We ended up pulling into a small tourist town called Keystone looking for a place to stay after taking in the sights at Mount Rushmore.  While we were looking for a place to stay, we notice a large mansion sitting pretty high above the tiny town.  There were no signs anywhere around it other than a large cross embedded high into the side of the forward facing walls.  Based on that small amount of detail, we figured it was some form of monastery, but it looked a little out of place since it was clearly visible from anywhere in the city and was markedly upscaled to the rest of the surroundings.  The monasteries and abbeys around where I currently live are tucked pretty deep into the countryside and do not generally take on a high frill styling. 

After finding a location to stay (a definite upcoming blog entry based on the perceived fleecing that occurred), we found a small little pizza place to settle our hunger.  Note, although the food and service ended up being pretty darn good, we were a little annoyed that each table had a plastic cup on the table begging for tips.  I personally can’t stand this – if you want to raise the price to give the help a little more pocket money, then do it, don’t put up a price and then panhandle to subsidize inadequate wages.)  But I digress from the current topic.  A motorcycle couple come in all decked out in the standard garb – leather jackets, Harley branded dew rags, leather chaps, flame sleeved shirts and Harley boots (see previous post 8^)  They apparently also noticed the mansion and questioned the waitress on what it was.  She actually replied that they didn’t know who it belonged too, had never seen the people and that it was built just a few years back.  This apparently appalled the customers who proceeded to complain how awful it was to flaunt wealth like that and how it was apparently the most evil thing they had ever witnessed.  For the next 30 minutes, that is all they talked about – how could anyone do that, that’s sickening, wasting money to show everyone how much money they had yada yada yada.  When their pizza arrived, the waitress updated them that she was informed the owners of the mansion are the owners of just about everything in the town – most of the stores and restaurants targeting every tourist that came their way (likely on the way to the presidential carvings).  This resulted in having to sit through 20 more minutes of how horrible it was and how they must have done that to look down on everyone to make them feel bad. 

During this whole time, I could think of only one thing… Why do they care how an individual spends their wealth?  They probably made a number of companies’ bottom lines to create that home (carpenters, brick layers, roofers, concrete workers, drywallers… the list goes on).   I on the other hand was curious as to whether the owners were Catholic (based on the large cross built into the external decor) – if so, then the recent Pope announcement that obscene wealth is a sin probably sparked a lively breakfast conversation…. probably starting with “Hey honey, I wonder if the Vatican will every announce how much wealth they have stored in their treasure vaults”