30 August 2015, Sunday

We are up and on the road before 7 am, stopping at Baker’s Bakery in Custer
for a huge breakfast of omelets, enough bacon for an army, hash
browns and toast. In case of sudden starvation later in the day, we buy a gooey
cinnamon bun the size of a hubcap and an apple fritter for emergency
rations. We can barely fit them into the car.

Now on to Devils Tower, the first National Monument established under the
antiquities act in 1906 by Teddy Roosevelt. It is also a sacred place to
many Native American tribes, most of whom refer to it as something to
do with a bear, such as Bear Lodge. There are many variations on the
story of how it came to be here. One has it that 7 sisters were
playing here when their brother suddenly turned into a ferocious bear
and began chasing the girls. The girls climbed onto a tree stump
which promised to protect them. It lifted them high into the sky. The
bear gouged the side of the stump with its claws while trying to get
to the girls. The girls were lifted in the sky and became the 7 stars
of what we call the Pleiedes Constellation.

Native Americans have the most awesome cathedrals – created by the Creator! We walk the 1.3 mile path around the base of the monument. It is indeed awesome…and hot in the 95 degree temperature. We fill up on water and head for Billings, only 306 miles away.

It is a long and boring drive. The temperaure remains high. We can feel the
heat radiating through the windshield despite the air-conditioning.
It finally cools to the mid-80’s as we cross into Montana and head a bit further north. The smokey haze from the fires in the northwest
obscures the mountain ranges and turns the sky a bluish-white. I
check the weather forecast on the Kindle. There is a slight chance of
snow next Saturday with lows at night down to 3 degrees Celsius!

We finally arrive at our Motel 6. Their internet is down – no blog
posts tonight. We head off to a brew pub for supper and return to do
laundry.