Today, Tuesday we embarked upon a journey that led us in directions that I hadn't planned on taking and ending up in a place I never expected to stop at..more on that later.
Anyway, my planned objective that day was to once again see a place that I will never get back to see in my lifetime...the place where Custer's Last Stand took place...Little Bighorn (named after the river that 7000 Lakota and 1500-2000 Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors) were encamped upon...so if you want to skip the history lesson, skroll down about 5 pictures!
I found this road sign in Wyoming on the way to Little Bighorn in Montana...now I'm not going to do any commentary on this...the obvious answer is that I love women to much to even take the chance of pissing anyone off...but I found this sign compelling for two reasons:
1. Crazy women are not a new phenominion (fortunatly I don't currently know any)...there were apparently some back in the old west!  Of course there are crazy men, many more in fact...we just don't get rural highway roads named after us.
2.  I found the Crazy Woman sign with the beautiful Yellowstone mountains in the background, to be an interesting contrast.  If you don't want to read between the lines, ask me and I'll tell you...it really is a wonderful thing that sprang into my head after coming upon this scene.
It is a good thing, so please don't get mad off at me...my intentions for including this are extremely honorable!
   

The monument at the place where Custer actually made and died at the Last Stand  There were 41 of Custer's total battalion that fought their way back up to the crest of this hill  The rest had already been killed.  The soldiers were later buried where they fell on the battlefield, but a year later were reinterred beneath this marker where Custer  actually fell.  In all there are approximately 220 souls buried in a trench 6 feet beneath the marker that also lists all of the names of those killed.  Custer's body was found 6 feet from this sight.
Custer was later reinterred at his beloved West Point...we went through there...seems like a million years ago!
Adding once again to the way that paths of people cross and that a certain symatrey that is so prevelent in life somehow exists...I always wonder if this is fate or is it destiny?  More food for thought!
Of little import to this cerebral thought...we also passed by Custer's birthplace in Monroe, Michigan.  

This Park Ranger was doing a narrative on the actual battle from the site of The Last Stand..he was amazing and probably should be doing voice over work in Hollywood!  I couldn't stay long to listen because I was parked illegally and another ranger was getting out of his car to write me up...I talked him out of it!
Anyway this guy was so descriptive of what unfolded that day that I wanted to listen all day!
"as thousands of arrows rained down on them blotting out the sky, Custer and his remaining men made the ultimate and final decision to shoot their horses to use as cover...for any Calvary man this was admitting that they were doomed and had no chance of ever making it out alive"...I wonder what was going through their minds at this point?

This was Custer's last view.
Imagine what this now tranquil terrain looked like back on that fateful day with thousands of Indians on horseback charging up the hill!
The Native Americans were camped in the trees seen below...Custer's big mistake?
Attempting to attack without knowing what he was up against...bad information inevitiably leads to poor decisions.
In this case, his entire command wiped out.
Note the white markers coming up the hill are where Custer's men fell while retreating up the hill to higher ground and Custer's location  As we talked about earlier these markers are where Custer's men fell...it was interesting and at the same time disturbing to see these markers scattered randomly over the battlefield indicating the panic and confusion that the soldiers experienced...apparently the officers also panicked and lost all control.

We've found the last couple of months that in the west horses and cattle have no respect for cars!

After leaving Little Bighorn we headed northwest toward Billings, Montana, in Billings that day the temp was a stifling 97 degrees.  About 15 minutes before this was taken my nav system displayed a warning that I had never seen to this point..with a chime I was informed that I was entering an area that was under a severe storm warning (not a watch..meaning we were certain to get some bad weather...the nav also showed a radar display of where the front was and in which direction it was heading...pretty cool!
I had been lamenting in Minneapolis the fact that I still hadn't experienced a good midwest thunderstorm and that as we moved west our chances would decrease the further we went.
Little did I know or expect that we would get that storm in Montana!
I never heard if this cloud burst turned into a tornado, but it sure looked like one to me...there actually was a "tube" that extended out of the swirling cloud mass down to the ground with lightning extending down the tube striking the ground.
While I was awed at natures power that awe came with a certain degree of fear and I drove as hard and as fast as I could to get thru the front that was displayed on my super nav system before we got into it too deep...we actually had golf size hail that fortunatly didn't do any damage to the Jeep.

This is the raging Yellowstone River in of couse Yellowstone Park.

Another shot showing the full magnitude

I, in my working life have encountered a few of these!

A sad dog because she can't get out and see what fun thing I'm doing without her!

Finally here...didn't get to spend anytime but at least I can say that I've been here...someday I'll go back and it give it the time it deserves.

This scene reminded me of another of my favorite movies "A River Runs Through It",  filmed in Montana.  That makes 3 movie locations in 2 days...North By Northwest (the Black Hills)...Close Encounter Of A Third Kind...(Devils Tower)

The Yellowstone Mountains from the western slope...with the storm still a comn'

Entering Idaho...and of more significance to me..reaching the Great Divide...meaning like the water that flows to the Pacific, I was now on the downward side of being home!

At the top of "Lost Trail Pass" coming out of Yellowstone, we got snow...the second time this trip (the first was the Grand Canyon).
The temp was 34 degrees meaning that since Billings the temp had dropped 63 degrees in less than four hours.

After every storm, the sun will rise again...sunset after the worst weather day we had...nature duplicates life (or vice versa) as after bad things happen there is always golden sunshine just around the corner!

The storm in Yellowstone chased everyone out of the park and into all the motels around Yellowstone....there wasn't a room to be found!
We finally ended up in Idaho Falls way further south than we intended, but at least we found a really cool place to lay our heads!
More on Idaho Falls later!
Soon I will put up a special post...just for my sweet Rowan!