We are currently hunkered down at the Terry Bison Ranch and Resort just North of the Colorado State Line. This place is nothing like I had envisioned when planning out the trip. President Roosevelt stayed here in 1903 and 1910. It’s over 27,000 acres. The RV Park however is right off I-25. I could probably throw a rock and hit a Northbound vehicle, and it’s of course loud, heavy truck traffic is loud and I really don’t like loud. The residents of this park however show no signs of belligerence or trouble, unlike last night.
Yellowstone River Resort, Billings, Montana was our place of residence yesterday. All seemed well enough when we arrived after a long day on the road through well, a lot of Fuck All Montana. It’s great country but between Great Falls and Billings there isn’t much except grassland, then farmland, then more grassland, and a few huge mountains in between. I personally enjoyed the drive but hey, that’s me. After a dinner of KD and Lays All Dressed Chips, I settled down at the picnic table to maybe read a little, but there was a disturbance a few slots down that caught everyone’s ear – oh yes, a full on domestic!!
Now, nobody likes to eavesdrop right? But hey, she was loud, and this was good. Turns out the Lothario of the camp was tapping some ass inside the trailer, and the girlfriend showed up. If I can recall correctly, she fucking hates him, he’s a fucking lier, he owes her money, he can’t be calling her a whore, and of course he can rot in Hell. We never did hear a peep out of him but my God did she smash up his camper, leaving just before the Sherriff showed. Who needs television when you have this!
The drive from Billings to here is, well, depressing. Like what? Seriously, the country is big, it swallows you up. Between Sheridan and Cheyenne there are a few larger towns like Buffalo and Casper, and then there is NOTHING. Not quite true, there are plenty of pronghorn antelope and cattle but you can drive 20 minutes and look far and wide in every direction and not see a homestead of any kind. Oh, and did I mention the wind? Fucking Hell, between Casper and Cheyenne we were hit with a thunderstorm which came at us sideways because the wind was so strong – it shook Anthony in a very furious and undignified way I might add. We are very accustomed to the wind in Southern Alberta but this wind was aggressive.
We also passed the Custer Battlefield Memorial first thing this morning, just South of Billings. I have passed here twice before and said I would come back to take a look around. Now you can make it three times. I wanted to pop in, I am reading a book at the moment on the killing of Crazy Horse, we will see his monument in South Dakota in a little over a week, yet I didn’t stop today. The Crow Agency, where the memorial is located, is pastorally stunning, especially in the river valley of the Little Bighorn. This beauty however, hides an ominous fact – people can and do disappear from here on a regular basis, and they don’t reappear. The Crow Agency is violent – apparently you have about a 1 in 10 chance of being assaulted. So I’ve read anyhow. No matter, we didn’t have the time to stop today anyway. Our goal is New Mexico, not Garyowen, Montana.
For now, we are done with Montana and Wyoming. Tomorrow its another long haul, driving right through the State of Colorado and on to Taos, New Mexico. If the wifi is decent, I’ll try and post. See you in the Land of Enchantment!