Hmmm, This Means Something

Location: Livingston, MT
Miles: 2818

Okay, a rather disappointing showing of blog comments (i.e. none). I'm guessing that, today being Saturday, y'all are busy with other stuff besides reading & commenting on our blog (as if there could be anything more important).

Well, while you were all going about your own p/a/t/h/e/t/i/c/ lives, here's what we've been up to:

This morning we headed out on twisty, mountainous Wyoming roads, on the way to Devil's Tower National Monument. Along the way, we saw several areas where the road could be closed: gates and signs saying, "Road Closed. Return to (insert name of town here)." After much discussion, we came up with two possibilities: (a) Cattle drives, and (b) UFOs landing and taking off from Devil's Tower.

The Tower was fairly obvious as we approached it, but we were a little surprised. Instead of standing in splendid isolation, as ususally pictured, the Tower is accompanied by three other peaks that look like Devil's Towers in training.
They are covered with trees, but we figure a few million years of erosion should take care of that.

As we came closer, though, the road curved around, and the other three peaks were soon hidden behind the Tower. Now Devil's Tower stood alone, dominating the landscape. We stopped to take a picture.



Finally we reached Devil's Tower Trading Post, the gift and souvenir shop that commands a choice view of the Tower. We bought some postcards, and mailed them from the Devil's Tower Post Office. In the same parking lot, we found a giant cowboy boot left behind by some giant cowboy. Naturally, we took a picture:



Finally we said goodbye to Devil's Tower and headed for Interstate 90, then northward to Montana. We crossed the border into Montana a little after 5 pm. After a short stop at the Trading Post in Garryowen, MT, we continued. Soon we were in Billings, a major city with actual skyscrapers. Billings sits below some really spectacular cliffs -- but since Montana is absolutely full of spectacular scenery, nobody there even notices the cliffs. The best vantage point we could get was outside the municipal water facility, which is surrounded by a huge fence. Here's Thomas at that fence, with the cliffs in the background:



We continued west on I-90. Along about 8:30 pm we stopped at a rest area to take pictures of the sunset over the Crazy mountains:



At the rest area, we met a cute Goth boy who was born in Idaho and now lives in Montana. We chatted with him for a while, then went on our way.

Finally, with darkness gripping the land, we turned south on Highway 85, which will take us to Yellowstone National Park. Almost at once we stopped at the Livingston Inn in lovely Livingston, MT. We had a great dinner of Kraft macaroni & cheese prepared in our electric frypan, and now we're relaxing.

Tomorrow, Yellowstone...and beyond.

-Don