My travel buddies had an idea of what we would see at Winifred’s museum. I had told them previously that the museum has what is thought to be the largest collection of Tonka trucks. Not only is that pretty cool, for a town of just a couple hundred people, it is downright amazing.
We started out with a mellow drive from the Missouri River at Judith Landing to the town of Winifred. Then, I decided I had better speed up a bit because I had told the folks at the museum we would be there about 5:30 and it was already past that. There was a little detour in the road due to recent moisture and I didn’t know how far out of the way we would have to go.
My worrying was for nothing. As we drove in to Winifred, the lady who volunteers at the museum said, oh, you were the people we were expecting. I apologized for being a little late and she said, no problem, I would have waited for you. Well, it didn’t take long to fall in love with Winifred!
One of the more amazing things about Winifred is that the building that houses the museum is brand new. The city offices, public library and post office are also in that building. In the lower level is a meeting room that can serve as reception space or meeting space. Typically, the building in a small town that houses the museum is old and has been donated because nobody has a use for it. Winifred bucks the trend on that.
We loved the museum, loved the Tonka trucks and all of the other historic memorabilia. We weren’t there very long but our visit was memorable.
As we left the museum, a huge windstorm blew in to town. We covered cameras and ran to our vehicle. The storm we had seen building in the sky when we were on the river was moving in. We all managed to get in the vehicle and then the rains came. What a great way to get a clean windshield!
We drove towards Lewistown, our destination for the night. The rain came down hard at times, then it stopped and we had the most beautiful skies. Are you thinking photo op? Yup, we stopped to catch everything from rainbows to moisture glistening on lush green grass.
The drive from Winifred to Hilger, then to Lewistown is just beautiful. Lush hay fields to one side, the Judith Mountains to the other side and I think it’s the Big Snowy Mountains to the south that I saw.
This area typically is green but this year it was beyond green with all of the recent moisture. It was a perfect scenic drive capping off an already great day. Wow, I am glad to get out and explore north central Montana.
Note to self – do more of this!