Boys fly fishing weekend

On the road yesterday - longest day yet - 582 miles - sore butts!! We came through Sturgis, SD in the morning, site of the big motorcycle rally each August - I added to my bandana napkin collection with some really strange examples! I'm now the proud owner of a Sturgis 2009 motorcycle rally pin - bet none of you can say that! And speaking of motorcycles, we've been seeing thousands of them on the road, particularly in South Dakota. It does make you wonder, the number of riders who ride without helmets - if they don't have brain damage before, they will after. My favorite was the bleach blond wearing a leather vest with a slogan on the back that said "If you can read this, the bitch just passed you."

Coal and oil wells across Wyoming - and a train with what must have been 100 coal cars. Lots of mining going on - a huge coal processing plant we zoomed by - I'm always fascinated by these plants - would love to see the inside of one sometime.

Stopped in Deadwood, SD - home to Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. They've taken an interesting approach to raising money for restoration of the town - legalized gambling. Wonder when the CA legislature will come up with that one - but perhaps legalized gambling is what our legislative process is about anyway...

Spent an hour at Little Big Horn, a very sobering place. There was a wonderful ranger talk that brought the battle to life, and was respectful of both the US troops and the Native Americans. Walking the battlefield was an eerie experience - looking out at the landscape and thinking of it being overrun with troops and Native Americans on horseback, screaming, crying... When you walk on the landscape of history it changes your perspective.

Stopped in Billings for dinner with a library friend in a great brew pub - fun to reconnect. I-90 to Bozeman was closed and a detour for about 10 miles for a wildfire - it's that time of year.

In Bozeman with our friends the Dehlendorfs - it's Jeff Lincoln's 50th birthday fishing weekend - nice to have a relaxing weekend here. Off to Glacier on Sunday.

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Part of trip: Cross Country Summer 2009

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