Glacier National Park

St.Mary at one end of Glacier National Park had, as far as I knew, only one lodge with expensive rooms (over $200). City of Browning only had 1 older motel so we drove on to St. Mary to scourt things out. After driving a winding road, decided it might be worth it to pay the price and not have to drive that road again (twice). Fortunately, St. Mary had the Red Eagle Motel - not quite a Motel 6 but not bad and definitely better than the hotel we stayed in in Arkansas!

Skies cleared and we drove about an hour into the park and took pictures. Tuesday morning blue skies and sun but as we climbed in the park it got cloudier and had some light snow.



Lots of road construction - several one-way delays.

Logan Pass is the summit and the Continental Divide. First pass it was completely socked in. On our return trip, it was clear but oh so COLD. We made a brief stop and as we were heading to the car I turned and took a picture of the Visitor Center. At the car, I quickly refilled my water bottle from the ice chest and when I turned around, the Visitor Center had completely disappeared in the clouds!! Hard to believe when you see this clear picture I took about 30 seconds earlier!

Gypsy (GPS) Did Us Wrong

Today we were traveling to Roundup, MT and were then going on to White Sulphur Springs. I entered White Sulphur Springs in the GPS (Gypsy) and she started us off. After a few miles, it wasn't making sense so we stopped and realized while she was still "sending us toward WSS" she was really sending us East and not West *sigh* Probably 20 miles the wrong direction.

Finally she got straightened out but it's a little frustrating when your GPS doesn't know what direction you need to go!!! Of course, I have "real maps" with us and I'm learning more about how to read a map as well.

White Sulphur Springs is a nice little town. Very nice motel and nice local restaurant.

Wyoming Mammoth

In 2006 a mammoth was discovered under about 8 feet of dirt by a bull dozer clearing the land for a development. In 2009 the dig had been completed as far as a the mammoth (digging continues for other finds) it was preserved at Casper College.

Center of US and Little Big Horn

Yesterday when we took our side trip to North Dakota we got a special treat. We traveled by the geographic center of the USA so of course, we had to have a picture (with Craig's T-shirt)!!
Little Big Horn was interesting and informative. One could spent hours there but we got the gist of the idea with the movie and traveling the route.
Monument

When the battle was over, the men were buried where they fell. Later their remains were reburied under the monument in a mass grave but the stones were left in the field marking where they fell in battle. Very moving to see the stones laid out over the field of battle.
This picture is from the top of "Last Stand Hill" where Custer's troups were all slain.


The soldiers shot their horses to use as cover! There was a monument to the horses as well.

Casper, WY

We had a good visit with Ron and Gale. Visited the Casper Museum and learned about how five wagon trails came through Casper and then went on to Salt Lake City (Mormons), Oregon (settlers) and California (gold seekers) Very interesting.

Had to take a picture of the Hand's Free water fountain - I had never seen one before. You just lean over and a sensor sends the water to you. Pretty Cool

Did you know that Casper Mountain is the only mountain range that runs West-East?
Took some pictures of Muddy Mountain.


Then we took a day-long detour over to South Dakota and up to North Dakota so we could check North Dakota off our list of states visited. After this trip we will only need Delaware to complete all 50 states! (Had we known 10 years ago when we were in Washington, DC we were going to l 50 states, we would have visited Delaware then!!!) When we turned West on Hwy 12 toward Montana from Bowman, ND, we ran into road construction, and I mean ROAD construction. The road (highway) was just a dirt/gravel road. We lucked out and just made it to follow the "lead car" on the one-way trip. The one-way trip must have been at least 3 miles long and at the other end only 1 semi-truck and 5 cars were waiting! Not a lot of people traveling to North Dakota apparently. :-)

Casper

Really enjoying visiting with Ron and Gale in Casper. Going to get the 50 cent tour today - see some historic sites. Beautiful weather! Loving the trip.

Now in Denver

We started this great adventure on our 42nd Anniversary. Had a good visit with Ben's sister and bro-in-law in Fritch before heading north. Stopped in Woodland Park to visit my first boss, many (many) years ago. Hadn't seen them in 20 years. Had a great time catching up. Then it was a quick stop at Cracker Barrel for dinner and headed north of Denver for the night.

In the morning will have breakfast with a couple we met on our Africa tour. Then on to Casper, Wyoming to spend a couple of days with my college friend and maid of honor.