Battle of the little Big Horn and On to North Dakota

The Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument

Guess what I did on Sunday, July 3rd, I went to the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, located on the Crow Indian reservation about 65 miles southeast of Billings, MT.  I arrived at 9:00 AM and I didn’t leave until 1:30 PM.  

The place was fascinating. It’s the only time that actual markers were placed on the battlefield, marking where individual soldiers were killed.  It is known that there were errors made way back in 1877ish when the markers were placed and that now they are pretty certain that some of the markers belong in other locations but for the most part it’s pretty accurate.  Just being able to see the markers and the surrounding hills and fields, all of which are unchanged from 150 some odd years ago, and to read the info describing what was happening at a given moment and a particular area, gives you this vivid picture of the battle as it unfolded. 

I walked every trail, attended every ranger led talk, looked at every article in the museum, and watched the video.  It is really an amazing place with tons of information.  I highly recommend it to anyone who may be passing by this area.

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After I finally finished with visiting the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, I drove until about 7:00 PM and stopped for the night in Glendive, MT.  

I went to the little truck stop in Glendive for some dinner and started up a conversation with a number of truckers.  I seem to get on well with truckers and they are interesting to talk to.  Anyway, they seemed to like me well enough and insisted on buying me some drinks.  I had planned to just eat and then get back to the hotel and go to bed early but it’s not polite to turn down free drinks from a trucker so I stayed a little longer than planned :)

Medora, ND and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Monday morning I made the short hour or so drive to Medora, ND, the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  I went into the visitors center and watched a short film about the area and walked through the little museum and ended up buying a book about Theodore Roosevelt. 

For those who don’t know, Teddy Roosevelt came to western ND in 1883 to go hunting and ended up buying into a cattle operation and set up a ranch and came back frequently to go hunting.

After the museum, I drove the 36 mile loop through the parks south unit and took some pictures.  As a kid growing up in ND, our family would come here often to go camping and hiking.  Those are definitely some good memories.

"I do not believe that any man can adequately appreciate the world of to-day unless he has some knowledge of...[and] some feeling for...the history of the world of the past."  Theodore Roosevelt

 
  

I am now in Bismarck, ND.  This is where I was born and raised. My mother still lives here, and my wonderful Grandmother, as well as my sister and my nephew Colton and beautiful young niece Cassidy, who is always a pleasure too talk to. In fact the majority of my relatives live here.   

On Wednesday, my son Cole will be flying in and on Saturday, my brother and his family will be arriving.  We are all getting together to celebrate my mother’s 70^th birthday.

I will be here until July 13 at which point, I will be making my way towards the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Bugs

The moment I got into MT and ND, I started hitting bugs at an incredible rate.  By the time I arrived in Bismarck, my bike and pant legs were covered in bug guts and my hands were sticky from bug guts.  I am really glad I had a windshield to protect me, otherwise I would have had to pull over every 10 miles to clean bug guts off my helmet face shield.  As it was, every now and then, a bug would somehow manage to make it around the windshield to splatter on my face shield. 

 

A bit of advice, don’t try to wipe splattered bug guts off your helmet face shield with your hands while driving. It just makes things worse.