Say, You Must Be The Indians

Howdy Folks,

It's 5:00 PM in Montana and I'm sitting in the Montana Brewing Company (the former Electric Building) in Billings (that would be Montana) having a Fatbelly Amber after refusing a General Custer Stout on basic principles. Now if they had named the Stout after the victor that would have been different - pop quiz - who lead the Indians in the Battle of Little Big Horn? Isn't it always the case that nobody remembers the winners?

I had a nice run down to Mt. Rushmore - a beautiful sunny day - and a beautiful spot. Imagine a natural rock formation looking like four former Presidents of the USA - what are the chances - the indians must have been scared out of their minds when they ran across that thing!! I wonder what Bill Clinton would look like up there - I actually saw other rock formations that might have approximated other parts of his anatomy - his nose of course!!

Leaving Mt. Rushmore I drove 16W and eventually ended up rejoining I-90 about an hour later. Then in a moment of pure serendipity realized I was only 25 minutes from Devil's Tower - I had to go. This was a dicey decision as clouds were moving in from the west but your intrepid blogger said 'F it' and went for it. I arrived there with the sun still shining and took some great photos of the tower and an adjacent canyon.

For the movie fans among you - the Tower of course was featured in, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - quick - can you hum the 4 note sequence? Remember Richard Dreyfuss building a model of the tower from household items in the movie - the spacecraft landed adjacent to the tower - you can still see the scorch marks.

I bombed back to the highway and was soon rewarded with snow just before Yellowstone - which meant a drive through Yellowstone was futile because all I would see would be my windshield!! This is damned disappointing as anyone who knows me me at all knows that two of my greatest influences have been Yogi Bear and his sidekick BooBoo. You know sometimes it is best not to met your heros because in real life they turn out to be something else altogether - Yogi probably doesn't even like pic-a-nic baskets and BooBoo probably has AIDS - or even worse has turned into a Little Jack Horton to Yogi's Bukowski - research it folks - try Tom Russell and his CD, Hotwalker.

So I motored on down to the Little Big Horn and what a depressing little place that was. Custer may have lost that day but when I look at the Crow Nation today and their ramshackle bungalows and their yards stocked with every piece of hardware they have owned since Custer died, we know who really won don't we - sad.

So - it is snowing like crazy - I come off the butte descending into Billings - and - you guessed it - sunshine - and over there, towards Bozeman and the pass is The Rockies - we are getting close.

Saw some wild life today - also saw some deer - took some pictures don't you know.

Gotta run - the brokeback cowboys are getting interested.

Tomorrow a run towards Seattle - I will probably pull up about 150 miles short and roll into town Friday just in time for noon hour St. Patty's celebration - hey don't forget to join Kevin in Toronto - anybody know his cell - I'll phone in.

Happy Trials (and I mean trials)

PS - just ordered a Sharptail Pale Ale - OH MY GOD - it is GREAT!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY DIDN"T I GET THAT FIRST .... HELLO COWGIRL IN THE SAND ...