Little big drive

Day 18

We lingered over breakfast. Conversation with family after so long in a vacuum was something worth hanging onto. But Audrey and Charlie will be joining us at our next stop, so we finally got on the road for Wyoming.

We opted to skip a local Lewis and Clark land mark so we could get to Gillette at a decent hour. We wasted some time looking for a Starbucks to check email. Garmin failed to find one again, making it 0-8 on Starbucks. We pressed on toward the Little Big Horn. Custer Battlefield was right off the highway, but I didn't realise that it was RIGHT at the exit. I overshot and knew something was wrong when I didn't see an entrance. I programmed Garmin to find it for us. Garmin told me to drive 12 more miles. This turned out to be the first cross road, where Garmin told me to u-turn and drive 15 miles back. I couldn't have u-turned on the empty country road before then. Garmin is dangerous out west.

We arrived tired and a half hour late. We caught the film and museum, then went up Last Stand Hill. We tried to explain to Sean what happened here. His main reaction was horror that the desperate cavalrymen had shot there own horses in an attempt to create cover to shoot from as they waited for the relief column that never came. I told him that Keogh's horse Comanche survived, but it didn't seem to help.


Back on the road, we headed through Wyoming to Gillette. Gillette is now a city of 40,000, which is amazing to me. It's changed drastically since we were here just a few years
We pressed on to my cousin Eileen's house. She no longer lives in Gillette, having moved to a house on the Keyhole Reservoir near Moorcroft. She and her husband Bill have made an amazing home there. I asked if we could buy a timeshare. Her son Brett was also there with his family. I haven't seen him in nearly 40 years. His two sons are close to Sean's age, so the boys kept themselves entertained (much to out relief--Sean has relied on us for company since we left Lanny's house.)

Food and wine flowed freely from Eileen's pantry. We won't be missing McDonald's this weekend...