BBB Day 5

Today we were able to begin the day at Sacrament meeting in Casper, Wyoming. We had totally forgotten that it was almost the 24th. It was pretty cool to sing "Come, Come Ye Saints" in a place that is along the Pioneer trail!!
Our main objective today was to visit  Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. We saw some beautiful scenery on our way:

We said goodbye to Wyoming and hello to Montana.

The monument is inside the Crow Indian Reservation.When we arrived at the monument we went to a dramatic retelling of the battle. The ranger was fantastic! I only got a couple of short snippets but you'll get the idea:

After the presentation we drove to the end of the road and followed the events of the battle in chronological order. We had a brochure that we read and also read the signs at each stop along the way. It was very interesting and educational. We both enjoyed it very much. 

Off to the right is a National Cemetery in honor of those lost in other wars. It is across the road from the rest of the monument.

"Last Stand Hill"

The site of the river is known as Retreat Crossing. The soldiers were losing badly, and retreated to the higher ground in the foreground. 7,000 Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho were encamped below along the Little Bighorn River. Led by Sitting Bull.

Notice the winding path of head stones, marking where 2 companies of men were killed attempting to join Custer on Last Stand Hill:

In 1876, Custer and his command are quickly buried in shallow graves near where they fell. Custer's remains are now at the military academy at West Point. This memorial stands in the center of a mass grave where the bodies of Custer's command now lie. The shaft bears their names, as well as those of scouts and civilians who died in battle.

It wasn't until 1991 that George H. W. Bush signed into law this memorial to honor the Indians who fought in this war and to change the name of the National Monument from Custer Battlefield to Little Bighorn Battlefield.

This is the monument as you come up the hill:

This is the entrance:

This is one portion of the inside of the circle:

In 1999 the National Park Service began erecting red granite markers at known Cheyenne and Lakota warrior casualty sites throughout the  battlefield. 

My last stop, of course, was the gift shop:

We ended the day in a Comfort Inn in Billings, Montana. Lovely, lovely day!!

BBB Day 3 & 4

Friday, July 20:

Today on our way out of town we noticed that some of the streets were named after early U.S. Presidents. However, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the two non-democrats, were not included! 😆 

Our first item today was to drive up to the top of Pike's Peak. It is one of the highest paved roads in America. They are in the middle of building a new facility on the top, so we could only drive to mile 16 [out of 20] and then we had to park the car and take a shuttle the remaining 4 miles. The drive was great, the view from the top was somewhat anti-climatic!! That's why these pictures are of the drive only.

Me on the shuttle:

Marmot:

When we arrived back at our car, we drove until we found a lovely spot to eat lunch and play cards. 

I was anxious to be on our way, because our next stop was the first B in our trip - Baby Suni! Of course, we think she is the most adorable baby ever, since our last grand child! 😉

 This is her adoring daddy and our son, Jonny:

Indian food for dinner then ice cream afterwards with lots of snuggles:

Gosh, I miss her!!! At least they are closer now and we can see them more often. Love all 3 of them - don't know why we have no picture of our sweet Emilee (Suni's mama)!

Saturday, July 21:

Today was basically a farewell and travel to Casper, Wyoming. It was hard to say goodbye to our little family. They fed us a delicious breakfast and then we had to go. 😢

We made a stop in Greely at the State College there [for pictures for Kent's research]. This is what I did while he went off to take pictures:

 EEEWW!!

When we got into Cheyenne we went through a very intense rainstorm that lasted a few minutes. It was really heavy where we were but we could see blue skies around us. Weird!!

Soon we joined the Platte River and so were following the Mormon Trail. In fact, we stopped at the Overland Trail Museum. Actually, we THINK that is what it was called. Anyway, it was an interesting and interactive Pioneer museum.

This one you could sit inside and "take a ride across the river"

We took this one in honor of our neighbor, who makes these kinds of things out of iron

So we ended our day in Casper, Wyoming.

BBB Day 2

Thursday, July 19:

Today we drove from Rifle to Colorado Springs. 

Here is the beginning of our drive - and it just gets better!

This was an interesting gas stop:

Then we began to climb. We drove across the Vail Pass and then an even higher pass, Hoosier Pass. 

Kent loves taking pictures!

Our road:

Climbing:

Climbing - in traffic - some things don't change from state to state!

And Still climbing!

Not there yet, but isn't it beautiful!?

Things are getting serious now.

And we made it!

On our way down the other side, Kent talked to a ranger who told us about a National Monument that protects a vast area where millions of animals were buried under volcanic ash millions of years ago. We couldn't face the traffic and heat of Colorado Springs quite yet, so we took a break and went to this monument. It was very interesting.

These are petrified trees

We also saw many fossils of plants and insects, which apparently neither of us took pictures of! Sorry. We still weren't ready for town so we found this lovely little hidden picnic area and spent a few hours there.

Our eventual trip into Colorado Springs, was not very welcoming. Our hotel was sketchy looking until we got to our room. The room was great - thank goodness.

We drove into town looking for a place for dinner and stumbled upon this charming little place called the European Cafe. We enjoyed it very much.

These paintings were done by one of the servers at the restaurant. We thought some of them were really good!

This was our favorite:

This was a very lovely day! See you tomorrow. 

A trip to see our Baby, Bears (hah!), and a Battlefield: Day 1

Kent and I left on another road trip, Wednesday morning, July 18. We drove to Rifle, Colorado. Colorado looks a lot like Utah - at least this part.

The best part of our stay in Rifle was going to Rifle Falls State Park: 

It was so cool and had the wonderful smell of pines and fresh water. The perfect way to end the day!!!

Arkansas and don't fly FRONTIER

We drove to Little Rock Arkansas this morning and went to the visitors center near Little Rock Central High School. 

 I thought this study was very revealing:

Little Rock Central was the high school where, in 1957, 9 black students wanted to enroll in an all-white high school. Their first day they were met by the state police, who were not there to help them but to keep them out. They returned the next day and the next. Finally, federal troops were called in and escorted them into school. The bravery of these 9 is so unbelievable to me. And the hatred and abuse that they received from the mobs of whites outside the school was frightening to watch in the videos!!

This is the restored gas station which served as the press center during the conflict at the high school.

I did actually see some armadillos while on this trip. They were road kill - but still I'd never seen one before!!

After our visit to the high school we drove to the Bill and Hilary Clinton airport for our flight home. When we checked in at the Frontier desk we were told that our flight was about 3 hours behind schedule, which meant we would miss our connecting flight in Denver, to Salt Lake. -- did I mention, don't fly Frontier? The 2 poor women at the desk spent the next couple of hours trying to find everyone new connecting flights. Much of that time they couldn't get the computers to work. We eventually were given a flight for the following morning. They told us that when we arrived in Denver we would be given vouchers for a hotel and food. 

Finally, at about 5:00 pm we were on our way to Denver. You know how at take-off and landing, they tell you to put your seats in the upright position? Well, Frontiers seats don't move. But, they still tell you to put them back in the upright position! Yea, don't fly Frontier. When we showed up at the Frontier desk in Denver, for our vouchers, they didn't know what we were talking about. So, we spent another 30-40 minutes waiting for them to figure it out and print us out some vouchers. We grabbed some dinner, called for the hotel shuttle and went out to the curb to wait. When the shuttle arrived, there was one passenger who was wheelchair bound and the shuttle didn't have a lift. Frontier was supposed to have given her a voucher for a taxi, with a lift, to take her to the hotel. So, she had to go back to the desk and try again. I don't know WHEN she finally got to the hotel. Oh, and the desk clerk at the hotel told us that Frontier kept sending people to the hotel after the hotel told them they were full. We arrived at around 8:30 pm and left again the following morning at 6:00 am. Did I mention - don't fly Frontier?

Fortunately, our flight to Salt Lake was on time and uneventful! We called our good neighbors, the Howards, and asked them if they could pick us up at the Orem Trax station to bring us home. Thank you to them! Other than the flights to and from this adventure, a great time was had by all! Thanks to those of you who have been faithful readers - I hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. Don't fly Frontier :)