Almost as sweet, crunchy and delicious as the  Matanuska, “Alaska Grown” carrots we buy at Saturday Market in Anchorage! After dropping off my bicycle at a bicycle shop in Great Falls, and with a Saturday OFF my bicycle, I strolled through the Great Falls downtown street market. I marveled at the creativity and talent of local artists, sampled delicious huckleberry zucchini bread and couldn’t pass up a bag of carrots. My Sadie Lynn would be proud of her Poppy for eating healthy for a change.

The above is not my Brooks saddle, but one exactly like mine, complete with a broken seat tension bolt. My tension bolt wasn’t broken like the above, but very close to failing. Could I have made it to the Pacific coast without it failing, nobody knows. Since my Atlantis was in the shop anyway, I asked the mechanics to adjust and inspect the brakes. The majestic Rocky Mountains are within my sight and I know I will need good brakes once I start my descent into Oregon. The Century ride I had planned to ride today was canceled due to a severe thunder storm alert, so I had a day to be a tourist.

You know you are in Montana when, 1) You must carefully walk your bicycle over cattle guards placed on exit ramps. 2)  Eight out of ten vehicles you see are pickup trucks, complete with a horse trailer and covered with mud.  3) Of the eight trucks you see, six of them have massive grille guards to protect the truck from the impact of large critters. 4) You see people from age 2 to 102 wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots. 5) Western wear stores are more prolific than Starbucks, and 6) 99% of people you pass on the sidewalk smile and actually say, “Good day or how you doing.” Once you get a “taste” of  Montana, you’ll never want to be anywhere else, well not counting Hawaii.

C M Russell was an American artist of the Old West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians and landscapes during his lifetime. Today I was fortunate to be able to spend almost three hours in the CM Russell Museum here in Great Falls. My Mom absolutely loved museums and visited hundreds of them worldwide in her lifetime. Just like my Mom, I just can’t pass up the opportunity to explore a museum and the CM Russell Museum ranks as one of the best I have ever “plundered” as Mom loved to say.   (Mom just might have walked through the CM Russell Museum herself on one of her many “Mystery Tours!”) I read the plaques beside each painting, marveled at the real-to-life displays and watched remastered movies of Indian ceremonial dances. Below are just a few of the photos I took as I explored the fabulous museum.

The above was a life sized model of a buffalo hunt. The display was created using one on Russell’s painting as a reference.

Charlie’s last ride was in the above horse drawn hearse. I love viewing a piece of history along with an actual photo of the piece as it was used.

Above is a statue of Charlie outside his log cabin studio. Notice, in the below picture, the tree growing through the roof of the cabin.  Which came first, the cabin or the tree?

Tomorrow or Tuesday I will give up the lazy lifestyle of this weekend and begin pedaling West once again. If all goes as planned, which never happens, my celebration Journey should reach the Pacific Ocean the first week of August. Until then, I look forward to pedaling through the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Idaho, viewing the plains of Eastern Oregon and finally inhaling the smells of the Pacific Ocean.

Take care and thanks for traveling with me on this Celebration Journey.

Greg