Day 51 – July 21st – Wandering Retirees

Long long long long day. 448 miles over 9-1/2 hours. I blame it on hubris.

We left Billings this morning looking to get to Dickinson, ND this evening. A straight shot along I-94 would take us about 6 hours. But no, we thought it would be so nice to take a couple of secondary roads to enhance our riding experience though it might cost us an additional hour or two. To get to the roads we thought we’d want, we headed out I-90 East (becomes NY State Thruway, to give a bit of reference. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, we could miss our turn-off, for one. And we sailed along, happy as clams until we realized our mistake around the time we reached the Wyoming border. Uh, oh. By this time it was almost noon and we were farther away from Dickinson than when we started. The best way to get there involved retracing our route north and then cutting a corner to I-94by using MT 49. No problem, no? Oh, boy.

We made the u-turn and rode the 1-1/2 hours back. Stopped for some fuel (human and cycle both) and headed up Rt 49. About 7 miles in we hit construction: 21 miles of hard pack and loose gravel, mixed well with over-sized RV’s at 10 mph. Oh, well. Slow and not fun, but okay.

We reached I-94 at last and high-tailed it east toward ND. Found the bike likes 85 mph sustained just fine, though mileage suffers some. Great bike for 2-up and heavy. We gave up thinking of our butts and kept at it.

We had a few laughs and a couple of “huh’s”.

At Crow Agency, MT, we stopped in for a cold soda and saw a white clapboard church and a casino on the same property. The casino was closed, but so was the church. This was about 11:30 this morning. Two things that don’t seem to go together. We wonder at the story behind this.

There’s an exit for a town/burg called Diamond Ring. Really. We wondered what that represented. A bait and switch to a frontier bride? As in, I have a beautiful ring for you, it’s just over the hill past that mountain range. We got 30 miles of fun with that. Turns out it’s a ranch near Miles City, MT that reputedly has great Angus cattle. Our made up story could still work.

Then there’s the sign for Home On the Range. Of course you have to start humming along. While there is no town by that name, the website “Visit Montana” tells us the there are 5 dude ranches located in eastern Montana that combined offer home on the range experiences that include every modern comfort. Amid the frolics of deer and antelope. I have to confess that we were pretty tired by then and our imaginings verged on the silly. Or were silly. I relate this with full apologies to the good folks who really appreciate visiting ranches. (. With frolicsome deer and antelope.)

It occurred to us today that re-entered Montana 3 times this trip: once in Cooke City after the Beartooth Scenic Highway, once leaving Victor, ID on our way by the Grand Tetons to Lolo Pass, and finally returning to the States from Canada. We realize that this state is one of our favorites to visit.

So, with fun sights and some beautiful scenery at 80+ mph we managed to have a little fun, and arrived in Dickinson at 6:30. We had some dinner and checked into our motel for the night.

Tomorrow it will be the Theodore Roosevelt National Grasslands, which we passed through just before Dickinson. But now for an adult beverage and a shower.

Beautiful green hills