SATURDAY, JULY 25th - Cody, Wy. to Billings, Montana

Hi Folks,
We spent the night in Cody, Wyoming waking up to a nice 66 degrees this morning. The sun is already up and bright and right after breakfast we plan on visiting the Buffalo Bill's historical Center.

We drove "Dusty" over to the RV parking area and received our morning exercise by hiking to the front of the Museum. They definitely need a rear entrance since that is where most of the parking areas are located.

This is a big museum and we started with 3 short films documenting some cowboy heroes since this was National Cowboy Day. Pictures were forbidden in many areas of the museum so all we could take away from there were nice memories.

After we visited the museum we went back to the MH for lunch before starting our trip north to Montana to visit "Little Big Horn" battlefield and memorial.
Enjoy the pictures and comments!

Entrance to the Historical Center. Cody, Wyoming

William Cody earned his nickname "Buffalo Bill" by his skill as a hunter. In 1868 he earned $500 per month supplying meat to the workers on the Kansas-Pacific Railway. His style was to ride to the front of the herd and kill the leader with a .50 cal single shot rifle. He could then turn the herd in to a milling circle and get the days supply of meat one by one.

The taxidermists who is responsible for the following full size mounts are true artists as you will see in the following pictures.

This buffalo family is just incredibly life like.






U S Mail stage coach beautifully restored.









This caribou full body mount is so realistic.








A white-tailed deer ready to jump.








How about this full mount of a young bull moose?








Early Yellowstone NP transportation wagons for the tourists.








A real chuck wagon cooking in front of the Museum made me hungry!

We went to the parking lot and had lunch in the MH before taking off to Montana.



North Central Wyoming on the way to Montana is gorgeous.








This country is rugged but still beautiful.








We made it - Montana. Now we will continue north to Billings and then east to Little Big Horn.






Little Big Horn National Monument. (Little Big Horn is a river)
Here you will find a memorial with about 220 soldiers, scouts, & civilians buried around the base. The marble tombstones scattered around (see picture below) the battlefield denotes where the slain soldiers were found and originally buried. In 1881 they were re-interred into a single grave on this site. The officers remains were removed in 1877 to various cemeteries throughout the country. General Custer was buried at West Point.


This is the monument with the names of the 220 people engraved on it.

There is also a monument dedicated to the horses that fell during this battle.




Tombstones located where all the troopers remains were originally found.








This is another memorial to the famous Indians who were killed during the battle of Little Big Horn.





Here's a view of one of the cattle ranches dotting the landscape in Montana. We are now on our way to northeast Wyoming.







We traveled to Sheridan, Wyoming and found a nice, big Wal-mart Campground. The parking lot to the north of the store was our campsite for the night and we shared it with 9 RVs, 5 semis, & 4 travel trailers. It was quiet & secure enabling us to sleep very well.
When we find a Wal-mart that we are allowed to stay overnight in the parking lot, then we do our shopping at the store. This is our way of paying back for their kindness & support of the RV travelers.

NOTE: We hope you are enjoying the "Tales from the road" as we continue our journey across America. This country is massive but seems small when you go from point to point in an airplane. Each place that we stopped, we are reminded of the pioneers that walked, rode wagons & horses to travel this great land. Their adventures were death defying every mile of the way. Fortunately, ours is just trying to avoid some bad drivers on the highway every now & then.
As you can tell, I love American history and have a great respect for the places now being preserved for all future generations to enjoy.
Thanks for joining us again on this wonderful adventure! Until the next update, HAPPY TRAILS!!!