Billings, MT (day 2) and into Wyoming

August 4: Morning in Billings. I made two stops before leaving town.

First was a walk down the street to the Northern Pacific Railway station. The station (actually several buildings) was built sometime in the 1880s or 1890s and served Billings until the 1970s when train passenger travel to Billings stopped (all dates based on memory). The tracks are still used for freight trains, but there are no stops at the the Billings station. The place was purchased and rehabilitated some years later and now the main building is used for events such as weddings. Two of the buildings are rented as office space. I got a lot of this information talking to a woman at the place. There had been a wedding there on August 1 and some things were still stored in various rooms the clear space for the wedding. I did take some pictures inside the buildings but none really turned out. The was a situation where flash would have been useful.

After checking out from the hotel I drove down to the Moss Mansion. This was build around the turn of the century by a locally prominent family. This time I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. Although built in the 1900s, it had electricity, hot and cold water and forced air heating (all very expensive at the time). The last of the family (the last daughter for the original tycoon) died around 1984 and the building passed into an historical group, so it was never in severe disrepair, although several rooms needed repair either due to water damage, cracking or wear. Each of the rooms had it's own look and theme. Interestingly, although there were plans for a third floor ballroom, plans were scotched due to financial issues thus leaving the third floor largely unfinished (it became maid's quarters). A lot of the original furniture was left in.

Finally, here's a picture of the Bighorn Sheep art piece that I mentioned previously. Similar in style to the horse. Not much else to say.

After finishing at the mansion I made my way back to the freeway and headed east - backtracking my original route to Billings. I had thought I would be retracing my route on 90E for 50 miles or so. It turns out I was rather off. The distance I retraced was actually 150 miles, more than the distance from the start of 25S to Casper, Wyoming (about 113 miles). I did a terrible job of managing my stops and ended up arriving at Casper about 15 minutes after 5 PM. I took some pictures of City Hall and the Hall of Justice (will show tomorrow) and found my hotel. Wyoming is another state with promotional maps of the different cities. I tried twice before entering Casper to get a map of the city and everyone was out. Luckily, I did find an information center just down the street from my hotel and it was open until 6 PM. So I got a map with 10 minutes to spare.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my second day in Billings, Montana.

Tomorrow will be tricky. I hope to visit Cheyenne on my way to Denver, but I need to be away from Casper by around 11 AM in order to get to Cheyenne before everything closes for the evening. I guess that will determine broadly whether I visit Cheyenne or not. If it's past 5 PM before I arrive, there isn't much point in stopping. We'll see how I do.

TTFN