Day 8 - Billings, MT

Today we head to Billings, MT where we will spend two nights. Our goal was to go to Belle Fourche, get fuel and head west on Montana Highway 212 to join back up with interstate 90 at the Little Big Horn National Monument. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men . . . . . .

We got the fuel and headed west on Highway 212. Only to run into a detour which would wind up taking us 71 miles north on Highway 59 to join with Interstate 95. When I say a detour, I mean a detour. There was no Highway 212 in front of us. It just was gone. They were totally reconstructing the highway. So, we missed the Indian reservation and the Little Big Horn National Monument. We will get the monument on the way home from Glacier National Park week after next, but for now - it was a long day driving about 40 miles out of the way.

We did, however, get to visit Pompey's Pillar. If you are familiar with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, you know that many of the places we have visited or passed are either on the expedition trail or one of the side expedition trails that they took. In other words, "slept here or close to here" almost everywhere we have been. In face, we listened to the 4.5 hour CD version of Stephen E. Ambrose's book - Undaunted Courage. We probably should have listened to the unabridged, 22 hour, version. However, we couldn't find it before we left.

Had we listened to the entire version, we would have heard more about William Clark's side expedition up the Yellowstone River. Meriwether Lewis was on a side expedition up another river at the same time. Anyway, while on his expedition, William Clark stopped at a sandstone monolith which he named Pompy's Tower in honor of Sacagawea's son whom Clark called Pomp (little chief in Shoshoni). The pillar was renamed Pompeys Pillar in 1814 when the Lewis and Clark journals were published. This is the only remaining on-site physical evidence of Lewis and Clark's epic journal and is a national monument. Pictures at the end of this section.

We finished our day's travel at the Number 1 KOA in the nation. The park backs up to the Yellowstone River in Billings. We will be here for two nights. I do not know what tomorrow holds in terms of sightseeing, but I do know that the KOA store had a locally brewed brown ale called Moose Drool. I'll let you know about it tomorrow.