But this lot and yesterday's parking lot both have secrets - the homeless, living in their cars. These are the only 2 places we've seen that. The cars mingle with the RV's (all parked in one far section of the lots). You can tell - blankets covering the windows, folks standing by their cars having dinner, someone sleeping in the grass under one of these trees. There were at least 6 or so in each lot. Apparently WM either hasn't noticed them or they don't hassle them.
It was a beautiful drive from WY to MT today. The terrain changed drastically. Eastern and Central Wyoming that we passed through is largely flat - winding roads, but fairly flat landscape.
As we drove into MT and a little more westerly, the world changed - suddenly mountains appeared and the whole landscape became more rolling and hilly.
We did make an unplanned stop when we realized that the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument was right along our route. It's pretty amazing to walk on those grounds, see the actual spot where George Custer fell, and read the accounts of the event.
Custer's 262 men faced 1500 Indian warriors.... obviously, it was a big mistake. All Federal troops were killed, with about 80 warriors killed. Luke's insight is that the Federal troops were doomed not only because they were outnumbered by the warriors, but also outgunned by more modern weapons. The troops carried single shot breach loading rifles, but 200 of the warriors carried repeating rifles, giving them much more fire power than the troops. The troops were buried in assorted spots, but later interned and all buried in one large mass grave under this obelisk.
That is, except Custer - his wife chose to have his body returned to his eastern home for burial.
This is the burial ground where a number of the cavalry men are buried - adjacent to the obelisk marking the mass grave.
The Indians collected their 80-ish dead and took care of their bodies within their customs. This memorial is to the Indians that gave their lives.
It's a sad story with no right side - Custer was carrying out President Grant's instructions to remove the Indians from their lands to a reservation in SD. The Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne peoples were fighting for their right to remain nomadic buffalo hunters.
For a really good insight into the entire event, you can checkout the following site
http://www.nps.gov/libi/historyculture/index.htm
oh, and....at lunch the generator wouldn't start. sigh. When we aren't hooked up to electricity, we depend on the generator to provide it for us. That's the toaster, coffee pot, chargers, etc. It worked fine this morning. Several calls and we found a great gentleman who talked Luke through correcting the problem! It's a temporary fix, but we then found (and bought) a new starter for the generator plus some maintenance items. Not a big deal or problem, but sigh, just another thing to fix.
Hoping to be in Glacier National Park tomorrow. I know they don't have wifi and I'm not sure how effective my phone will be in getting it. I'll post as I can. 9:22 pm - still really light outside!
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