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July 11, 1985 North Platte, NE to Rapid City, SD We debated whether or not to take the Badlands loop but it was worth the extra hour it took. It was great; like a mini Grand Canyon in places. I especially liked the different colors reflected in the rocks. We also decided to eat at Wall Drug since we'd seen the signs for hundreds of miles! It's a huge tourist trap but we had a great lunch and got in and out F-A-S-T. Once again, worth the trip. We were a little disappointed the nearer we got to Rapid City. We expected a "mountain city" but found it to be grody. Not too impressed with the Black Hills either. Our first scheduled stop was Reptile Gardens but it seemed rinky-dink. We thought $10 admission was too much! We shelled out $9.00 to drive through Bear Country. It's also a tourist trap but we did see a lot of [unhealthy looking] animals. A couple of bears fought in the water in front of us. When the feed truck pulled up, those bears ran like mad! The car almost overheated driving so slowly through the park. We got in trouble for opening the sunroof to take pictures.
Our next stop was Cosmos of the Black Hills at $3.25 per person. Grandpa had taken me to a slanty house when I was a kid and I really wanted to go again. It was as fun as I remembered. They stuck Bob in the corner of the house and it looked like he would fall on his face, but he
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