Dupuyer to Browning

We had an early night and an early start, with breakfast at 7 am.

We had a wonderfully amusing evening after an excellent meal prepared by the proprietors of the b an b in Dupuyer ( population 30!).

Here are a few pictures.  This is Don and Leo.

This is where we stayed.

And this is one of their cabins.

I suppose this speaks for itself, though I managed to miss photographing the broken pick above the sign!

A long road ahead.

And one of many testing ascents.

After 39 miles and 1700 ft of climbing, we arrived at our very comfy Holiday Inn Express, next to a casino.  More rewards points for yours truly!

Tom ordered the Chef's Salad, expecting a small plate of food. It was huge and accompanied by different dressings. 

I had the buffalo burger and fries which was rather tasty.

We are in bear country tomorrow but have two canisters of bear spray just in case.

Choteau to Dupuyer

This was the programme for last night's entertainment; and excellent it was too.

Here is Leo at the Two Medicine Dinosaur Centre.

We didn't stop!

Colourful bee hives.

This is the official ' Middle Of Nowhere'.

This is good.

Me and Pooh in Dupuyer.

Today was a bit more challenging, with the same amount of climbing but over 26 less miles. Phew. We expected a tiny town with nothing open, so imagine our surprise when we found the village store with cold beer and ice cream.

Our B and B is first class and we are sitting on the porch with a big galvanised metal bucket full of ice and beer - heaven. 

The best part is the company. We have not stopped laughing since we arrived.

Dan relaxing.

Ouch.  Inside our B and B.

On the porch

Great Falls to Choteau

We had an early start today, with the plan being to set off at 8am.

Hotel foyer!

Breakfast.

We posed for a photo in the car park while Don continued to fanny about.

Don left Steve's keys on the bonnet of his car, something he realised after we had travelled about 4 miles!

After cycling back 2 miles to make sure he didn't get lost, we got underway. This increased the day's mileage by 4 miles.

Leo thought this might be a buffalo Carp?

Leo is on the left. Yes, that is a suitcase he is hauling.

I have been trying this for years but it doesn't work.

This was in the town of Fairfield, Montana. 

Time out.

Very nice hotel in Choteau.

Tonight's entertainment.

Yeehah.

Truck bush city limits?

Billings to Great Falls

We had bother most enjoyable drive today. Montana is simply enormous with little traffic.

Here is an old grain elevator

An old town which could easily feature in a cowboy film

Rock formations.

Culture

We stopped for a quick break and the young lady at the till asked what the 4 of us were doing. We told her and she asked how we had met. Bill Bibler told her we had met in prison. I nearly fell over laughing so she didn't believe us. Apparently, they have done this before so watch this space.

Gillette to Billings via Little Big Horn.

Dan actually had to wake me at 8 this morning, my best night's sleep so far!

Our mileage was much reduced as we had planned to visit the site of Custer's demise at Little Big Horn.

The weather was once again beautiful, so the air con was blasting out. At one point, I saw that the outside temperature was 96 deg.

We arrived and went to the visitor Centre, where lots of artefacts were on display.

I am not convinced by how comfortable this saddle would be!

We then watched a most interesting video film about the history of how the battle came to take place and then headed out to look at the memorials and soldiers graveyard.

Care had to be taken however.

The more recent Indian memorial was overdue but the powers that be have made a wonderful job of it.

We met up with Bill and Tom and travelled to Billings to a very nice Holiday Inn Express.

We got cleaned up and headed into Billings to the Montana Brewing Company for a nice meal. I also had 2 pints of Custer's Last Stout. Very nice, if, typically, a little on the cold side!

If only we had been here at the right time!

This interesting establishment was next door to where we ate.

We have a relatively short drive tomorrow of about 4 hours before we meet up with the others.