Day 6:
Making our way closer to Yellowstone, we left Custer, SD headed to Sheridan, WY. Along the way we stopped at Devil's Tower, which is really cool in person. It brought up the whole who had seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind an who hadn't. I was shocked to find that my two adult travel mates had not seen it in its entirety. That will be something that we have to fix! Again the weather was beyond awesome, and the hike around the base of the tower was a great way to stretch the old legs. We even got to see a 7 or 8 people climbing it.
Devil's Tower:
Daddy roadtrip duty:
Our next stop was the Little Bighorn Battlefield. It was an awe inspiring and humbling experience. We stopped at the visitor's center and was chatting with one of the park rangers, who was an awesome fellow. He asked us where we were from and when he said Texas, he perked up and began to tell us that a large portion of the visiting folks were from Texas, and represented to his recollection one of the largest out of state visitors groups. He believed it was because of the Alamo and understanding and sympathizing with unbeatable odds and the lost cause. It was very interesting seeing his perspective and all of us sharing our thoughts. After that, we toured the small but packed little museum before watching the video, which brought the battle into perspective. We then continued outside and walked around the trails on last stand hill and used our cell phones to do the little walking tour. Some of the audio stops were a little wordy and somewhat short on historical info, but still added to the overall experience. While the final battle on last stand hill was confined to a small area, markers where the participants fell were scattered over a larger area. Jennifer was the one who noticed that most of the markers were in pairs. We could only guess that was a soldier and the guy watching his back. A few were all alone and that added bit more impact as you could only guess they fell all alone.
Markers showing where two U.S. soldiers fell:
We continued our visit by taking the driving tour which took you all the way to the Reno-Benteen battleground. I was shocked at how large the battlefield was in total. It was huge. Coming back to the visitors center, we saw a larger cluster of markers on the backside of last stand hill. That is where a good number of soldiers tried to make a run for it and were cut down. I couldn't even begin to imagine the mayhem, and terror on that battlefield, experienced by both sides. Each fighting for their lives. Simply tragic from every perspective.
At one point, I jumped out of the car to snap some pics and ended up being covered in little black flies. Good lord, it was a nightmare getting them off of me and out of the car. Christopher was in the back trying to swat them to little effect. That was hysterical to watch.
After concluding our visit, we jumped back into the car and headed back to Sheridan for our overnight stay. All I can say is AVOID the Holiday Inn there. It is a dump. It smelled funny, the bathroom was awful (mildew in the grout), Stephen's drapes had something that looked like blood splattered on them, and then there was the breakfast the next day. The buffet looked good, with a nice selection, but looks can be deceiving. Everything that was supposed to be hot was cold, and everything that was supposed to be cold was hot. The milk in the little fridge was 3 days out of date, and the bread was from the local grocery store still in the bag, so people were sticking their hands in there to get some slices. Ugh! It was a wretched experience. If anybody is curious, the Hampton Inn next to it looked pretty new and clean. Unfortunately, they didn't have any vacancies, or we would have told Holiday Inn Sheridan to shove it the night before!
A nice WY sunset for you all:
Two fuel-ups to report coming in at 21.34 and 20.43mpg each. Odometer reads 11385.2 at this point.
Catch ya tomorrow
