Thursday, May 31, 2018
Before entering our day’s activities, we’ll probably won’t be posting another blog until about June 4th. We will be staying at the home of my parent’s good friends Jesse and Fred Adler located in Big Sky, Montana. Sadly, Fred passed away, but Jesse is still enjoying her summer home and was kind enough to let us “borrow” it for a few days. It is a mountainous area and there is no internet access at their home, and even cell phone connections can be tricky.
As an aside, we made our usual morning gas station stop before heading out; and the squeegees at the local gas station were big, really BIG. We mentioned yesterday, it seemed like everyone drove pickup trucks or other large vehicles, so they have squeegees that fit the need for BIG.
Today after we left Gillette, Wyoming we headed towards the Little Bighorn National Monument in Montana. We passed through several small Western towns such as Buffalo, Sheridan Ranchester which are not major population centers. Why does any community put up a sign that shows that they have a population of 10?
We weren’t initially going to travel the extra 1-1/2 hour driving time to visit Little Bighorn, but we were too close to pass it by. Instead of just driving to the town of Cody, we ended up spending about 2-1/2 hours at the battlefield. The battle took place on June 25th, 1876 and both sides are memorialized at the Monument. The Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians fought the U.S. Army in an attempt to preserve their traditional way of life and protect their women, children, and elderly. On the other side was the U.S. Army under the command of General George Custer, who was carrying out the Grant Administration’s instructions to remove the Indians to the great Sioux Reservation in what was then the Dakota Territory. Scattered throughout the grounds are markers indicating where many of the 262 soldiers, including Custer, and between 60 to 100 Indians fell in battle.
After leaving Little Bighorn we headed toward Cody, Wyoming. The ride through the Bighorn Canyon was extremely steep and spectacular. Rushing rivers, snow, deep canyons, and different colored rock formations surrounded us. It was such a steep incline that we had to shift into low gear in order to keep our breaks from burning. In fact, the breaks were giving off a burning smell which we only noticed because we stopped to take pictures.
The sky today was almost as interesting as the scenery. Clouds of all different variations of black, grey and white created an almost surrealistic vision. You sometimes couldn’t tell the difference between mountain and sky. Vast shadows crossed the landscape and one could see veils of rain pouring down in the distance.
We arrived in Cody at about 8:00 PM, too late for us to see the town. Our hope is to at least visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West before heading to Big Sky tomorrow. So far we have traveled a little over 2,400 miles.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 