Blogs from Dillon, Montana, United States, North America

Today was a good milege day and a great sightseeing day. We started out with a tailwind and it stuck with us all day. I believe it was the fastest 61 miles I have ridden since leaving Yorktown. 4:35 We even took a gravel diversion for about 12 miles. That was the prettiest part of the day. We saw numerous deer hopping fences and crossing the road in front of us. We even saw a Red Fox cross the road. That was really cool. During the divert, out in the middle of nowhere we happened upon a deserted building with the name Silver Springs Hotel over the impressive front door. (I included a picture.) We thought maybe we would stop in Twin Bridges for the day, but we couldn’t pass up great tailwinds and continued on ... read more

Today we continued our journey north, staying on I-15, past Pocatello, Idaho, and into Montana. We are camped outside the town of Dillon. Since this is the start of Labor Day weekend we had to pay for two nights, and we could use a day of staying put right now anyway. Traveling north through eastern Idaho the low mountains became flat grasslands and sagebrush again, with lots of cattle. One area looked like it had been a lava flow. When we crossed into southwest Montana we started back into some low mountains again, with grass on the lowlands and trees on the mountains, and still lots of cattle. We saw a few pronghorn antelope, too. We noticed that the sky was very hazy to the north of us. At the campground people told us that the ... read more

THE VIEW FROM PLUMMER’S JAIL AFTER A LONG AND NEFARIOUS CAREER AS A THIEF AND BACK SHOOTER IN CALIFORNIA AND IDAHO HENRY PLUMMER BULLIED HIS WAY INTO BEING THE CITY MARSHAL IN BANNOCK MONTANA AND THEN IN VIRGINIA CITY. IN HIS CAPACITY AS LAWMAN PLUMMER ORGANIZED A GANG OF HIGHWAYMEN CALLED “THE INNOCENTS” WHO PLUNDERED STAGE COACHES OF GOLD SHIPMENTS AND PAYROLLS AND TERRORIZED TRAVELERS THROUGH THE AREA. WHEN THE CITIZENS FINALLY HAD ENOUGH OF IT THEY FORMED A VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AND DURING THE FIRST FIVE WEEKS OF 1864 THE VIGILANTES STRUNG UP OR SHOT 20 OF THOSE INNOCENTS. PLUMMER TRIED TO ESCAPE THE COUNTRY BUT HE WAS GATHERED UP AND THROWN INTO HIS OWN JAIL IN BANNOCK. ON JANUARY 10 HE WAS CARRIED TO THE GALLOWS HE HAD ERECTED HIMSELF AND EXECUTED. THE ... read more

We left N Bar S Ranch this morning to make our way to Polson, Mt. We ate at a little place in Dell, MT (which has a population of 35) called the Calf A (nice play on words huh?). It is an old one room schoolhouse and everyone just shares tables if there aren't enough seats to have your own. They have really good home cooked food. Hmmm..... maybe this is a place for Diners, Drive ins, and Dives???? Anyway, we got to Dillon, MT around 3:30 so we still had plenty of daylight left and we decided to go to Bannack State Park which was just 10 minutes up the road. We are sure glad that we did. It served as the first Territorial Legislature and is the most well preserved ghost town in today's ... read more

Well, we looked at the weather report for Yellowstone and saw that it was to be a high of 49 and rainy, so we said to ourselves, "Selves! Let's go to Yellowstone on the way home (or not) instead of on the way up, and we'll stop in Glacier on the way up instead." So here we are in Montana. Hi, Montana friends! We came up I-15, which we had never done before. Quite a good road! This campground has a river beside it - too fast right now for fishing. We saw a muskrat. We also saw a giant nest in the grass with four large eggs in it. Nancy took a picture. Just then, the campground owner drove up and asked Nancy if the bird was sitting on the nest. Nancy said, "No. What ... read more