Day 28

Picture 1 is the picture of the dinosaur at the Philip County Museum in Malta, MT. The picture was actually 4 separate pictures that I took and then stitched together using the panorama feature of my Olympus Master editing software. Picture 2 are some antique clothes from the museum.

Today there isn’t too much to report today. Before leaving I noticed that my cycle cover had some white stuff on it when I went to take it off. At first I didn’t know what it was but then I figured out that it was ash from the distant forest fires that are raging in Idaho and Montana. I left Cut Bank, MT this morning heading east on US-2. For the most part US-2 is as straight as an arrow and has a speed limit of 70 mph. The riding was easy, but the scenery left a little to be desired. Ever since I left Glacier National Park, the land flattened out and became wheat growing or cattle grazing farmland that stretches as far as the eye can see. It has been that way for well over 300 miles. Except for the river valleys, there are almost no trees anywhere. Actually the straighter road riding is kind of a relief from all the twists and turns that I experienced all along the coast and through the mountains that have dominated my riding for the last two weeks or more. Riding US-2 is also a whole lot better than riding the interstate highways. There is definitely a lot less traffic.

Because of the lack of scenery I started to stop at most of the historical markers that were along US-2 near each of the towns that I rode through. I found out about people like: Chief Joseph, Chief of the Nez Perce Indian tribe; Flat Nose Curry, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid; the slaughtering of the free range buffalo in the 1880s; and things like the various kinds of cattle brands. In the town of Malta, MT I stopped at a museum. The key item at the museum was a complete skeleton of a brachylophosaurus dinosaur that was found near there. This dinosaur is an early cousin of the T-Rex. It measured 28 feet long. The museum nicknamed the dinosaur “Elvis the Pelvis.” I included a picture of Elvis above.