The high plains

Swiftly moving rains

Starting from Belle Fourche (rhymes with pooch), I could tell it was going to be a long day. The next town was 35 miles, and I made it there just as the rain started in earnest. Perfect timing for a second breakfast! The next town after Alzada, MT, was 54 miles, and I was starting to suffer from the headwind, so a little more bad coffee and good egg sandwich would definitely help.

Wonderful moments of the day:

• Lashes, treasurer of her Tennessee Harley club, commenting on my calves while saying it would take her and Peaches 11 days just to get back to the truck in Spearfish. Bad Egg, vice president, looks on. 
• The woman sitting in the lawn chair with her pot-bellied pig in the only shade of the ghost town of Hammond, offering me a water refill, guaranteeing that the water came from Broadus. 
• Jim Davis, rancher, who stopped and gave me vitamin water and water, and also a crash course in SE Montana natural and human history. 
• The fine people at Seabeck Pizza in Broadus, letting me finish the pizza first before going to get money. 

Remembering those moments helps when I think of the antelope that ran beside and then ahead of me before bounding into the road about 50 feet in front of me, right into the path of the car that was passing me. The antelope died immediately.