Day 78 - Hardin to Custer - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far

June 25, 2021

Day 78 - Hardin to Custer

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It was wonderful not to need to get up at 4:30 this morning. We slept until 7:30 and took our time getting ready. We wanted to visit the Big Horn County Museum which opened at 9:00. The motel staff let us leave our panniers with them while we rode to the museum. The museum was excellent.

The first thing I learned was that the leg covering cowboys wear, while spelled "chaps" is pronounced "shaps". The main types of chaps are:

Here is a buffalo item we had not seen before - a buffalo hide trunk from about 1870.

And another item we'd not heard of before.

The Sibley Stove. We don't know what a Sibley tent is either - need to look that one up.

There was a re-created town with the usual homes, store, school, church and the like, but this museum had a new one - a mortuary.

While I walked through the buildings, Kerry went out in the field where all the old vehicles and farm equipment was and he'll provide the narrative.

This Guard Rabbit was on patrol to prevent anyone from climbing on the equipment.

The sneaky devil hid out of sight, waiting to ambush anyone climbing on the equipment

This old-time manure spreader. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it is much smaller than others I've seen.

A single-row corn picker from days gone by when the corn was left on the cob.

Old-time dragline. Again, the photo doen't really show the scale, but the bucket's capacity looked like it would be measured in cubic feet not yards

I had to look this one up, but its a 6-row beet digger

Yeaterday, I noticed that our underseat rack had broken from smacking one too many curbs. After leaving the museum, we stopped at a local hardware store where we met Randy. Using a couple of small hose clamps and a small piece of steel rod, he made splint and fixed things right up. Thanks, Randy!!

I don't know if I was helping or just getting in the way, but Randy was nice and didn't say anything, nor did he charge extra for my assistance!

Now back to Jeanna...

Just outside Hardin, there is a large sugar beet processing facility

And, of course, many sugar beet farms.

We saw numerous deer today. I had to crop it a lot, but here are a pair I caught on camera.

There is still wheat and corn, along with all the sugar beets.

This man was doing maintenance on an irrigation ditch.

There is still lots of haying going on.

We saw round bales stacked liked this several places today. We had never noticed this pattern of stacking round bales before.

Our lodging in Custer tonight is at the Junction City Saloon and Motel. It was the only option for miles around, but turned out to be fine. The warm and friendly welcome we received from the bartender/cook/motel clerk Tabby got the evening off to a pleasant start - even if motel guests don't get a free beer :-).

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 2,997 miles (4,823 km)

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