Big Sky

Day 22: Shelby to Hingham, MT--72 miles

We spent this day in the shadow of the Sweet Grass Hills. They jut up from the plains north of Rt. 2 in just 3 or 4 different places. They are not really tall, but they are a stark contrast to the surrounding area. The Blackfeet Indians see these hills as a sacred place because they were so valuable to their lifestyle. They used them to spot bison herds and encroaching people. It was fun imagining those times when bison littered the landscape. Now it's mostly wheat fields!

Unlike yesterday--today we had to actually pedal all the miles we went! There was no tailwind in the morning, but the sky was nicely overcast and the cycling was very nice! Along the way, we startled some antelope very close to the road. This is the closest I have ever seen an antelope and they are really cool looking! We also saw a mother hawk sitting on her nest--protecting her eggs from the local blackbirds who wanted some lunch! She let us take pictures of her (but only because she had no choice). We also saw LOTS of these little gold ground squirrels--both alive and as road kill. The terns were chasing the live squirrels--hunting I guess. We made the 45 miles into Chester, MT by about 1:30 p.m.

Chester was a really delightful town! We stopped in at Wells Fargo and in addition to doing our banking, they invited us to the Bottomless Root Beer Float Hoedown on Friday. Alas, we'll be long gone by then.

Then we headed to the town's lunch spot--Spud's Cafe. We had some very yummy root beer floats (pre-hoedown) in addition to our excellent sandwiches (hey, we need lots of fuel) and got directions to the local library.

As usual, the library was just great! The librarian and a local technicial were so helpful and nice. David got the pictures working and I posted some, in addition to updating some of the old blogs with pictures. Check them out if you want! There are such nice folks in Montana! They helped us pick our destination for the night (Hingham) because there were no larger towns for the next 67 miles and we didn't want to go quite that far. They even called to make sure the local park would let us stay there! This would be our first night of camping without true showers--a washcloth shower would have to do in the middle of nowhere.

The last 27 miles blessed us with a tailwind! We polished them off in 1 1/2 hours and set up shop at the Hingham town park. We also stopped at the local bar for a cold drink before cooking dinner and setting up camp. Here's an example of how people in Montana are. The local bartender was cooking dinner for a family when we got there, so we waited about 5 minutes to be served. She gave us our beers for free because she said we shouldn't have had to wait. This is typical service here, and I really appreciate the people in this state.

This is truly the breadbasket of America. Every little town is located next to the railroad tracks (think LOTS of train whistles). The train pulls up to the local grain elevator, loads up, and takes off! And Big Sky really is an appropriate way to talk about this country. The sky just goes on forever! We saw a spectacular sunset, and I'll post the pictures at another library that allows us to connect our hardware to their system (this one doesn't).and a fabulous rainbow right before bed. A great end to a great riding day!