Lewistown MT

Today started great but ended poorly.

First the great part.  Our first destination was the Little Big Horn battlefield.  We got there before 9:00 am when it was still cool and nice.  As with other National Parks and Monuments, it is the ranger programs that make it a special learning experience. We started with a lecture about the battle which started with problems within the U.S. Grant administration.  This talk detailed the events leading up to the battle in 1876 and then a colorful description of the battle and personalities involved on both sides.  Then we toured some of the monuments to the fallen with an 18 year old intern who had an amazing passion for the story.  The Indians were fighting to preserve their hunter / gather way of life, and the army was following Grant's orders to get those Indians back on the reservation.

In the end Custer's small Calvary unit shot their horses to use as a barricade against the Indian fire.  All and all it was a good lesson in the futility of war.

Indian Memorial

Monument to the Calvary Horses

Before leaving the monument we consulted our GPS and determined we could make Great Falls Mt by 4:00 PM and then have an easy ride into our campground at Glacier the next day.  One of the several weaknesses of an Auto GPS is that it doesn't know about road construction. In Montana, when they repave a road, they seem to just rip it all right up and let traffic drive over the raw gravel road bed.  We had three sections of about 15 miles each on three separate roads.  All single file and I probably upset the pick up crowd by refusing to go much above 20 MPH.  Anyhow we added 40 miles to our trip by heading in the opposite direction to the nearest hotel at about 3:30.  From now on, we will consult Google Maps and the state DOT websites to try to dodge construction in this part of the country.