Last night, it rained from the time I started setting up my tent to about midnight. I put my panniers under the tent fly, so everything stayed relatively dry or just slightly damp, except my bike, which would not fit.

The first stop today was the museum at Circle, which had a lot of western and Montana memorabilia. The cost was only 2$ and it was worth it. Some people were setting up a quilt show in a tiny church on the grounds, so I stuck my nose in there, as well.

The biggest thing about today is the mileage, 81. This is primarily due to the lack of services between Circle and Glendive, Montana. The distance is 46 miles and in between there are no services, so I had the choice between stopping at 10:30 in Circle or continuing to Glendive.

The BNSF railroad had hundreds, if not thousands of grain cars parked between these two cities. They stretched for 10 or 15 miles. It was an impressive display, but did block the view to one side of the road.

Here’s looking the other way. After an hour or so, I just stopped looking for the end of it, but eventually, a few miles before Glendive, the endless stream of grain cars ended. They must use these tracks for storage because of the level grade, proximity to vast tracts of farmland and lack of customers along that section. There was one grain elevator along there. I suppose that customer is not going to get his grain shipped until a lot of cars are put into service hauling this years crop.

I’m staying at the Makoshika State Park, which encompasses some of the area known as the badlands of Montana. I’m impressed, it’s a very nice park.

Regarding Edwin being ousted from Jeff’s group, it’s really pretty simple. Jeff’s group were staying at a lot of hotels, two to a room. One of the fellas decided he had enough and decided to rent a car and go home. This left one too many people. Edwin’s issue was that he really didn’t gel with that group. He was always doing his own thing, not eating or riding with the rest of the people, etc. Note that he isn’t at that breakfast, when I had the picture of the group and me. At dinner, the night before, he didn’t eat and left early. In my experience of self supported bicycle touring, groups of more than three or four rarely stay together, it’s just that different people have differing expectations and it’s awful easy to just split up, cause you are self supported, anyway.

Oh, total mileage is up to 1288.