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"It's the world's largest prairie dog," shrieked Vark, jolting me out of a light, disturbed sleep. I had been dreaming of Rhonda, how she suddenly seemed to give up and let go of my hand just when I almost had her pulled on board the bus. Poor kid, I guess it was all too much for her, and in the end she preferred letting go, rather than hanging on for God knows what.
Nelson slowed the bus at the apparition which was looming over us. The World's Largest Prairie Dog was an icon for travelers of I-70 between Colorado and Kansas. Situated just outside of Oakley, Kansas, it was a sign that you had finally made it across 100's of miles of monotimus prairie and were near the state line.
I remembered being a kid of just 5 or 6 and driving with my Grand Dad to visit some distant Cherokee cousins in Kentucky. The signs had started appearing 200 miles back in Colorado. "World's Largest Prairie Dog! Refreshments! Campground! Only 200 miles!" The signs would appear again and again at 30 mile or so intervals.
My brother who was 8 and already doing well at the boarding school in Chinle, 60 miles from our grazing lands, read the signs aloud to me as we passed. "Gran' Pa! Gran' Pa!" we both begged, Can we see it? Can we stop?" My Grand Dad who had been disappointed too often by the white worlds' promises, sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh, my God!" How tacky can you get?" exclaimed Skye, pointing at the thing and collapsing into laughter. Nelson stared at the apparition in bemusement and replied, "My dear, it doesn't get any better than this. We have arrived at one of the 7 tackiest tourist traps in the Western world."
God! I wished Aaron would wake up for this. He would have been out of the bus in an instant, climbing up the side of the Prairie Dog's face and taunting us all to come get him from its eye brow.
Patrick was snoring loudly on the bus seat right behind me. "Wake up Patrick! I said to him. "We're almost at the Colorado line!" He stirred uneasily in his sleep and muttered something that sounded like, "Damn net nanny..."
What was that? But I was too excited to care. "Come on, everybody!" I called out to the group. "Camping! REFRESHMENTS!" We all clambered off the bus to explore the delights that The World's Largest Prairie Dog had to offer.
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