Guest 
Phooey! No aliens!
When did Motel 6 become so cheap. I don't mean as in low cost, "what a deal!" kind of way, but in the pi8pinch every penny, cut every corner and nickel and dime the customer to death? I didn't t bring along soap or shampoo this trip, using the complimentary "here have some toiletries" along the way. This hasn't been a problem thus far - every motel,every big chain, every no-name mom n pop place has had shampoo for use - except for Motel 6. They do have a helpful vending machine that charges 3 bucks for your razors, combs and shampoos.
Wonderful.
And then - every motel has had Internet connectivity, save for that one who had it, but was having router problems and I couldn't connect. Motel 6 has Internet too - but only if you pony up 4 bucks for the privilege. Anyway, so it's war dialing for me again tonight. Tightwads.
Anyway - enough of that. Todays adventure started out with - after a brief stop back at Wall Drug for some last moment tacky suviners - a stop over at the legendary town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, gun fights at high noon in the streets, bank robberies - you know, the real old west!
Pity it completely sucked.
You know, perhaps I had my expectations too high, that I was hoping for something more Adventureland and less Tourist Trap.
At least Wall Drug knew what it was and wore that fact it's sleeve - but this, nothing but boring old casinos with endless rows of slot machines. They don't even have the One-Armed Bandit feature anymore - just a button on the front! No museums, no points of interest (well, one placard showing where Wild Bill was gunned down). It was dreadful!
After that scathing disappointment, I hit Devils Tower. While nothing could have possibly lived up to years of anticipation from Close Encounters, it was still pretty cool. It was much smaller than I imagined. It only took me an hour to walk around the base of the thing - and that was with me going shutterbug crazy, too. At a brisk pace, I could have done it in 45, easy.
Sadly - no aliens.
After that, I started back on Highway 14, heading for the Japanese internment camp near Cody. Just past I-90, however, they had a HUGE sign with "Construction, expect an hour delay". And I didn't really want to spend an hour in traffic, so I wheeled back onto I-90 and stopped at Little Big Horn. Much like Gettysburg, there's nothing there but some hills, an interpretive center and some wide open plains with signs here and there. Still, it was pretty cool to hear the story of how Sitting Bull totally gave The Man the pointy end of an arrow that day.
Oh, I must point out the Photo of the Day. So many jokes to make, so little time.
After that, it was just one long drive up to Billings and my rant about the crappy turn that Motel 6 has taken. Ah well, off to do some war driving and find myself an Internet hotspot to send this!
