenir shop and it is my kind of shop! Stuffed dinosaurs, stuffed buffalo, excavation tools, puzzles, models, rocks. This was by far the best shop we’d seen.
The kids thoughts too. And could I PLEEEEZZZZ buy the gifts now?
No, I reluctantly said, souvenirs are AFTER the tour.

Then we went in and learned about how sink holes were created, much the same way Wind Cave was, and how this site was discovered when a bull dozer set about digging for a fancy housing development.
The guide took us to the perimeter of the pit and showed us the various levels of sediment. He explained how slippery the sides of the sink hole would get when wet and the mammoth too heavy and flat footed to get out. Then he had us stand under a display model of a Columbian mammoth and compared it to an our modern day elephant. Nick posed under the mammoth.
The kids whipped out the cameras. D. squinted at his cell phone.

Then we went on to learn the difference between a Wooly mammoth and the Columbian mammoth, mostly habitat. The Columbian preferred warmer climates but Wooly mammoths had also been found, indicating that at some point South Dakota had been very cold.
Hard to believe when it was ninety degrees out.
We learned the dig had uncovered mostly male mammoths which were probably younger and less cautious then the females.

Two of four cameras went dead. We had left the remaining few batteries in Sherman. Its ok, I told the kids, two is enough.

The guide showed us the active site where the bones were being swept away by hand brushes. Some uncovered skeletons were easy to see, others required more imagination. The guide pointed to outside the pit where full skeletons had been assembled. The kids kept clicking away. I noticed D. was checking emails.
The guide was just explaining that there was an estimated 30 feet more to go on this dig when I noticed an interesting skeleton, the predecessor of a mountain lion.
It had an elongated head, no teeth and a perfect rib cage.
“Chase, I said wickedly “does that remind you of anything?”
“Mom!” She frowned “I just now forgot about it. Thanks a lot”
I took a picture anyway. Then the third camera went dead.

After the tour we headed for the museum where the kids posed inside a replica of a indigenous home built with mammoth bones. Bresh wanted to see the lab in the basement. The others wandered out to the gift shop.

I took her. She was very excited.
“A veterinarian needs a lab right Mom? I’ll have a lab when I’m a Vet.”
We stopped at the windows. Behind glass walls, you could see the tables with artifacts laid out and in the windows were pictures of the paleontologists and their finds: fossils, the leg bone of a mink and the skeleton of a frog.
That just amazed me. The frog couldn’t have been bigger then 1 inch. I get how you stumble across a four foot mammoth tusk but a one inch frog? How could something that tiny been completely recovered? And reassembled? And scientists know what it was?
Back on level one, D. had put the kabosh on souvenirs.
Too expensive. Too much. Too late. Too everything. Translation: no emails worth mentioning.
I was really disappointed but kept mum.
Back at the car I asked D. if he like The Mammoth Site. Was it too cheesy?
It was ok, he said, checking coverage again.