We're grateful for a second day of enforced rest. This was necessitated by the fact that the only motel between here and Great Falls is in a town hosting a rodeo today, so we couldn't get a room there. They have a room for us tomorrow, though.
Today we slept in, did laundry, moved to a different hotel down the street, and did bike maintenance. My 40 year old chain tool broke, and the True Value hardware store 6 blocks from the hotel had 3 of them in stock, $4.75 each. I thought I was in trouble there, because there really isn't a proper bike shop in town. This is one of the top True Value stores in the country. It is huge and well-stocked and every inch of it was neat and organized. We met the manager and complimented him on having such a beautiful store.
Don't you love it when a store has exactly what you need? I took Marie back to show her the store.
Lewistown is not Old Town Alexandria or downtown Santa Fe but there are some signs of style. Art galleries and this coffee shop where we had a salad.
Here's Main Street;
The salad did not quite do it so we had a hamburger and a huckleberry milkshake at Ruby's, dining al fresco on their patio:
I thought they did a great job making this place attractive and inviting. The food was good and the people were friendly, as well.
Speaking of friendly, we made friends with quite a few people today. Everyone you pass on the street greets you. We will leave Lewistown with a much-improved opinion of Montana.
Tomorrow, it's just under 50 miles to Stanford, and although we'll have a 12 mph W headwind and hills, I think we can handle it.