Today was a shortish day, the next place we want to stay at is about 60 miles away and that's fine to be left to tomorrow rather than do over a 100 today. I need to replace my back tyre and I'm being doubly careful to watch out for large stones on the road. We got going late on in the morning - conversations and reading took a while and we knew we only had a short day.The conversation was an interesting discussion with Kevin, a fellow camper and attendee of last night's cowboy poetry and music jam session. Just like our folk sessions back home, he said he has got a guitar with him and hopes to join in one of the slower sessions - he has only been learning guitar for a year. He used to do rodeo in the sense of lasooing heifers and he did look weighty and strong enough to do that. He described rodeo as something rather bigger than cowboy music. I guess we could have said country music? Perhaps that'd open a kettle of fish. Guy asked about a song that describes crossing America which he vaguely recalls hearing. It remains a conundrum.
11.30am saw us heading out of Lewistown along the 200. It's busy and remained busy the whole way to Stanford and we were pleased that there is a decent shoulder to the road, even if it is sometimes pebbly or cluttered with bits that have either fallen off or been discarded by cars. Bungee cords and bolts are familiar stuff, large stones are the most dangerous to our tyres, but the other day we saw Farewell to Arms by Hemingway at the side of the road in a very damaged state so we did not take it to a book exchange. The road was pretty flat again after the excitement of the Judith Mountains yesterday. At one point a curious reddish crop ran alongside the road - is that perhaps sorghum? But isn't that bigger...? A sign said, late in our day, that we were now on the Little Belt Mountains - we may have climbed two or three hundred feet about then but undulating rather than mountainous. Away to the south mountains loom. We reached Stanford at about 4pm and put up the tent at the RV Park (RV = caravan or "Recreational Vehicle'). Cheap at $10 and there are toilets and showers so it's good value. There's an excellent grocery store and more flowers than we've ever seen in a small town in the USA. Local pride is a good thing - see the photo. There's some sort of marketing on near us - a goat in a trailer keeps bleating and occasionally trying to escape. Hope it does not persist all night... We are here.
Today my cycle computer clicked over 3300 miles - though that includes everything, biking in NY city, detours for shopping, etc. I think we have about 1000 miles of the Northern Tier still to do plus winding our way to Seattle.