Big Sky

Today was mostly a travel day. We left our cozy cabin in Rapid City, SD, cut across the northeast corner of Wyoming, and arrived late afternoon in Billings, MT. Montana is called the Big Sky Country, and they're not kidding. This is what we saw for hours:

Rt 212, Montana, May 2012

I could have tied the steering wheel down and let the car drive itself for a long long time. Arrow straight, virtually no traffic, expansive scenery. I was fascinated.

Interestingly, Google Maps suggested that we take I-90 all the way from Rapid City to Billings, for about 5 hours. Our TomTom GPS unit suggest Montana 212 for about 4:30, which turned out to be pretty accurate (we did a bit better) and much more pleasant. I like driving on these kind of roads. Just like the state highways in the East, you pass through small towns along the way rather than seeing truck stops at the exit ramps from the Interstate. Of course, out here the small towns are 60 miles apart. And while the state speed limit is 70 mph, the towns slow you down to 25 mph. Which I respected. Even though I've seen exactly one cop since we landed in Denver.

A man died here, May 2012

Where Rt 212 finally runs into I-90 about 60 miles east of Billings is the Little Big Horn National Monument. Here Custer and his ~850 troops blundered into an ambush and were wiped out, handing the US Army its biggest disaster of the Indian Wars.

When I was a kid, popular culture represented this as a tragedy for Custer and the US. Of course, we now look at this as the last success for the Native American tribes who were fighting off the invading white man, and trying to protect their freedom, lands and way of life.

By the time we got to Little Big Horn, it was raining and continued more or less into the evening. So after checking into our hotel in Billings, we ran out for some (garlic free!) delicious pizza, and we're spending the evening relaxing in our surprisingly comfortable Best Western. I hope the rain clears out, as tomorrow is Yellowstone.