An unusual Easter

We "Wandering Windolfs" joined the Episcopalian residents of Sheridan, Wyoming on Easter morning, for a service in their impressive brick church, lit by wonderful stained-glass windows, and sporting a huge pipe organ and a huge array of white Easter lilies. The service was much as we expected, although it sounded strange to our ears in the strong Wyoming twang, but the highlight was a cowboy song, accompanied by guitars and organ, sung by the minister and choir. It was far from our experience, but it really made us very aware of where we were.
Following the service we headed north to Montana. We've been following the direction of some of the excellent Interstate Highways, but getting away from their 75-miles-per-hour blur, and travelling on local roads wherever we could. Sunday's side-roads led us through the Crow Indian reservation, and we had a wonderful time. We ambled through rolling grasslands, beside the snowcapped Big Horn mountains, in beautiful sunshine, finally coming to the township of Crow Agency, near the Little Bighorn battlefield, the site of Custer's "last stand", in 1876.
This memorial was a major feature of our journey through the United States, a place which John has wanted to visit for many years. Why the interest? Well, one of the men who fought on that day was a Carl (or Charles) Windolph, a German immigrant, who went on to write a book entitled I served with Custer, and who lived longer than anyone else who was in the battle. We don't know for certain whether he was a relative, but all Windolfs and Windolphs (as with many names, both spellings are linked) in Germany are considered related to one another, and photos of Charles Windolph show him to look exactly like John's grandfather, Carl Windolf. Sergeant Carl Windolph was a sharpshooter, who helped save many of Benteen's men, and he was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honour for this. The medal is on show in the museum at the battlesite.
Frances was particularly pleased to see that after so many years the resting-places of many of the Native American warriors who died in the battle are now being marked on the grassy hills, along with the markers of the US 7th Cavalry. A wonderful Native American memorial, acknowledging all the different tribes which participated, has now been erected at the site as well. The Crow people now staff the battlefield museum and shop, which until now has been run solely by the US National Memorials staff.
To our surprise, we saw very few chocolate eggs in stores for Easter. Children tend to be given baskets with toys etc, or even, we were told, real rabbits. Many participate in "egg hunts" for dyed, real eggs. However, Easter was really subdued as a festival, which really surprised us. We had our own little celebration with a box of foil-wrapped chocolates, instead.
Further south the Spring flowers may be out, but here nothing is blooming, and trees are still bare. We have not spent more than a few minutes at a time out of sight of snow since we left Minnesota and Wisconsin. It means beautiful sights, under the wide blue skies ... Montana is truly the "Big Sky Country", and we love it.