Miles: 691
Another long day that ended up, ironically being the same exact mileage as the day before. We found a restaurant that opened at 6:00 so we left the hotel early gassed up and hit the door right at 6:00. Thirty minutes later we were on our way. We typically like to ride the first 100 miles and take a break and today was no exception. One hundred miles out was the town of Mobridge which is a contraction of Missouri River Bridge. The name came from the railroad bridge that was built across the Missouri River back in 1906. The original bridge was replaced in the early 60's after the completion of the Oathe Dam down river. We stopped by the bridge. Nothing very exciting but we were able to stretch our legs and we made it a quick stop. Another 260 miles, and with one gas stop, we were at the old US12 bridge over the Powder River. The river itself was just about dry, and there wasn't all that much to see, but we are always drawn to these old abandoned bridges. It had gotten quite hot and we needed to walk about 500 yards to the center of the bridge. It always amazes me how narrow these old steel bridges were. It was quite warm as we were riding and we had gotten our cool towels out drenched with cold water to wear. Once in Miles City US12 and I-94 are combined for a rather boring stretch that ends at Forsyth about 70 miles west of Miles City where we stopped for gas before breaking away from I-94 on US12. After 100 miles we found ourselves in Roundup and needing some refreshment after riding in the roughly 100 degree heat. We grabbed a Gatorade at the Conoco station and found some shade while we rehydrated. After Roundup, US12 begins following the Musselshell River although it is mostly invisible to the traffic on US12. After another 70 miles or so we hit the town of Harlowtown where we found Gally's Brewing Co. At one point we had planned to stay in Harlowtown but we didn't think there was much there and had decided to ride a little further and make Livingston our destination. While enjoying a pint at Gally's we thought maybe Harlowtown would have been an ok place to stay. Maybe once the old historic Graves Hotel is refurbished this will be a prime destination. We rode down south to the edge of town to see the old train station and rode down Main Street before continuing on to Livingston. Leaving Harlowtown on US12 offers a wide open view and reinforces the term Big Sky. There is plenty of time to soak it all in as the road is terribly straight for mile on end. We hit Big Timber MT and had to ride on I-90 for a short time before getting to the outskirts of town, stopping for gas and continuing into the center of town on US89. Livingston was certainly hopping as we arrived on a late Sunday afternoon. We rode directly to the hotel and unpacked before heading into town where we had a great dinner at Neptune's Taphouse and Eatery after stopping at Katabatic Brewing Co for the first one. It was still 102 degrees at 5:30 when we hit downtown. Neptune's was still very busy but we found a spot at the bar and we were in business. I had read where they had good sushi but I was still a little skeptical, but it turned out to be pretty good. We were finished by 8;00 and stopped at the car wash on the way back to the hotel. It was day three and I was still have some audio problems so I was still in the parking lot at 9:00 trying to adjust things. Since there was no lobby to hang out in we had a couple of cols ones in the parking lot and called it a night.