Montana wheat fields, prairies, and hills

This is the 12th day we've been on the motorcycle, with extra days in Moscow, Idaho for a rest day, and then in Bozeman, Montana to visit our son. The days quickly developed a rhythm: eat breakfast (sometimes after going for a run), load up the BMW, enjoy riding for 5+ hours, enjoy an air-conditioned hotel, hot shower, and hopefully find a great place for dinner. Eat-ride-sleep-repeat. We see something different every day, talk with interesting people, and enjoy time on the BMW eating up the miles.

We left Havre, MT just before 9am, riding south on US Route 87 through fields of wheat, barley and hay as far as we could see.

This area is part of the Golden Triangle in Montana that is a top producer of wheat in the country which explains why we rode through miles and miles of wheat fields the past two days.

After we passed the town of Big Sandy, the landscape changed dramatically from flat or barely rolling  fields to rugged uplands known as the Missouri Breaks where the road curved, climbed, and then descended.

In Fort Benton we turned east on Montana Highway 80 and crossed the Missouri River.

This area is part of the Lewis and Clark Trail, following the route the explorers took in 1804.  We were either riding on a straight road through fields and range land, or winding through more of the Breaks which made the ride really fun.

In Stanford we stopped for gas, a snack and cold drink and chatted with the friendly woman working at the counter, then continued south on US 87/Montana 200 East until we intersected with US 191 and continued south through a valley with the Little Belt Mountains to the west and Big Snowy Mountains to the east, giving us a preview of the twisty mountain roads coming up in the next few days of our trip. We even saw snowy patches on the mountains!

We stopped in Big Timber, once home to the largest woolen mill (and over 3000 sheep) in Montana, for lunch in a bakery/cafe on the main street and enjoyed the meal and air conditioning as the temperature was heading over 90 degrees.

The last 38 miles of today's 330 mile ride was east on I-90 along the Yellowstone River to Columbus, MT, our stop for the night. There just aren't any other paved road options going our direction in this part of the state and since the temperature continued to climb, we were happy to make good time for the last part of the day's ride.

Tomorrow we're looking forward to mountain passes and higher, hopefully cooler, elevations.