June 18, 2010

Greetings from Montana!
Rain has let up for several days now, giving us the chance to see alot of stuff more comfortably. From the Happy Holidays RV park we set out on the moto toward Mt. Rushmore. Along the way we stopped and rode a tram up the side of a mountain & got our 1st good view of the presidents..coming down was a lotta fun on an alpine sled going at speeds up to 40 mph! Next we drove to Mount Rushmore Nat'l Park & took pictures. Then it was off to the Crazy Horse Memorial, a work in progress, but still amazing (it will be the largest memorial in the world, if they ever complete it). The facility had a large museum/cultural exhibit and a movie--really neat stuff. Perhaps we could come back in 20-30 years to see the progress..From there we entered Custer State Park and got on the Wildlife Loop, where we saw many deer, antelope, prairie dogs and buffalo, one of which took up residence on a median at a highway intersection! Upon leaving Custer St Park we took the long way around back to camp, and called it a day.
Next day we left Rapid City (which, by the way has life-size statues of all the Presidents at every corner in one section of downtown) & headed to Sturgis, drove through town & took some pix. Then we headed south to Deadwood, SD. Turned out to be a cool little town & we took a 1 hr tour bus, seeing most all the town including the cemetery containing Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane! Very informative tour..got off the bus & stepped into the #10 Saloon, where they had a re-enactment of the assasination of Wild Bill; then went outside to catch the 4 pm re-enactment of an old west shoot-out (a poker game gone bad). Next we made our way throughout the various old buildings,(all of which had a working casino) including the Adams Museum. We then left Deadwood, got back on the I-90 & drove to Spearfish, SD where we parked on a secluded backstreet very near a Walmart. Storms in the area had us a little nervous that night..
The next day we were awakened early by what sounded like a siren of some sort--still don't know if it was a tornado warning siren or what! We survived that & headed west into Wyoming, got on the 14 then 24 to Devil's Tower National Monument. Wow it's really "killer" up close, and the view getting over to the Tower was spectacular! From there we started heading for any large city we could find, as our toilet was malfunctioning & needed replacing (after I got to working on it). Tried Gillette and Buffalo before hitting pay dirt in Sheridan, WY. Of course we found the Walmart & I quickly installed the new "can" and we had Chinese buffet & called it a night.
On Friday, a nice sunshiny morning (this morning) we headed toward Billings, Montana and stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield Nat'l Memorial otside of Harding, Mt. Walked the grounds & attended a narration of the events before and during the battle at which Maj Gen George Custer and all his men lost their lives; this story was told by a Crow Nation native park ranger. This large area of Montana is within the Crow Reservation..saw many gravesites, monuments and artifacts..from there we continued on to Billings, Mt to the McDonalds where I'm writing this update..from here we haven't 100% decided if we will go to Yellostone, or west all the way to Seattle & then coming back to Wyoming. Decisions, decisions...