“It’s Billings” is the city slogan for Billings, Montana. “It’s Billings” is the worst slogan I have ever encountered for a city. Can you imagine the tourism department sitting in a conference room trying to develop catchy phrases when Bob in the back says, “hey guys, I’ve got it!  It’s Billings!”  Then his co-workers are like, “no sh$t Bob, we’re in Billings.”  And he goes “no, that’s the slogan!  It’s Billings!!!”  Then, with jaws agape his cubicle mates get a sparkle in their eye and proclaim, “Bob, you’ve done it!!  It’s Billings!!!!!!!!!”

Speaking of Bob, for the second time on our trip, we HAD to make a highly illegal and highly difficult u-turn of our 25 foot trailer in the middle of a highway. Why did we risk our lives and the lives of our children to pull off this maneuver?  The first time was to double back and get an up close view of the grizzly bear that was eating on the side of the road.  In similar fashion to the grizzly sighting, the second incident was due to us passing a sight that our eyes simply could not believe. For reasons unknown, a true American hero has spent valuable time and money to construct the most noble of monuments. To whom is this monument for, you may ask?  To none other than Bob’s Big Boy!  I know what you’re thinking and you’re right – if North Dakota had put this in their fine state, people might actually visit it.

Back to “it’s Billings”, after a night at the local Walmart, we stayed at our first KOA of the trip which happened to be the first KOA in the entire country. We’re not sure if all KOA’s are the same, but this one had mini golf, a pool, a pond and was overall a nice night spent on the banks of the Yellowstone river.

Billings itself was somewhat of a disappointment. We came to the city primarily because Outside Magazine listed Billings as the top outdoors town in the US. It wasn’t that amazing and although D did go on a nice mountain biking ride and we visited a park with cave paintings, we struggled to see what Outside Magazine was thinking. Maybe they didn’t visit the city and just talked to Bob in the tourism department?  “It’s Billings!!!!”