Fish Hatchery and Reptile Gardens

    We had time to kill before we could check into the cabin so decided to go to the fish hatchery in Rapid City.  It is free and I love to feed the fish.  I saw the biggest brown and rainbow trout and loved to watch them jump to eat.  The man that worked there and we talked too was very knowledgeable and we learned a great deal about how they raise them and stock the streams.  The place they raise the small trout is all indoors.   Before they did that they use to lose a lot of the fish to ducks and eagles.  Plus the ducks would hang all day and eat the free food.  Now indoors they can control it better.  They don't actually hatch any eggs here, just raise the fingerings and stock the streams. Rick talked to him quite a bit while I fed fish.  Lots of fun but it took me the rest of the day to get the smell off my hands.





       Even the scenery around the hatchery is beautiful.



       Next we went to Reptile Gardens.   I love that place.  The orchids are splendid and I love the snakes.  They have the biggest scariest snake and a massive croc named Maniac.  Rick posed with the tortoise and we saw some mating.





















   Hey there big boy.



        Rick and I both acted silly.





















       I just loved all the vivid colored and beautiful flowers and animals.  It cost 27 to get in but I try to think about how much it must take to keep it going and grit my teeth.

    After there we went grocery shopping for the cabin.  Another $116 for supplies.  Then off to the cabin.  We arrived around 6 pm.  It is so cute and looks as new as it is.  The air smells great.  Bad thing, no closets for our clothes and no laundry but it had everything else we could need.  It had said it had DVD so we had brought some tapes but it was only VCR.  We had none but they would lend us some if we needed.  You couldn't get any local TV and no phone except for by the road.  Fine with us.  We settled in.







    The bed was just like floating in clouds.  The most comfortable bed the entire trip.





    The first night we just heated a frozen pizza we doctored and sat on the deck having a beer and watching the deer and turkeys.  Just like home only the trees smell better.  We turned in at 2030.