1. The High Plains Museum in Goodland:

The High Plains Museum is small in size, but it's larger in spirit. It features your standard exhibits about prairie life, antiques, etc. Plus, it has a few dinosaur and mastodon exhibits. All is not sweetness and light; the mannequins gave me the creeps.

However, as pictured above, it's main claim to fame is having the first working helicopter. The helicopter has a secret feature that I thought was super neat. You'll just have to go there to find out what it is.

2. The Prairie Museum of Art and History:

Larger and slicker than the High Plains Museum, this museum features a house, a church, a school, a barn, and a couple other buildings that were moved to the site. The inside part features a doll collection. As at the other museum, their mannequins gave me the creeps, but the dolls were even worse. They also do not have a helicopter.

3. Prairie Dog Town:

Last and definitely least, PDT has been featured in several quirky-roadside-attractions books and shows. It's a dumpy, depressing hell hole, and all I wish is that I didn't catch any diseases from walking amongst the prairie dogs.

After seeing the roadside signs for 50 miles, I was expecting something akin to one of those Wild Safari places, where you at least drive through a gate. Instead, PDT was based in a ramshackle building that reminded me of Colorado Auto Parts in beautiful Lennox, CA. I said to the lady behind the counter: "How much is it? Oh, hmmm, $5.95. Hmmm..." as I began my internal debate on whether I really wanted to see a six-legged cow and a five-legged steer. "Hmmm..." I continued my internal debate.

Soon a shill arrived and stated how this was her third or fourth trip here, and how much she enjoyed it.

"Let me put it this way," said the lady behind the counter, "the only way we can pay to feed the animals is through your admission fee."

Well, that's all it took to sell me. "You mean, if I don't buy a ticket, the animals will starve? OK, give me two tickets."

All thoughts of buyer's remorse soon faded when I stepped past the counter and saw a wood cage full of rattle snakes (most lost in deep, deep slumber). "Is it OK if I kick the cage?" I said jokingly.

"I'll do you one better," counter-lady said and began scraping across the chicken wire on top of the cage with a board. That brought the snakes to life, but to get an even greater effect she stuck the board in the cage, causing one of the rattlers to try to strike it. Too bad they were just diamondbacks and not mojaves.

The outside area of PDT is about .5 acre of unhappy animals, some free, some caged. It's not like they're wallowing in their own filth or something, but it's not the San Diego Zoo by any stretch of Larry Farmer's imagination.

Larry is the owner of PDT, and I met him after my tour. I took a few pictures of him with my "Lonewacko: Blogging Across America" card, but he wants a release before I could publish them on the web. How's this: I won't publish any of the pics I took there. As much as I hate PETA, if I had to choose I'd probably rather have given them my $5.95.

Plus, PDT does not have a helicopter.