Day 2

Heading South on I-90 we had a history-filled day visiting forts and battlefields, the most significant of which was Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Sheridan is a charming, well-preserved old West town, but my favorite place is Buffalo, Wyoming. There is not a plot in a Zane Grey or Louis L'Amour novel or a Western movie that didn't happen in Buffalo, Wyoming. You could easily spend a week in the local historical museum delving into the fascinating events that transpired in Buffalo.


Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play. We saw scads of deer and antelope--more antelope than deer. I tried to imagine what the environment would have been like teeming with thousands of buffalo before they were all needlessly slaughtered. Lamenting that they were all gone, we happened to pass a field full of buffalo, a herd of maybe a hundred or so. Hooray!

We also crossed the Oregon Trail in places and visited Independence Rock where Oregon-bound pioneers carved their names. The arch above is about a mile south of the Oregon Trail and quite a scenic spot.

Across the vast landscapes of Eastern Montana and Wyoming, you can see almost forever. Twice, in the distance, we saw dark clouds reaching the ground in an otherwise blue sky, which, of course, meant rain ahead. We wondered if we would drive right through the squalls or miss them completely as the road meandered unpredictably. Naturally we hit both of them, and they were ferocious. I had to slow down to 30 MPH and could barely see the road, but, fortunately, they didn't last long.

Roadkill count for the day included two deer, two black calves, three porcupines, one badger, three rabbits, a coyote, three raccoons, and several lumps of unidentifiable species at 75 MPH.

I haven't seen too many birds with the exception of a couple of magpies, a great horned owl, and ubiquitous starlings.

We're spending the night tonight in Fort Collins, Colorado, the home of Colorado State University, which we will tour in the morning before continuing south.