South Dakota 2007 Day 4

After surviving the Night of Ungodly Winds, Tuesday morning was rough. It was chilly, we hadn't slept, and we didn't know what we were going to do that day. Since all of the attractions we wanted to see were either in Keystone or Rapid City, once we were ready to go we headed in that direction. The kids were itching to go to the waterpark. By the time we left it had warmed up to about 70 degrees. The skies were overcast and heavy, though. We get to Rapid City and there are very few cars in the parking lot at the water park even though the sign says "Open". We also notice as we pull in that there is no water running down the slides. I pop over to the ticket counter and they are "waiting until 10:30 to decide" if they will be opening for the day or not. So now what? We make the decision that the truck needs to be looked at. Rapid City is the biggest city around us so we have the best chance of finding a place that will look at it that day while we are there. We know it is the rear end, maybe the transmission or the differential (it's all Greek to me) so we were thinking a place like CarX. We ask around and find such a place. They can't even look at it until 3:00. We call Bill's dad and he advises us to take it to a Ford dealership. If it needs parts they are likely to have them on site. We find Ford and take it in. They can look at it "in about a half an hour". We ask if they have a vehicle we can rent and they hook us up with Enterprise, who just so happens to have ONE vehicle left to rent. They pick me up (just like the commerical) and I arrive back at Ford to pick up the family in a brand new Dodge Ram pick up truck with a full sized cab. *snort*. We advise Ford of our cell phone predicament and they tell us to call back that afternoon and they will tell us what is wrong with it and how long it will be to fix. We load our crap into the Dodge and head off for the Cosmos Mystery Area (which Billy didnt' want to go to!).

Cosmos Mystery Area is something I found while online looking for things to do in the area. "Feel it! See it! Survive it! You'll see people change heights right before your eyes! You'll see balls roll UPHILL!!". Sounds intriguing!! There were signs for it all over the place so we thought we'd give it a go. One thing about the Cosmos Mystery Area - it was cheap! Less than $20 for all of us to get in. They do little tours through the place and, like everywhere else, the ticket counter just so happens to be in the gift shop. The kids were incessant on their quests to get something at every place we visited. Once again we were able to fend them off with sticks while we waited for our tour to start. This was accomplished by waiting outside, where Billy had no problems reiterating, loudly, "I don't want to go to Cosmos Mystery Area!! It will be SCARY!". After what seemed an eternity, our tour started. The staff are very lively and engaging and encourage participation by the group. Each one of us were called out to participate and each one of us did so (even Billy, little stinker!). First they draw your attention to a group of trees next to where we are standing that are all growing toward a center point. "No one knows why". Apparently Discovery Channel and Travel Channel have both been there to "study it". There are no magnets involved, as they kept repeating and demonstrating. The demonstrations were neat. We still haven't figured out how they did it. We're convinced that they had to be a combination of optical illusion and something pulling on the gravity in the area. Right before your eyes you see two people stand on a level surface, measure up, and then switch places. Magically, the shorter person grows and the gap in height decreases - just by changing places! Before entering the "indoor" places, they demonstrate a tennis ball rolling up a hill and water running uphill instead of down. It was freaky! When you walk into the structures on the property you can immediately feel a force pulling you in a certain direction. This totally freaked Billy out as he kept on saying, in his nice loud voice "We're going to DIE!!!!". They have railings on the walls to hold on to and to help you walk. Thank goodness because this is what you look like while you are in these rooms
Notice how everyone is leaning in the same direction. Everything in this room pulls to the same corner. It is really difficult to walk in here and the "force" pulls on you pretty hard. It was givign me a headache and making me feel a bit nauseous (leading me to believe that there was some sort of contraption creating centrifugal force under the buildings and pulling things toward its center). In the next room is a piece of metal is hanging from a rope on the ceiling. They pull a strong looking guy to manipulate this piece of metal - pull it toward him and push it away. He pulls it with ease, but pushing it away from him proves difficult. Just to once again prove that it isn't magnets, they roll an aluminum can, plastic water bottle, and tennis ball uphill, away from the slant of the room. There is also a bar in this room that, when suspended from it, pulls you toward the corner of the room everything is attracted to. Lastly, they have some pieces of wood nailed to the wall that they balance a chair on by it's back legs. They invite a girl to sit on the chair and, unbelievably, she doesn't tip forward in the chair when she sits on it and they let it go. The whole place was really bizzare. Once you get through the tour and back into the gift shop, the "force" is gone and everything feels normal again. As I stated earlier, we still haven't figured out how they do it.

We leave Cosmos and look for a pay phone to call Ford. They've diagnosed the problem - something about the bearings and a bad seal - and it should be ready the next day by around lunchtime. Cool! We head back to camp to rest for awhile and have dinner. After dinner we head back into Hill City to get some ice cream and look through the touristy shops. We bundle up for a campfire and call it an early night.