Queen City of the Rockies

We arrived at the Lincoln Road RV Park in Helena late this morning after a quick stop at Tim's Diesel Repair in Three Forks.  Luckily, our front wheel seal turned out not to be a problem and after a minor repair we were on our way to Helena.  We stopped at the Wheat Montana Bakery and bought cinnamon buns to celebrate! They had a sign in the front of the store that said, "We grow it, we sow it, and we dough it."  We looked across the street and saw the wheat growing in the field, they weren't kidding!


Helena, Montana is known as the "Queen City of the Rockies" and we have been treated like royalty here today.  As soon as we arrived we were invited to lunch by Jim's cousin Al and his wife Fran. We hadn't seen them in oh-so-long, and what a great time we had catching up.  We ate a delicious lunch while looking into their backyard garden. They have planted so many beautiful trees and flowers that it looked like a watercolor painting.

Fran had a list of things that she thought we might like to see and do while we are here in Helena and surprisingly, Kathe had made a similar list herself.  I  hope we get to do everything on that list in three days, but if we don't I guess we will just have to come back again.

The first thing on the list was the "Last Chance Tour Train" which we managed to accomplish this afternoon.  Helena was once named, Last Chance Gulch, because some tired old prospectors stumbled into a gulch and found gold in 1864, just before they were about to give up and return to home to Georgia.  It name was changed to Helena, but the Main Street where the gold was found is still called the "gulch."

The Last Chance Tour Train took us on an hour long trip through Helena's present and past.  We passed the Capitol Building, the Cathedral of St. Helena, and the Historical Society Museum, all places we hope to visit while we are here.  Our "Conductor" told us about the many millionaires who lived here in the early days and showed us the many beautiful Victorian mansions that still exist today.  We have a really good understanding of the history of Helena, I know we will have a great time here.

Missouri Headwaters

Today we arrived in Three Forks, Montana in time for a late lunch.  We drove over 240 miles on the I-90, passing cattle ranches and corn fields and a lot of wide open space.  Our home for the night is the Three Forks Camp, another beautiful campground in the middle of nowhere.  There are lots of shade trees here and large grassy picnic areas between the sites.  There are some chickens and a rooster nearby, I heard the cock-a-doodle-doo this afternoon.

Because we arrived so late and are only planning to stay one night, we couldn't do too much sight seeing today.  We drove out to the Three Forks State Park to see the place where the Missouri River begins.  This is the confluence of the Gallatin, Jefferson, and the Madison Rivers.  All three rivers combine and the great Missouri begins it's journey to the Gulf of Mexico. The first written account of the formation of the Headwaters came from the journals of Meriwether Lewis in 1805 when Lewis and Clark were exploring the area trying to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean.

Today, being a warm Sunday afternoon, there were lots of people and dogs floating down all three rivers in rafts and inner tubes.  Wish we had more time here, it looked like a lot of fun.

We discovered a mechanical issue tonight with the motor home.  A seal on the front passenger wheel was leaking fluid.  We don't know yet if this is just a loose cap, or if the brake pads have been damaged.  We have an appointment tomorrow at 8 AM with the local diesel mechanic who seemed very helpful on the phone.  Keep your fingers crossed that we can move on tomorrow morning to Helena.

I don't think it looks like rain, but Jim is out washing the motor home again!

Happy Birthday Jim

Today was Jim's birthday so we just took it easy and relaxed.  Okay, so we were lazy bums today. We stayed in bed until 10 AM and then we ate cinnamon buns that Kathe made for breakfast. Jim received many telephone birthday wishes and wants me to thank everyone for
remembering him.

We didn't get going today until after lunch time, so there isn't too much to report about our day. We are still in Garryowen and the weather has been very,very warm.  I was happy to stay to stay home in the air conditioning and play with my zebra while Kathe and Jim went to the Custer Battlefield Museum.  They saw many of the artifacts that were discovered in the area when the National Park Service was building the Monument and Visitor Center.  Lots of interesting things were found like buckles, rifles, gun shell, and uniform buttons.  Some weird stuff too, like a chuck of George Armstrong Custer's hair that some one carried around in a leather case before giving it to the museum.  There were also some really great photographs of well known American Indians like Sitting Bull and other tribal leaders which were taken in the late 1800's.

After visiting the museum it was time for lunch in the Trading Post.  Jim had a buffalo burger and Kathe had chicken noodle soup with Indian fry bread and honey.

We have been on the Crow Reservation so long that we have taken Indian names.  They call me, "One who seeks shade" because every time they take me out to pee all I want to do is find a spot in the shade and sit down.  Kathe is called, "She who sweats," for obvious reasons.  Jim's name is "Eats Anything" because he has eaten Elk, Buffalo, and Kathe's cooking without complaint.


Here is a picture of the campground from the ridge above us.  You can see our coach with our Escape in front and the bikes on the roof.  It really was a beautiful place to camp.

Little Bighorn

After a 108 mile drive today we arrived in Garryowen, Montana.  We eventually found our destination for the next two nights, the 7th Ranch RV Camp.  It is named for Custer's 7th Cavalry. We are camped only 4 miles from the Little Bighorn Memorial.  It wasn't an easy place to find.  We had to drive past it, circle back on the frontage road for 3 miles, then drive about a mile on a dirt road, then turn at the fork in the road, and drive uphill before we found the Ranch.  It really was worth the effort, this is a beautiful place.

After lunch while I was napping, Kathe and Jim drove to the Little Bighorn Monument.  It was a very emotional day as they listened to a Ranger who talked about the historical events that took place here. Kathe and Jim came home with a better understanding of the motives of the Native Americans and the European Americans and how this clash of cultures came about.

Kathe and Jim first watched a film at the visitors center that helped identify where the various battles and retreats took place, as the battlefield looks today exactly as it did in 1876.

After watching the film they walked to the actual Monument which has the names of all of the men of the 7th who died engraved upon it.  There are also headstones marking the actual places where soldiers fell as well as recently placed markers of the Native Americans who also died in the battle.

They were able to drive a 5 mile loop around the valley and using their cell phones to key into the various points of interest and listen to a ranger describe the movements of the three columns of troops and the positions of the Indian camps.

Below the summit of last stand hill is a circular monument to the Native Americans who fought at the Little Bighorn.  As you walk through this memorial you realize the force faced by the 7th Cavalry. Not only were Sioux present in all their various tribes, they were joined by the members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho as well.  It is estimated that there were over 7000 Native Americans at the battle including 1,500 to 2,000 warriors in the encampment.

Turkey Day

All day long today we were visited by turkeys.
I did my best to chase them away, but they kept coming back.  Jim was chasing them with his camera and finally caught a couple of them on the grass.

There were a dozen or so and they walked through our campground, then over to the farm behind us, then back through the campground again.  They made this trip three or four times today.  One of the our neighbors was roasting a turkey for lunch.  I wonder?

Jim spent the morning washing the motor home, then he took our tow car to the car wash thus insuring that it will rain today.  Like magic, it started thundering, then lightening, then the great downpour started just as he returned.

They toured the interior of the Occidental Hotel and the adjoining Saloon and Virginian Restaurant today, and learned quite a bit about it's history.  The hotel was first built in 1879 and it was the only first class hotel in Wyoming at the time.  Famous visitors included Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jame, Teddy Roosevelt and Butch Cassey and the Sundance Kid.  Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian, stayed here frequently and wrote about the hotel in his novels.  The hotel was restored in 1997 and it is now on the National Geographic Traveler Magazine's,"Must Stay List."

Kathe and Jim had a very nice dinner tonight in the Virginian.  Jim had a delicious Elk tenderloin, while Kathe stuck to the house special, beef steak. It felt to them that they were in an old western movie set, complete with the bullet holes in the doorway.

Tomorrow it is off to Garryowen, Montana and the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Buffalo, Wyoming

Today was another "driving" day.  We drove a distance of about 170 miles from Deadwood, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming.  Here is the view we saw through the front windshield for most of the day, please excuse the bug guts! Lots of wide open space, grassland, a few cattle ranches with one or two small towns sprinkled in.  At least we are away from the fires and seeing some clear blue sky for a change.

Our home for the next couple of days, Deer Park, is a beautiful campground with lots of grass and mature trees.  When we pulled in and I went for my first walk, I saw a flock of giant turkey birds. I protected every one in the park with my loud bark and chased them out of the campground. They were gone so fast Kathe couldn't take their picture.

Buffalo is a small town of about 5,000 people that was founded in 1879.  It was mostly a ranching town and has a history as a cattle rustler's capital.  Also, many Native American battles took place in this area which is near the Bozeman Trail.

Jim and Kathe learned a little about this history when they visited the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum.  This small museum once was the county library, but today it houses a collection of over 8,500 artifacts collected and donated by the Gatchell family.  There were many interesting historical photographs of native Americans and a large collection of firearms.

We are staying in tonight and I have my Thunder shirt ready in case of any fireworks.  Tomorrow we are going into town to see the Occidental Hotel which is the only fully restored frontier hotel in Wyoming.

Varoom, Varoom

Today we drove the car to Sturgis, South Dakota. This is the home of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, one of the oldest and largest motorcycle gatherings in the world.  Luckily, we will be on our way west when the 300,000 or so motorcycles scream into town during the first week of August.

The streets of Sturgis were quiet today, but there were still lots of bikers in town.  You could tell that the town was gearing up for the festivities. The T-shirt shops were ready and all the restaurants had "help wanted"signs posted.

One of the attractions here was the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame.  On display was a large collection of American and metric bikes dating back to the 1900.  In addition to all the rare, beautiful, antique, and unusual motorcycles there were historical photographs and memorabilia from the riders and rallies over the past 60 years.

Kathe and Jim selected their souvenir T-shirts and took a walk down Main Street to do a little window shopping.  One of the shops had the bike that Peter Fonda rode in the movie, "Easy Rider" in the window.  That was a highlight of the day.

On the way out of town they stopped at the Knuckle Saloon for a picture.  Jim didn't want to disturb the bikers, so they traveled down the road to the Dairy Queen for lunch.

Kathe and Jim had some luck in the Deadwood casinos last night and brought home $6.80 in winnings!

It is very smoky and sooty here in our campground tonight.  There is a fire close to us in Newcastle, Wyoming, which is burning about 60,000 acres.  The Governor has ask the citizens of Wyoming not to use fireworks this 4th of July.  We will head away from the fire tomorrow on our way to Buffalo, Wyoming for the next two nights.