Thursday was much better than Wednesday, but then again we had nowhere to go but up.

Here’s a deer in the parking lot of our motel.

After the non-breakfast in Anaconda and after I pulled myself together, we hit the road. First stop? The Madison Buffalo Jump State Park. There was a long gravel road, which upset Banjo Man (“Does anyone know what a grader is????”). But a pretty significant bluff from which buffalo plunged to their deaths for thousands of years loomed in the distance.

This is our third buffalo jump. We find them fascinating.

The most interesting part of this one was that circles of stones used by the Indian women for their tipis were still visible.

We didn’t hike up to the top, but it was a beautiful day for walking the lower trail.

Later on we stopped in Bozeman to tour the Museum of the Rockies. We had hoped for more Plains Indians exhibits, but the dinosaurs were the best we had ever seen.

The day ended with dinner at Montana Club in Billings, a restaurant very close to the lovely, spacious, warm Hampton Inn. I spent some time in the pool and the hot tub before crawling into bed and sleeping for nine hours.

Banjo Man ate his weight in BBQ ribs and declined a swim, preferring to check email and get in bed early.

Things were definitely looking up.