Wild West and Big Sky

Montana is Indian territory.  (That's what they call themselves here.)  When we left ND, we stopped off to visit Fort Buford, a fort in the middle of absolute nowhere!  Apparently, forts were scattered along the landscape, as outposts to ward off the Indians. (whose territory we invaded).  Eventually Chief Sitting Bull surrendered there, and became a prisoner himself, though he was treated with respect.

I was fascinated by one particular historical fact that I never knew.  It seems that the soldiers there in ND were Confederate POW's  who were given the option of joining the Union Army for five years, rather than go to prison.  If they joined the army, they were stationed out west, far from the Civil War. (when the war ended they still had to serve their term.)

We had time to kill today, since we had a short driving-day-distance today, plus we passed a time zone and gained an hour, so we have taken in several museums, art gallery, a fort, an Indian reservation, etc.

In Montana, Route 2 is now a 2 lane highway, and if it is possible, it is even more desolate than North Dakota.  The terrain is more hilly than ND,  but just not much in the way of habitation!  There is absolutely nothing between towns, except fields, and railroad.  You can take the train all the way from Chicago to Seattle!

We have now traveled more than 2000 miles.

We have two more days of Montana and Rt. 2, which is now 2 lanes.  It doesn't really matter, because the road is flat and straight and you can see for three miles, and pass anyone on the road, if there happened to be anyone there. (which there usually isn't.)

Big sky, here we come!


(The sky is so big, because the horizon is so small,  Imagine a picture where the bottom 15% is a landscape and the top 85% is nothing but sky.)