Day 13, Harlowtown to Billings, 92 wonderful miles

Best: Dinner in the park with Beyond Basil catering.  ( I am actually writing this before I eat, but I know what to expect.  If I am wrong again like the restaurant in Townsend, then tomorrow this will be my worst.)

Worst: Last day of REI employment means I can't buy at a discount anymore.

Most Unexpected: Getting awakened last night in the church when some family just wandered in and almost walked on me. 

Last night I walked into 'downtown Harlowtown' looking for cowtails (it is a candy) and I found this unexpected electric engine.  I have a Lionel train which has a Milwaukee Road electric engine a little older than this one, and just a little smaller. No luck on the cowtails.

We bedded down for the night when some large family thought it would be a great idea to walk in the church and check it out.  The wife walked into the sanctuary which was dark and was in the process of tripping over me when I spoke up and said the ever witty 'Hello'.  She stopped short and then immedatialy started asking me question after question while all I could think was Go  Away.  Eventually with some door slamming the family departed.  I got a text from one of the riders downstairs in the basement asking if I was having a party upstairs.

We heard we were going to have winds from the west last night which is a good thing when you are heading east.  After our typical breakfast I headed out and found little wind.  However, it grew and grew, and by the time we hit the lunch spot we were cruising at about 23 mph.  Lunch was after a right turn putting the wind on our side.  Weaving back and forth from the strong wind gusts, the road gradually turned more southeast, and just a little more southeast, until finally the wind moved to the back right shoulder spurring us on. I finished up in Billings averaging a little less than 20 mph. to our lovely dorm rooms.  I am a selfish person so I am not sharing a room with anyone tonight. 

You have to love a bar that has on its permanent sign the words testical festival.  I particularly like the poster which spells it testicle.  Creativity in English allows for multiple spellings.

This is a real fixer upper that I might just be able to afford.

You could probably buy the whole town of Lavina for the price of a candybar.

I loved the size of the stands at this football field.  They obviously have a rabid support group.  In the left foreground there is a frisbee golf target which seems to equate football with a flying disc in popularity in the town of Broadview.  Below is the big festival sign for Broadview painted on two pieces of plywood on the side of a barn. Shucks, we just missed being dazed.

I loved the puffy clouds that looked like dogs, and the oil cars on the very long train on the right.

Town of Billings in the background.  This photo was taken at the end of a private driveway to a house which has this view and probably is worth more than the towns of Lavine and Broadview put together.

Taken in the bike shop Spoke.  I love the sentiment.