Our purpose for visiting Billings MT was to go to the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody and visit with Dennis' cousin Harry and his wife Shirley. And then we found out about the Yellowstone Valley Kennel Club dog show. So, since GSP's were on at 8:30 we planned a stop at the show and then on to Cody. I had an opportunity to chat with a judge I love to steward for and then it was showtime. Well, it was but nobody seemed to care. Some rings started immediately, others started a few minutes later and one or two started when they got around to it. The AKC reps in our area would have had a fit! Col Purkheiser was the judge for GSPs and there were 5 dogs, 4 bitches and 1 special entered. He had a few pointers first and then it was time for the GSPs. But nothing happened. It seems an exhibitor was tied up with Weims in another rings so they waited and waited!!!! All in all it was more than 5 minutes till she was able to come to the GSP ring. Like I said, our AKC reps would have been livid. This boxer (just for you Susan) is 8 mo old and was WD 2 days for 2 pts each day. A mite leggy, I would say.
The GSPs were not from any kennels I would recognize. And only half of them showed up. The woman that was late for the ring had 3 of the 5 that showed up. And none of them were very well trained for the show ring. In fact, we would probably be embarrassed to show them in a match. The quality was not very good overall and the entries made our east coast competition look even tougher. The dogs and bitches were on the small size and movement was poor. So much for the dog show.
The road to Cody from Billings ran parallel to the Beartooth Mountain Range for a while. There was still snow on some (of course) but they were beautiful in the distance. At one point we came relatively close to this mountain and the side looked like teeth layered one upon another. Beautiful!
Central Montana has a lot of casinos. They are associated with restaurants, gift shops, gas stations, bars, and even ice cream shoppes. The strange thing is that they are only permitted to have 20 machines in each casino. It has been a topic of discussion as to whether or not the casinos should all be located in the same general area of each jurisdiction or scattered. Right now they are everywhere so I guess they are scattered.
We drove through some agricultural areas and into desert with amazing rock formations. We never tire of seeing this kind of scenery. One of the small towns we passed through is Belfry. As we entered the town we were amused by a large, homemade sign that read: "What part of 25 MPH don't you understand? Please slow down". Obviously a lot of people do not obey the posted speed limit. As we drove by the school, we had a real laugh. The mascot for the Belfry High School is... you guessed it, Bats. Sign read "Home of the Belfry Bats". Very interesting.
Cody is a tourist town- nice wide Main Street with lots of old west themed shops. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is located on the west end of town. It houses 4 museums: Buffalo Bill, Plains Indians, Natural History and an art museum that had a showing of paintings about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We wanted to focus on the Buffalo Bill museum but later in the day, we spent a lot of time in the other sections. Each one was fantastic and we had to rush to see everything. I visited the gift shop while waiting for Dennis and looked at some turquoise and silver necklaces the were selling for $3400. They were beautiful but I'd be afraid I'd loose one of the stones. Besides, I only wear gold (Ha Ha).
We contacted Harry and met him for lunch. He suggested the Irma Hotel downtown. This was named for Buffalo Bill's one daughter and has a lot of original furnishings. There are mounted deer and elk heads around the dining room and lots of paintings. Lunch was excellent. It was nice to have a great lunch in such a pleasant setting and with good service, too. In the evening we went to Harry and Shirley's house for a longer visit. They insisted we stay for dinner and spend the night. We accepted the first invitation and had a great meal and fun visit.
It was later than we would have liked when we left to drive back to Billings. But, we knew we wanted to leave the next morning so off we went, with warnings from Harry and Shirley to watch for the deer and elk on the road. It had started to rain before we left Cody and we drove through rain off and on. The sky was full of dark clouds but every once and again the lighter sky would peek through. This photo was taken driving at 50 mph through the van windshield. Boy, did I get lucky.
When we returned to the motorhome around midnight all was quiet and very wet. We noticed a big white bus parked beside our site but were tired and off to bed we went. At 6:30 this morning I woke up and pulled back the front drape to check the weather. I was very surprised to see a second bus and lots of teenagers loading gear into the cargo area. I don't know how many people were there but they filled 2 large passenger buses and 6 or more vans with people and gear. And we never heard a thing until one of the bus drivers started the engine. Someone told me after they left that they had arrived and setup in the pouring rain the evening before. But all appeared to be in good spirits and ready to be off on their adventure.
We were not far behind the teenagers since we had a long drive to Sturgis, South Dakota. We are used to starting the day under cloudy skies but usually the sun appears mid-morning and we have a pleasant day. Lately we've had more late afternoon showers but that's OK since we're usually back at the campground writing the blog by then. Well today we drove under cloudy skies and rain most of the day. But even the bad weather could not detract from the beautiful landscape that lay in front of us. Rolling hills with lush green grass as far as the eye could see.
We were able to glimpse Devil's Tower in the far distance as we drove along I-90. The Native American legend about this place tells of a family of 7 sisters and 1 brother. The brother was magically transformed into a giant bear and when the sisters saw him they ran for their lives. They climbed a nearby tree stump and the stump began to rise to the sky. The bear clawed at the bark but failed to reach the 7 maidens. The sisters ascended into the sky and became the stars of the Big Dipper. The bear's claw marks still show on the sides of the tower/stump. Of course we "modern" Americans remember the Tower from Close Encounters rather than legends. We hope to get a closer view of those claw marks before we leave this area.
We'll be here 4 nights and have a lot of things to see and do. Since last night was so late (at least late for us), we're off to bed early tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment