Bao meets Bear Cub. (A very short story) Bear Cub stares at Bao. Bao stares at Bear Cub. Bao takes a tentative step forward. Bear Cub does the same. They are practically nose to nose, with the fence between them. Woman in Pink says, That is so cute! Give me your camera and I'll take a picture. I give her the camera. Bao barks, Bear Cub runs away. Woman in Pink takes the picture anyway. End of story.

We did a bus tour yesterday. Reptile Park (plus a giant tortoise) Bear Park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Custer National Forest. I saw elk, reindeer, wolves, black bears and buffalo herds, living free. I'm a city girl, and I've never seen anything like it. The mountains. The country. The animals. Wow.

Except for his encounter with the bear cub (he was too scared to go near the tortoise, which would have made a better photo because tortoises don't run) Bao slept, only waking up long enough to share a Buffalo Burger.

Mount Rushmore was the brainchild of State Historical Society of South Dakota Secretary Doane Robinson, who thought a massive sculpture of Midwestern folk-heroes carved on the granite pillars they call The Needles would be really cool and attract lots of tourists, which would also be good for the economy. But Sculptor Gutzon Borglum said The Needles were too crumbly and the subject matter wasn't noble enough. Let's do it on Mount Rushmore, he said. And let's make it Presidents. It worked a treat, as they say in Australia. Tourism is Rapid City's biggest industry. I think it may be Rapid City's only industry.

At the moment, 40,000 people are here (thus doubling the population) to see the Mount Rushmore Fourth of July Fireworks, which will take place tonight. I'll watch them on television, in Deadwood. Crowds make me nervous. I've asked half a dozen people why the July 4th fireworks are held on July 3rd, but nobody seems to know. Nobody knows why they call it Rapid City, either. Maybe because it grew so quickly?