Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Keenas Have Landed

You know your kids have been in the city too long when:
Your eleven-year-old says "THERE'S HORSES IN THAT TRUCK!!!"
Your nineteen-year-old says "There's a GOPHER...that's kind of creepy."
Your seventeen-year-old says "She looks cool, especially with that tatoo!"
Your thirteen-year-old doesn't say anything because she's listening to her ipod.

The trip west was great! Uneventful, well except for all of the events. The strangest, and most interesting, by far was Porter's Sculpture Park in nowhere South Dakota. The 65' bulls' head sitting along side the highway peaked my curiosity more than I could ignore, so I pulled off the road, and followed the hand-painted signs. What we found was a father/son duo, living in a trailer on-site of their own hand-crafted tourist trap, with Admission Fees and all. In another life, I would have turned right around and left disgusted, when I saw the Admissions Fees, but for some reason I am more curious, more adventuresome than before. And, I had cash. The sculptures were most interesting, made of metal in Dad Porter's blacksmith shop. (I will try and post photos) Each sculpture had a hand-painted sign explaining the piece, and I was a bit taken aback by the philosophical portrayal of each. Much more thought provoking than I expected.

All that aside, I must mention the insane birds. Son Porter warned us that as we walked through "the park" there were Eastern King birds (I think) that were nesting in some of the sculptures. They would attack! Whatever...I thought it was part of the show. But he was speaking truth! As I was admiring the 25' fishbowl sculpture, one of the insane birds dive bombed my head. I swatted at the pest, only to be dive bombed a second time by he and his buddy. They continued to fly at me until I had walked (okay, I ran!) far enough away from the nest I was intruding. This sent the kids reeling with laughter, except David. It sent him running for the car! Now I had paid good money for him to experience this, so I braved running back through the possessed trail, to the car to get him. As the birds flew at me again, and I ran swatting, from the safety of the car David was laughing hysterically. Son Porter gave us the keys to a golf cart to drive around "the park" so the birds would not bother us. It was fabulously bird-free!

So, next time you're driving on 90W through South Dakota, stop at the large bull's head. In spite of the birds, or maybe because of them, it really is a memorable experience!

4 comments:

Gary said...

Didn't know you had a site until I saw it on my visitor list on my site. Very nice.

Trish said...

I think there's a movie about that!
I was always to chicken to watch it though...

D.R.C + D.E.C said...

where are the pictures?

Bekah said...

Hey, your 13 year old and my 13 year old sound exactly alike....what would they do without their iPods?