Leaving Williston, we quickly arrived in Montana. We got another early start this morning in a bid to beat the heat but I didn't think it was going to be as hot today as it has been and we were pretty sure it wouldn't be as humid. Our plan was to make Chester, MT.
(Williston, ND)
Almost as soon as we hit Montana, the quality of Route 2 tanked a bit - previously it had been good, smooth road but here, it was broken up a bit with those awful road cracks every 30 feet or so that go ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk as you ride along. Not prohibitively so - just more annoying than anything and it didn't last the whole way but overall, we noticed the road wasn't as well maintained here.
Breaking out of predominantly farm land and oil rigs in North Dakota, Montana is definitely ranching country and we saw much more evidence of this. Canola fields gave way to more hay fields and untilled grazing range. Cattle ranches with large beef herds stretched out along rising hills and we began to see some coulees with the misty outlines of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. All along this route, there are historical site stops as this was where Lewis and Clark followed the Missouri River in their efforts to get to the Pacific. These Great Plains were once the territory of enormous herds of buffalo and are the lands of the Plains People - the Shoshone, Sioux, Blackfeet and Cheyenne. A lot of history happened here.
Along the way today, we crossed paths with the Boys from Illinois again - we saw them parked at an A&W and they passed us on the highway when we stopped to take photos. It was no surprise to keep seeing them. We made it into Chester but didn't feel the love of the place. Sometimes places are like that and this was one of them. Not that it had a bad vibe but it just wasn't a place we felt like staying in so we saddled up and made another 45 minutes down the road to Shelby.
Once in Shelby, we chose a campsite which happened to be part of the Comfort Inn complex and, shortly after we arrived and were setting up our tent, Illinois Doug (who they also call Mustard because of the colour of his bike) rode up to our site. Turns out, they were staying at the Comfort Inn and they'd seen us up on the hill when they rode in. Too funny! We brought our bikes down to the hotel parking lot to take advantage of their bike washing station (we had SO MANY BUGS on our bikes that were long roasting in the sun, they were starting to stink. GAH!!!) We caught up with The Boys and they invited us to join them for dinner.
We hit downtown Shelby and The Alibi Lounge and had a great evening with our new friends. Lots of laughs and shared stories. It's amazing how motorcycles are such an equalizer, bringing together very diverse people through our shared love of riding. In fact, it's one of the things we most love about our riding expeditions - all the great people we meet and new friends made. Our friends Yvan and Carole, who rode with us for 10 days earlier on this trip, we originally met on our first trip across Canada 6 years ago so sometimes, those friendships are enduring which is wonderful. I have a hunch we'll keep in touch with The Boys too...
As we were leaving the Lounge, the sky opened up and suddenly, we were in the middle of a major microburst of rain and hail. Good grief! We all hopped on our bikes and rode as fast as we could back to our digs but it was no use. We were completely drenched and, alas, we had left some things out in our camp that were now soaked. We ran around like lunatics, bringing in our gear and rushing to get the rain fly up and then we raced inside our tent and sat dripping and puddling, wet right down to our skivvies. We managed to find some dry clothes and called it a night as we listened to the thunder boom and the rain come down.
It was a fun day.
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