August 5: Chester, MT

     It was another perfect day for riding a bike--clear blue skies, slight tail wind, mid-70's for temperatures, mostly flat roads, no problems except all that adds up to one boring blog post.
     Highway 2 across northern Montana closely parallels the Burlington Northern railroad tracks which also accommodate the Amtrak.  I like seeing those long trains come by nearly every half hour.  It's a whole new perspective when you can get an unbroken view of the entire half-mile long train after it has passed you up.  One of the trains I saw consisted of about a hundred identical black tanker cars carrying, I assume, oil.
     The other thing that provided a break in the relatively monotonous landscape all day were three tall buttes 35 miles to the north.  Whenever I got bored looking ahead, I would just turn my head to the left and I would see the shadowy everpresent figures of West Butte, Gold Butte, and Mt. Brown sitting out there all by themselves.  A recurring theme, they were my "eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg" or the swaying stop lights on the show Twin Peaks.