Day 17 June 26, 2016 Missoula, Mt to Ovando, Mt. 55.8 miles

Something I forgot about  crossing Lolo Pass. It's the border between Idaho and Montana, and the border between the Pacific and Mountain time zones. The days here are exceptionally long  compared to Kansas, and daylight seems to go on forever, especially now that we're at the western end of the time zone. That can be a good and bad thing. Oh well.

Once we crossed Lolo Pass,  the terrain opened up, and we were out of the Bitterroot Mountains. East of Missoula,  we rode along the Blackfoot River for awhile  (after stopping to buy cookies and toffee from a 15 year old young man who was raising money for a trip to China with the Missoula Children's  Theater). We are in big sky country now.

Ovando, Montana.  What a cute little town. The map says a population of 81, but Skip, one of the residents we met said it was closer to 60. We set up our tent in the yard of the museum, bought showers ($10 each and worth every penny..towels provided).  Now, we had other choices for sleeping. We could have slept in the hoosegow (jail), or the teepee, or the shepherd's wagon, but we opted for the comfort of our tent. There was also an inn, which I'm guessing was very nice, but we like camping  (for some silly reason). Skip accompanied us to Trixie's (a pretty good walk up the hill) where we ate dinner. Ovando is a cool place.