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rapid city, SD: small child and giant tortoise at "reptile gardens." his name was apparently "sam," and his mom referred to his little sister as "delilah," and that seemed...kind of wrong. south dakota: realize the power supply to my computer is somewhere back in MN. getting even a passible substitute in south dakota on a sunday is damn near impossible - but imperative! - as after collecting all the packages i'd had sent to MN i now have a 160 gig ipod to fill up, but can't do that without the computer; eventually find one for a smaller version that'll keep my machine running so long as i don't let the battery charge drop too low. head to reptile gardens on way to crazy horse memorial, have usual conflicted feelings about zoos (creatures are cool, but those tiny cages...and all those terribly behaved human children). there are some serious cicadas near rapid city, wow. impressive progress at crazy horse since i was last here (in the 6th grade). roadkill observation has become a study in stages of decomposition. notice, oh crap - nevermind the windshield - my roof-mounted bike is *encrusted* with what happens when you hit insects at 90 miles an hour, eeeew. phonecalls and texts from boston, which make me feel all warm and squishy. notice "regular" has dropped to 85 octane in this state, and 87 is now "midgrade" - wtf? a beautiful sunset over a lake punctured by pointy outcroppings. finally manage to write a postcard while waiting for a table at dinner - just one, but it's a start. dry gewurztraminer + tasty artichoke hearts ftw; getting to take the rest of the bottle to go isn't bad either. an extended tele-debate about coed vs. all dude bands; eventual sleep.