Billings

Our last day in Billings and in the West.

In the morning we had a debriefing and evaluation of the past week and an overview of the coming week, followed by a brainstorming session on how to use this western experience in the classroom.

We thanked Dave for his excellent lectures and guidance on this tour as he was flying home the following morning.

In the afternoon, I joined the group that went to the Pictograph Cave State Park. This area and its caves or rock overhangs,once wer the living quarters of prehistoric hunters and gatherers. Here and there some images left by them on the rocks could be seen, as well as the strange formations of concretions. The site itself speaks to the imagination. Nearby is a buffalo jump, where the Native Americans raced the buffalo off the cliff, while the women and children of the tribe would stand below to recover the meat and the fur.

The afternoon sun weighed us down. We were happy to drink some lemonade at the visitors center that had just opened.

Back at Billings, we were free to explore "downtown". I walked to the Indiand Jewellery shop and found some gifts for my daughters. Then, I wanted to go to the museum, but by the time I got there, it was closed. On the next corner of the street, I found an Antiques gallery and strolled around the booths for a couple of hours, sniffing up the atmosphere of yesteryear, inspecting the rocking chairs, the wooden ducks, the cowboy hats and belts, the Indian moccasins, the framed black-and-white picture of the singing cowgirl of the 40's... I browsed through the book stall and found a recipe book of 1938 in pretty good shape. It will come to Belgium with me and I am looking forward to trying the Chocolate Angel Cake, the Honey Fudge, the Gingersnaps, but I'm not sure about the Fried Squirrel or the Creamed Brains...

To finish the day Paola and I had a nice Thai meal with Sengly and Nguyet.

Once in the hotel, we had to start packing because the bus would drive us to the airport at 6 in the morning.