Day 5: Great Falls to Rapid City

I think I mentioned already that Great Falls is a pretty neat city. However, I was over Billings, MT in about five minutes. Right after I bought an iced almond vanilla coffee, I was done. I don't want to go into much detail, because I'd rather not remember Billings, but there was a lady with a Denny's tattoo on her arm. As in, the logo for Denny's.  

Today was filled with adventure, starting with a visit to the Little Bighorn Battlefield (still Montana), followed by a stop at Devils Tower in Wyoming, and ending with a waterslide at our hotel in Rapid City, SD. 


If you do not know the history of the Battle of Little Bighorn, you can read about it here. This is better than Wikipedia, but it's still biased. As an amateur historian, I know that one can never be completely objective, but phrases such as, "Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors" left me feeling queasy. The park glorified Custer and the U.S. Army, despite the fact that this was one of the few major Native American victories. Why couldn't the phrase state something like, "This was the area where the Lakota and Cheyenne defeated Custer, because they were fed up with the U.S. government's shenanigans" ??  I'm getting waaay off topic, but my point is there are always multiple perspectives to any story, and changing the lens through which one views it can completely change the story.  History isn't stagnant! It changes! (I think I forgot to mention that I was a history major...). Also, I highly recommend reading The Journey of Crazy Horse, by Joseph M. Marshall III. It's CRAZY good. Ok, enough of my soapbox. 


So anyway, we then traveled down south a bit, to Devils Tower (or, Mato Tipila). This was neat.  Basically, it's a 1200' tall igneous intrusion in the Black Hills. But, it was and still is, a sacred area to the Native American Plains tribes such as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Kiowa. (PS, if you ever visit, and you bring young ones, DO NOT LET THEM WANDER FROM THE MARKED PATHS!!!! This is a sacred place to some people, and there are clearly labeled signs that ask visitors to stay on the marked paths. SO WHY DID I SEE LITTLE TODDLERS AND TIARAS DOING WHATEVER THEY PLEASE ALL OVER THE PLACE?!? Seriously, people, that's just rude.)

This is enough ranting and raving for one day. PICTURE TIME. Sorry for the "car ad" pictures. Alex took those. 

Take 56. It looks like my hat.

Day 4: Edmonton to Great Falls

I have a theory about birds that swoop in front of cars driving 80 mph. You see, there are these bird gangs all over the place. They like to hang out on telephone lines and judge you. And if a bird gets to hang out on the telephone line, that's good stuff. But, there's an initiation process. In order to join the bird gang, a bird has to fly in front of car and survive. Alex and I have also deciphered some of the rules: 1) The car must be going at least 55 mph. Bird gets a better telephone line spot if car is going faster.  2) Bird must fly completely in front of car, at car level.  None of that fly-half-way-then-turn-around stuff, or the fly-diagonally-and-fake-it crap. This is the only reasonable explanation as to why some birds will not fly across an interstate until a car comes along. 


So today was our last day in Canada :(. Very sad. In order to make Montana more enjoyable, we stopped by a Sobeys and stocked up on Caramilks, Wunderbars, Kinder Eggs, and Hobnobs. All of which are ACCAMAZING and should be imported into the US of A pronto. 

We also had to drive through Calgary, which we were pretty apprehensive about, since there was a massive flood the week before. But luckily the main roads were all fine. Calgary, I hope you recover soon! We would have liked to tour around... Next time!

OH! But before we left Canada-Land, we stopped at the Museum of Miniatures in Nanton. It's pretty dang awesome, the owners are super friendly and knowledgable, and I highly suggest it to anyone in the Alberta / Montana area. I didn't take any pictures, however, because there are so many minute (HAH) details. Pictures wouldn't do them justice. 

Great Falls is neat; reminded me of Fairbanks in that everyone was friendly and didn't care what they were wearing. 

My Love-A-Dove

Calgary! Luckily, it wasn't too flooded. 

Just a little... 

I SEE LONDON, I SEE FRANCE, I SEE ALEX'S
UNDERPANTS

Made it to Montana! Big Brother was waiting for us...

Neato-burrito chandebeer at
On The Border