Dude Rancher Lodge Billings

I have picked up some kind of tropical disease, because that's what happens to adventurers - just ask Indiana Jones. It's a very clever disease. it's disguising itself as a common cold, but with a slight twist; and here's the masterstroke - I have a very painful earache with it. I have tried getting whatever's hurting in there out with a stick that i found on the ground but that just made it worse. See, I told you it ...

The Hampton was nice, new and comfortable. We woke this morning, enjoyed the hotel breakfast. We organized our bags and cleaned out the car; tossed out our cooler, food, drinks and utensils then headed for the airport. Billings is another extremely small airport. It was easy to park the rental car and walk to the gate. <br><br>Let the all day journey home begin....<br><br>We're delayed to Denver, 20 minutes.<br>

... that!<br><br><br><br>We spoke a bit, waiting for the hotel<br>van to come and pick us and a few airline staff up, but my brain was<br>not fully functional so I didn't really know what, exactly I was<br>saying. Luckily he understood and we shared a little banter before<br>being driven to the hotel by Big Dan. He introduced himself to me and<br>then said &#8220;so you're from Liverpool eh?&#8221; which really threw me ...

We traveled to billings , because we wanted to get new tires on the truck, the little wear indicators were almost smowing so we thought it would be best to be safe  rather than sorry. Because Montana doesnt have any sales tax , its a good state to make big purchases. We researched on the net and it appears that  Costco is ...

... and thinks it funny to 'play' driver .. "Hey y'all, LETS GO TO VEGAAAS", (the passengers laughed a bit), "You strap in and prepare for the RIDE O' YOUR LIFE HAHAHA" (about 3 people nervously smirked).."Now, how do you close the damn door", you could hear as she muttered under her breath. People stopped finding it funny as she was clearly looking for the button to CLOSE the damn door! The bus driver didnt hear her at all and only noticed her sat there as she tried to get ...

... a climber attempt to scale the rock.<br><br>Our next destination was the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, the sight of Custer's Last Stand. We watched a brief video about the park, toured the museum, then drove around the Battlefied reading the markers that described the battle between the troops and the Lakota Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne indian tribes. <br><br>Leaving there, we headed on to our destination the KOA in ...

... this pump isn't working properly so I ran out of fuel, even though I had quarter of a tank.  Tipping the car onto a flatbed sloshes more fuel from one side to the other, et voila!  <br>They couldn't get the part until this morning so we've had another unscheduled upmarket hotel stop!  We're in downtown Billings which is quite lively with restaurants, bars and cafes (including a Starbucks!), and a "ranch outfitter" which had ...

... occurred to me where the "West" was . . . I vision California or somewhere . . . but Custard's battlefield where the battle of the Little Big Horn began is nearby as well as where General Custard is burried. Pompey's Pillar where Lewis and Clark carved their names into the sand stone is about 30 miles from Billings and ...

... had been sent out to trap the large Indian group that had formed to fight back. One group had been pushed back and another was no yet engaged being some many miles away. Custer made contact and despite being warned that the Indian group was too large to attack pressed on to destroy the village of 6,000 by the Big Horn River before they moved on having spotted the oncoming Cavalry. Bottom line ...

... a number of years ago presenting American history through the eyes of minorities, or those without the power and it gives a much different view than our textbooks give us. Anyway, enough of that, it was just interesting to get to see a place like that, something like Mount Rushmore but on the opposite end of the spectrum.<br> It was a beautiful day and after spending a couple of hours there I went on north and had a cheeseburger deluxe at the Schwarzwald ...