Hot Day for exploring

Friday, July 30

I have decided that train engineers are in love with their whistles. There is a train track about half a mile or so away. During the day you can barely hear the whistles, and they only give a little toot. Well, last night they decided they needed to make really long whistles. I am talking about 11:00 PM and later! The temperature had dropped enough that I had turned off the air conditioner and opened some windows. I was looking forward to a nice quiet sleep. I think it was after 1:00 AM before I finally fell asleep. I know I could have closed the windows and turned the air on but I like the fresh air.

This morning Bill called a glass place in Billings to make arrangements to see if they can plug our star. There isn't anything closer so we are going to head there on Saturday morning. Luckily our next campground is only about 135 miles away so we have the time. We will be arriving later than we normally do but hey, we have to do it.

The temperature climbed quickly today into the 90's. There isn't a lot of shade in the area either as there aren't a lot of trees, just rolling hills. We decided to head over to the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. As I am sure you know, the Little Bighorn is the battle of Lt Col. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry against a large combined Indian force. More than 260 soldiers and attached personnel of the US Army perished on June 25, 1876. No more than 100 Indians died in the various battles. The 7th Cavalry numbered about 600 men but by the time Custer died it had been broken into 3 separate battalions. Custer commanded five companies, Maj Marcus Reno and Capt Frederick Benteen were assigned three companies each. All of Custer's men were killed while Reno and Benteen only lost 53 men.

The battlefield today is marked with white markers in the locations where Custer's men are believed to have fallen. On June 28, 1876 the bodies of Custer and his command were hastily buried in shallow graves at or near where they fell. In 1877 the bodies of the officers and two civilians were transferred to eastern cemeteries. In 1881 the remains of the rest of the command are buried in a mass grave around the base of a memorial that was erected with the names of the soldiers, scouts and civilians killed. In 1890 the Army erected 249 headstones across the battlefield to show where the soldiers had fallen. In 1999 the Park Service began erecting red granite markers at known Indian warrior sites.

Indian Memorial


7th Calvary Memorial


Custer's marker


Last stand hill


After our visit to the Little Bighorn, which is the name of the river that crosses the battlefield, we drove over to the town of Hardin to visit the Big Horn County Historical Museum. This is a collection of historic structures and exhibits which interpret the area's rich past. There are a large number of old buildings you can walk in and around.

1930' Fly Inn Service Station


Lodge Grass Depot


1916 Barn


After this we headed back to the RV and our air conditioners. We napped for a bit as the sun had taken a lot out of us, or at least me. We have all the windows and curtains closed to help keep it cool inside. I had put dinner in the crockpot before we left in the morning, a nice meatloaf. I served it with mashed potatoes, corn and gravy. Nice comfort meal. Now I am sitting here at the window looking at a black cloud in the distance. There is a possibility of thunderstorms in the area but I think it might go west and north of us.

Terry - here are a couple of pics of the campground.




So that is all. Have a good day.