Today we had our longest drive yet for the trip with over 300 miles to be covered. The beginning of the drive took us up through Northern Yellowstone which offered great scenery, but windy roads. After we hit the interstate 90 and headed all the way through Montana, it was pretty much flat or rolling hills of farmland.

Since this was the longest drive so far, the kids had to keep themselves amused with no computer, tv, or video games. Ellen usually entertained or bothered us during the trip as seen here.

We stopped briefly at Bozeman to relax in Barnes & Noble and grab a coffee at Starbucks. Ethan rushed over to the Manga section and Ellen headed over to the girlie-teenager-book section. After about a half an hour of reading, we headed on, trying to make it to Billings for lunch. Billings was actually a pretty nice city and we stopped in for a healthy lunch at this Salad Creations restaurant. We wish we had them in California!

After lunch it was time to head on to Sheridan, but we took a brief stop to get some history at Little Bighorn. From what we gathered at the monument, this is where Custer made his last stand and had his butt kicked by the Indians. It was a tragic battle for our army, but given the poor treatment to the Indians, it's not surprising. It was good to see that the information presented was not biased and pretty much said that both sides fought for what they thought was right.

The black headstone is Custers. The rest are the few hundred soldiers that were killed during this battle.

As mentioned, we spanned West to East, then dropped down into Wyoming. This was an excellent welcome sign, one of the nicest we saw on our trip!

By the time we got in, it was nearing dinner time, so we headed to their old downtown area. This downtown definitely topped the old-town of Idaho Falls. Unfortunately it is Sunday evening and mostly everything was closed.

We chose Sanfords Grub and Pub for our dinner selection and the kids ate really healthy choosing salads. I, on the other hand, had a platter of fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. I guess I'll have to work-out extra hard upon our return.

On the way back to the hotel we spotted this really nice old fashioned locomotive. I'm not sure what it signifies, and we didn't bother to go up to read the plaque, but it makes for a great picture.

We wrapped up the night with some rummy and some planning of the sites we will be seeing tomorrow as we head to Mount Rushmore! It seems to be about a four hour drive from here. Wow, is Mount Rushmore far!!!

Hotel: Wingate Hotel by Wyndham. Rooms are big and clean. Bathroom is big, nice, and clean. We rate it a 9.