Great Falls to Geraldine

Today's ride from Great Falls to Geraldine, MT was a mixed bag. The morning consisted of a fabulous flat ride down to Fort Benton. This historic town featured a number of monuments of varying historical significance. The statue of the loyal dog, Shep, pictured here, caught my eye. After his master's passing in 1936, Shep watched the coffin loaded on the train, and proceeded to meet the train every day, vainly waiting for the return of his master until Shep's own death in 1942.

I made great time in the first 40 miles, on my descent to Fort Benton in a valley on the Missouri River. The climb out of the valley was more of a challenge and I called it a day in the quaint town of Geraldine, population 284. The campsite was a seedy little RV park, so at the restaurant I asked how to contact the local sheriff to see whether I could just camp out a the local picnic area in the park (it's always wise to contact the local authorities to make sure it's legal and they can also keep an eye out for you). The waitress' response was simply, "Darlin', we don't have a sheriff, so go ahead and pitch your tent." The site was great.

This farm is an example of the isolated evidence of life that I stumbled across every ten or twenty miles. Yesterday, stumbled across a little town of Carter, MT, (population 52) and received another little taste of Americana. I cycled into town just as their annual parade of horses and buggies was just winding down. I enjoyed a burger sponsoring the little league team. This is the real America.

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Update 10/26/06: Going through my pictures from my trip, I realized that this Shep statue reminds me of the Hachiko statue in Tokyo (I lived in Tokyo in the 1980s), with a very similar story of canine loyalty surviving well beyond the owner's own passing. See this link for more information.