Travels of Geo Nova: June 2022

Montana and Back to Wyoming

We travel North into the grassy rolling hills of Montana to visit the infamous site of Custer’s Last Stand, The Battle of Little Bighorn or as known by the American Indians the Battle of The Greasy Grass. At the visitors center there is a small museum but the highlight of the experience were the talks given by the Park Rangers. Looking out across the large green grassy expanse of the battlefield you can see multiple white marble markers denoting the exact location where the soldiers fell, along with several red granite markers to show where the Indians fell. The only issue with marking the Indians that fell was that Indians

gathered the fallen and and took them away to be buried in traditional ceremonies. There is a cluster of the white stones on the hill that was to become known as Custer’s Last Stand. Several years ago the National Park Service put together an excellent memorial to the Native Americas. Looking through the lens of today clearly the bad guys were the U S Calvary however trying, as difficult as it may be, to see things through the lens of the latter 19 th century the whole thing becomes rather muddy.

While exploring this area all kinds of warnings messages appeared on the screen of our truck, oil change now, change fuel filter, check coolant and we were hearing a strange sound when we applied the breaks of the truck. This was of great concern to us as we have a large mountain pass to cross when we depart Cody for Devils Tower. Keep in mind we have a 10,000 lb trailer following us down every hill.
We departed Montana in a cold rain for another run at Wyoming. Our destination is Cody. A town started by and named after Buffalo Bill Cody. Cody’s main draw is The Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This museum is five museums in one, The Plains Indians, Buffalo Bill Cody, The Natural History of the West, Art of the West and a Gun museum. Visiting required 2 full days. Fortunately we were able to get an appointment with the local Ford dealership to address our truck problems. I dropped off the truck and walked back to the museum and continued our visit there. Also fortunately our Campground was in walking distance to the museum. The next day we both walked back to Fremont Ford of Cody to pick up our fixed pickup truck. Now we are prepared to cross the Bighorn Mountains in several days.

Our fun in Cody was not just the Mega Museum, we visited Heart Mountain Retention Center, an illustration of the darker side of US history, where Japanese Americans were imprisoned after The Pearl Harbor Attack. Keep in mind that two thirds of these people were US citizens.

Our final night in Cody we did a touristy dinner show and rodeo.

Devils Tower National Monument was our last stop in Wyoming. The tower is a geological wonder. There are 4 theories as to its origins but no certain explanation as to how it came to be. The Native Americans have a deep spiritual connection to the Tower. They believe a giant bear’s claws are responsible for the vertical striations of the tower.

Upon waking this morning before our departure for Custer State Park in South Dakota Diana felt a little off. She unfortunately tested positive for Covid. At this point I am negative. Looks like the joint activities we had planned I will be doing solo.