Super 8 Motel - Colstrip

... clever.

If anyone knows of this disease, please can you let me know the cure. But please, please bear in mind that i think we are talking hours rather than days. As I write this, I grow weak. I'm not long for this world.


Thought of the Day

I must go in, the fog is rising.

For reference

I still have so much to give.
I hope men will say of me that I did duty by my country.

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.

Let the all day journey home begin....

We're delayed to Denver, 20 minutes.

The last flight to Billings was almost
empty so we all took the opportunity to spread out. I love night
flying, watching the stars out the window. I hoped to see the moon
too, but was soon asleep, cocooned in the gently buzzing, dark plane.



The flight only took an hour so I was
soon awake grabbing my bags and making sure I said goodbye to my seat
to make sure that I hadn't left anything ...

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 ...

We left sheridan and headed north, we wanted to go to the Battle of little Big horn, where Custer meet his demise. The national parks guide  gave a great talk about the battle and small monuments or head stones are  place on the field of battle where the participants died. 

We spent the night at Sheridan, a classic western town, we went down town in the evening where the locals enjoy a fair called "Third thursday", it appears that every third thursday they close the main street at 5 pm and everyone comes out to mix and ...

... sites of some of those who died, white marble ones for the white Americans, including General Custer, and red granite ones for the native American Indians. We certainly left feeling more informed about this particular chapter in American history.

The battlefield is inside the boundary of what is now the Crow Indian Reservation and from Little Bighorn we headed east passing through the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation, the scenery changing from wild grasslands to ...

... of the white man. When you pin the park rangers down they will tell you Grant wanted to prevent inter tribal warfare that was endangering everyone, red man and white man alike, but it's hard not to root for the Indians in the Battle of Little Big Horn. Recently a memorial to the Indians was created recognizing that they also suffered during that battle. It's a very complex story.

... for leaks. I found a loose metal tube that had broken off from the engine and I tried to bondo it back on. The van was running more smoothly after it had heated up and I figured I would check it again in the morning, meanwhile spending the day and night here.
I started a painting of Sibley Lake and while I was working on it I saw a moose in the ...

... there before heading to Sheridan where I got some groceries and filled up with gas because I figured I wouldn't be seeing good gas prices where I was going. I got a free Wyoming map there too. I guess I had a somewhat deprived childhood because going into an old gas station back then and seeing a rack full of free maps was big excitement. I loved looking at maps back then and hoping someday to be doing what ...