Hellllloooo, Big Sky Country!

We left Wyoming this morning and were we excited when we passed some friends on their motorcycles going the other direction on their 3 Flags Labor Day endurance ride from Canada to Mexico - way to go D2, Sue & friends (http://motorradgirls3flags.blogspot.com/)!!  What a rush to actually have seen and recognized them; guess it might have been that bright red BMW with a rider with a mohawk on her helmet...... :)

The view from the Last Stand Hill. The darker marked
 tombstone towards the center of the picture is General Custer's.

This sure is beautiful country and we can understand why the Indians were so reluctant to just hand it over.  We headed to the Little Bighorn battlefield (originally known as Custer's Last Stand) and toured the national cemetery and extensive battlefield late in the day.  The clouds were ominous and we saw lightning in the distance, but it made a fantastic backdrop.  After walking through and taking pictures of the numerous military tombstones in the national cemetery, we headed down Battlefield Road.  It took us over the hills and valleys where Custer and his troops attacked and then were themselves attacked and defeated by the Lakota, Arapahoe and Cheyenne warriors.  The battlefield, which encompasses hundreds of acres of grass covered hills and the Little Bighorn River, is dotted with tombstones of the soldiers who died in the battle.  Behind the memorial to the Last Stand Hill is a recent memorial to the Indians who fought and died during the battle. 

Memorial to the fallen soldiers
of the 7th Cavalry

It's a remarkable site and we plan on returning in the morning to walk down the paths leading to the Indian encampments and areas where many of the June 25 & 26, 1876, battles were waged.

Tonight we were treated to a beautiful light show, with accompanying thunder, at our campsite.  Tomorrow we'll go back to the battlefield to check out the museum and then we're off to Devil's Tower!

The long, lonely road or........thank goodness for satellite radio!

Beautiful Highway 80

Well, we said that the internet connection could be iffy and at our first stop (the Flying J in Wells), my 60 minute purchase (for a whole $1.99!) got us less than about 5 full minutes. So our first day post will have to be a combination of our second day's post.

 

The intrepid travelers (yes, Denna is really driving while this picture is being taken!)

Actually, most of our trip has been on the road and we've covered about 1000 miles across Nevada, Utah, and now Wyoming. Except for a little tailbone exhaustion, we've had a great drive and wonderful weather. We even got to hear the pre-season football games for our teams, the Steelers and the 49ers, because of our satellite radio.

We're in Rawlins, Wyoming, tonight and hope to make it to the Little Bighorn battlefield tomorrow. Now we'll begin playing the real tourists!

This is the "Salt Shaker", which still has salt on its tires from the Bonneville Raceway

Getting ready for the big trip

It's Wednesday evening and we're checking the weather reports across Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado in between running back and forth to the motorhome with more stuff.  We're hoping to leave tomorrow morning at about 8:00 and make it to Wells, Nevada where we'll stop for the night.  Both of us admit we're really excited about our upcoming trip, but also know that a lot of that excitement will have probably worn off after 2 solid days of driving our first 1000 miles :)

We will hopefully be able to update this blog every day of our 17 day trip, but know that internet access could be slim.  We're looking forward to reading your comments and hope you'll enjoy coming along with us!

Happy campers,

Denna, Kathy and Sonny