Day 27 - Butte

Today I travelled south to Butte which is where I am staying this evening before going across to Yellowstone NP tomorrow. As I left my motel this morning I was greeted with the sight of a large parade right outside the front door. It transpired that the Shriners which had been staying in the same motel as me were part of a much larger gathering, a huge one in fact and they were all on parade this morning. It was a really strange parade. It consisted of loads of 50+ men, most dressed in their Shriner uniform, and all wearing their strange decorated fez hats parading down the street. Each division of the Shriners from different places had a different theme – some were dressed in Arabic costume playing musical instruments, some were dressed as clowns, some were on horses, and some were driving little aircraft-type things and beeping their horns. All rather bizarre! Opposite my motel were seated what I gathered to be the important Shriners (although they looked no different to the others to be honest) and all the other Shriners that paraded past would salute them. After watching this for about 10 – 15 minutes I decided that it was time to get out of this town and the odd parading people and make my way further south. The scenery down to Butte was pretty boring – lots and lots and lots of grass plains again. There was not much interesting to report, apart from that at one point I was driving down a deserted road when this old beat up brown pickup truck zoomed up behind me. I thought it was going to overtake me but then it started to slow down and drop back. I thought this was a little strange, and then I saw a guy climb over from the back of the truck, along the side of the car and climb in the window into the passenger seat – all this when the truck was going about 60mph. Crazy. Why they didn’t just pull over so the guy didn’t have to risk his life climbing around a moving truck I don’t know because apart from me the road was deserted. After the guy had got in the cab the truck zoomed off past me into the distance. I have come to the conclusion that people in Montana are a little strange to say the least! Apart from that interesting diversion not much else happened on my drive. I passed lots of Buffalo which was quite cool as they look like odd-shaped cows on the hillsides. Buffalo burgers are big here so I will have to try one at some point. No photos today I'm afraid - nothing interesting to take pictures of. I think I've got too used to wide expanses of nothingness - bit of a shame really. Looking forward to getting my first look at Yellowstone tomorrow. Maybe I’ll see Yogi bear…

Distance travelled today – 219 miles.

Distance travelled today - 219 miles

Bearwatch – 0 – I think they have retreated to more picturesque terrain!