Montana.....

We went through Skalkaho Pass between Hamilton and Anaconda Montana. There were signs saying it was mostly gravel and very windy and narrow. We drove through and made it to the other side and reached pavement. Then we had a tire blow out. It wasn't just a puncture, the whole side of the tire blew out. It was too remote for cell phone service, so we were glad that installing the spare went well. After we changed the tire, which Robert was a real champion at, we drove to Anaconda and made sure all the tires had proper air pressure. Then we drove on toward Butte. We almost made it to the freeway when another tire blew out. It was only about 20 miles from the last blow out. We don't keep two spares on hand, so we were stuck. We didn't panic though and now we were in cell phone range. Robert called somebody in Butte and a really nice guy came out and put a spare tire on for us and we followed him into town. It was after normal business hours on a Sunday and Robert said if you can put 4 new tires on tonight you have a sale. Now we have 4 nice brand new tires. And a spare. Somebody stopped and checked to see if we needed any help while we were waiting for the tire guy. It was really nice to know that people still stop.

The next day we drove to Little Bighorn Battlefield and had a nice visit there. We walked around and looked through the museum. The artifacts were really interesting to look at and read about. They even had some of Custers actual uniforms that he wore. There was a park ranger speaking outside looking over the hills and we stopped to listen. He was a really dynamic speaker and captured peoples attention. But then he called Bill Hickock an illegal alien and compared the Sioux Indian Braves to modern day suicide terrorists, also implying that Americans are the bad guys. From the quotes that we read from the surviving indian warriors, it was clear that they respected the U.S. Soldiers who fought and died in the battle because they were brave. Victory over a bunch of cowards wouldn't have much meaning to them. The speakers comments were disrespectful to the indian warriors and soldiers that died there. The liberal mindset seems to be just about everywhere now. And the audience just nodded in agreement and made affirming grunts and he uttered these ridiculous statements. We got up and left. It was a nice break in the driving and we all appreciated the sightseeing. By the way there's an inspiring memorial for the indian warriors there as well. The name was changed from Custer's Batttlefield to Little Bighorn Battlefield in the early 90s under President Bush.