Halfway at Havre

(Susan here)

Before leaving Chinook yesterday, we spent a little time hunting for traces of Keowns in town. A 94-year-old in the cafe at breakfast said that the name sounded vaguely familiar to him, though he did not know or remember any people with our last name. At the Blaine County Museum in Chinook we also did not find any mentions of Keowns. We learned from Grandpa Howie that his parents worked at a creamery in Chinook, which explains why there was no mention of them in the museum’s rolls of homesteaders. However, the exhibit on FSA photography in eastern Montana made us quite glad that Grandpa Howie’s family had gotten out of Montana for Oregon before the Great Depression, unlike this guy:

More pictures of Chinook, “Home of the Sugarbeeters”:

(That is the Sugarbeeter mascot, painted on all the streetcorners)

The trip to Havre was a short one, only about 21 miles, but a battle against a headwind the whole way. We’re now about halfway across the state of Montana. The wind looks to continue for the forseable future, though with the slight comfort that it will tend to come at an angle rather than head-on and not be stronger than 10-15 mph. Still, the next several days until we get to the mountains will be less than fun. Today is an ideal day for a rest day, though, as it’s been very cold and rainy all day, in addition to the wind. We might be able to battle the 60 miles to Chester tomorrow; if not, we’ll end up in Hingham.

Montana State U North rents out dorm rooms cheap to passing cyclists for some reason, so we’re staying in them. It’s nice to not be camping in the rain and kind of fun to be reminded of our college days, that special dorm smell and all.