TUESDAY, MAY 28

TUESDAY, MAY 28:   

     A beautiful sunny morning! 

 

On the road by 9:00.  Thankful for microwavable breakfast sandwiches – we nuked them just before leaving, and ate them on the road.

      Drove into eastern Wyoming, and then north into Montana.  Typical High Plains country – mostly flat, or rolling hills -  some scrub, some more hospitable grassland.  Hard to support many cattle.  We’d sometimes see a lone steer or two; occasionally, more cattle together.  Saw a couple of groups of antelope.  After maybe 150 miles or so, saw gorgeous snow-capped mountains ahead.  A foretaste of the Rockies! 

     We stopped after a little over 300 miles at Little Bighorn Battlefield.  AKA Custer’s Last Stand.   Got there just in time to hear a Ranger give a 45-minute talk.  He’d been a high school history teacher & football coach for over 30 years, and obviously loves history.  He tried his best to make the battle come alive for us!  After his talk, saw an outstanding film in the Visitors Center.  Again – everything was of the very highest quality. 

     Then we walked up to the knoll where Custer and his men made their last stand, surrounded by Indians, as well as a short path down to a ravine where some of his men were found killed as well.  Were they trying to escape their certain death on the hill behind them?  No one knows. Although all of the soldiers were re-buried in a mass grave underneath the Memorial a few years after the battle (Custer’s and other officers’ remains were shipped to other burial sites, per family wishes), it was very interesting how archeologists have re-constructed where they believe Custer’s men actually fell.  They’ve placed white headstones there.

 

      And just a few years ago, the Park Service made a concerted effort to locate where the Sioux warriors fell as well, and have erected red headstones there.  They have also built a memorial to the Sioux fighters in the battle. 

 

 So we now have a much more balanced presentation of the battle and the people involved.  Of course, this may be the classic case of winning the battle, losing the war. Only a year later, the Sioux people were nearly decimated, forced back onto the reservation by a Congress outraged by what had happened.  Chief Sitting Bull and some of his people had fled to Canada after the battle, but he returned a few years later to the U.S. to surrender, and died on the reservation. 

     When we realized that we’d spent 3 hours at the Little Bighorn site, we realized that we wouldn’t make it to Bozeman as we’d planned.  (But we don’t regret the time spent at the Battlefield at all).  So drove 100 miles to the little town of Columbus, about halfway between Billings & Bozeman.  Found a nice RV park there.  (Grabbed a Subway to eat in the truck shortly after leaving Little Bighorn.)  Felt cool when we stepped out of the truck.  We’re definitely approaching the true Rockies now – had lots of uphill grades after leaving the Battlefield site, and terrain & vegetation are becoming distinctly more alpine than earlier in the day.  Tomorrow we’ll truly be in the Rockies . . . excited, but wonder what kind of time we’ll  make once we’re driving in them.

     As I’m typing this on Tuesday nite, the rain’s been coming down for about an hour now.  Glad it’s at night, and not when we were travelling or at Little Bighorn.  It feels so cozy and snug to be inside in our home on wheels, and to hear the rain on the roof.