Another great cycling day. Clear, warm, a slight tailwind, and light traffic. I could really get used to this. The elevation chart shows that day was mostly uphill, but with the exception of a hill just outside Havre, the grades were so gentle that I barely noticed that I was gaining elevation and it was an easy ride.
This field of flax was just beginning to bloom. My close-up of the blossoms didn't turn out. My guess is that in another week, this field will be a sea of blue.
I visited 2 museums today. The first was the Rudyard Depot Museum. It was a nicely done museum staffed by volunteers. The museum is housed in several different buildings, each with its own focus. One building houses historical records of the town. If also has a very large map of the county, showing all of the original homestead plots.
A map of Hill County showing all the homestead plots. In general, each small square on the map represents a 160-acre homestead plot. With Hill County being over 2,900 sq. miles, that's a lot of little squares.
The second building I visited was the museum's "new" Dinosaur Building. After a fully articulated Gryposaurus was found near Rudyard, the museum decided it need to construct a building to house it. The building opened in 2006 and is now affiliated with the Museum of the Rockies.
This it the Gryposaurus that was found near Rudyard. This particular dinosaur fossil was found intact and is presented as it was found. The museum volunteer said that most fossils are found scattered about, due to scavenging.
Other buildings housed more traditional artifacts. This was a local blacksmith shop. The belt and pully system is the first one I have seen in a blacksmith shop.
I met 2 fellow touring cyclists today. Eli and Jordan left from Oregon and are headed east. They didn't like the headwind today, but I pointed out that at least they were going downhill.
The 2nd museum of the day was the Liberty County Museum which is just a block away from our B&B in Chester. Jeanna walked over to meet me, and we took a short tour. It was not nearly as large as the Rudyard Museum and didn't take long to see. That was a good thing, because I was ready to call it a day.
One of the more interesting exhibits - a midget bull.
