Little Bighorn

Date: 01/09
City: Billings, Montana
Miles ridden: 222
Cumulative miles: 11840
We had a relaxed start, only a bit more than 200 miles and not much to see. The landscape was still flat but the wind was strong. Our first stop was at Eddies Corner, a petrol station with a restaurant. The car park was packed, which is mostly a sign for good food, and so it was. I was happy to have a great omelette and Sigrid had beacon and eggs. After we finished our breakfast/lunch, we mounted our trusty steeds and continued our trip.

After a while we saw a sign that suggested that motorcycle rider should think about a detour as there are roadworks coming for 9 miles. We had seen that type of sign before, but the roadwork back then had actually just been finished and we had a great ride on the brand new road. This time the road had a few rough surfaces with the occasional bit of gravel, but the real problem was the gusty winds. We all got out of the road works without a problem, but not long after that we hit the next roadwork. This time there was more of the loose gravel, but less wind (you see, we always complain). We continued and stopped just before Billings to take a picture of the city from the hill.

Eventually we arrived at Hotel 8 where we would stay the night.  The rooms where spacey and we even had a nice kitchen, it was one of the nicest rooms that we had so far. We unpacked for the night and will continue to Little Bighorn tomorrow.

Date: 02/09
City: Broadus, Montana
Miles ridden:
Cumulative miles: 11840

Today it is exactly five month since we started the trip. Time is flying! In the morning I fitted my camera to the front of the tank to see if I can get another view for the videos. Not that I have done much with the videos so far, I just collected them and stored them on an external hard drive. It will be another job to make a video out of that. I guess I can do that when I’m unemployed back home :D.

Anyway, we started the day really relaxed. During our ride, Sigrid and I saw something black flying and jumping onto the side strip. We were not sure if it was something from Wombats bike or something laying on the road. Sigrid had a short look at the mileage counter and we continued our trip. We were close to the Little Bighorn, so we would ask Wombat and Val when we arrived.

When we arrived at the Custer battle ground, Val realized that she lost the GPS. So we watched the movie about the battle and then Wombat and I went back for fourteen miles to hunt the GPS. And we really found it! It looked a bit roughed up but was still working -fat chance that our Zumo 660 would work after that sort of accident…
When we came back from our GPS rescue mission we listen to a ranger who described the battle of Little Big Horn. It was quite interesting to get more background on how the conflict formed and the results of it. We had a look at the memorials -there are two, one for the Indians and one for the US army.

At the Indian memorial each tribe involved had a stone plate with some notes about the conflict. I liked Sittings Bull comment.

On the battle field, there were markers for each fallen soldier/Indian, including the name if they could be identified. On the right hand side is a picture of hill where Custer took his last stand.

After that we had a short ride to the Reno’s battle ground, his group had great casualties but survived. We were now moving towards Broadus, which is a small township on our way to Rapid City. On the way we had a short break on a shop in an Indian reservation. On the side of the shop was a big wooden tepee, but when we came closer we saw that it was an abandon shop. We arrived in Broadus and had lunch at a pizzeria which was also the local cinema. Tomorrow we will make our way to Rapid City where we’ll stay for a couple of days to get our bikes serviced, have a look at Mt. Rushmore, the Needle Highway and Devils Tower.

 

3 comments

  1. Hellooo, fellow travelers! Greetings from the Emerald Isle, the wind is blustering here too, but the Guinness is excellent! You are not even half way through your timetable, we’ve done more than two thirds, but we are nowhere-near ready to go home, only just getting the hang of things! Nonetheless, we are having a lovely time, look after yourselves, until next! A&A

    PS: Hey Siggi, there still are cute squirrels at the Wiesbaden cemetery. Ciao 4 now!!

  2. Hallo Björn,

    Du wirst Dich bestimmt nicht mehr an mich errinnern, wir waren in der Karlsgarten-Grundschule (Berlin) Klassenkameraden, Nachbarn und unternahmen gemeinsam das eine oder andere in dieser Zeit. Einige dieser Klassenmitschüler_innen treffen sich noch heute (wie Du vielleicht durch Pia bereits erfahren hast).
    Am letzten Freitag, 14.09.2012 berichtete Pia über Dein / Eurer Reisevorhaben, eine tolle Geschichte.
    Ich wünsche Dir / Euch weiterhin eine angenehme und erfolgreiche Fahrt, viele tolle und nachhaltige Erlebnisse bei bester Gesundheit.

    Es grüßt Dich ganz herzlich
    Mario

  3. Greetings to both of you.Hope this message finds you both well as I note it was posted on the 5th Sept. & there hasn’t been any for a couple of weeks. We are, also, planning a big trip to Europe for 2014 but, unfortunately, it doesn’t involve motorcycles in any way, shape or form – grrrr. We’ll be on one of those big river cruise ships for the most of it.
    Your adventures with the postal service so far seem a little more frustrating than expected. Hope they get things to you eventually.
    Yours Q.

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