Day 19 - Bozeman to Missoula

Bozeman to Missoula, 244 miles total and 26.0 mpg. Totals for the trip, 3268 miles, 26.3* mpg. Those are the stats.

This morning it was up and out. Almost. We’re not in a hurry. I was up at 4:30, thanks to Jake, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Nothing was wrong with Jake – that’s the time he usually tries to get us up to feed him. We just tell him ‘dog bed’, he (and Woody by this time) go back to bed and wait for the digital clock to say 5:00. I think they read digital clocks better than analog clocks.

But I got a few things done (at the computer, of course), including finally installing the disk backup software for the 1TB drive I bought at CostCo. The picture uploading is all caught up, and the blog is up to date.

Before we pack, we head back to OverEasy – Main Street, for our second breakfast there – the first one was excellent, and I noticed a Bread Pudding on their menu that I really wanted to try. So, off we went. It wasn’t as crowded this time – a bit early, I guess – but the service and food was still excellent, and you could see they were ready for the crowd – and I’m sure the crowd materialized. It was getting busier as we left. Oh, the bread pudding was great! I wish I had a picture to show you, but for the very first time on this trip I left the camera in the room – S-H did too! So no picture, but it was four slices from a loaf of Bread Pudding, covered with a vanilla sauce, sliced strawberries, thin sliced apples and whipped cream. No raisins, but it was excellent.

Back to the room, pack up, load up, and we were actually on the road around 9am! As usual we are trying to avoid interstates. We leave Bozeman on MT205, which in places acts as a frontage road for I90. It’s two lanes, speed limit 70. Montana has nice speed limits. At Three Forks we break from the norm and take MT287 north. It hooks up with US12 and swings around into Helena. It’s a scenic route, but low on the scenic scale. Lots of very open empty land. Rolling and pretty, but plain [S-H: obviously the (plain) pun was unintended here] in comparison to what we have had on this trip. The mountains are far off on the horizon – but you can see them, and the snow.

After Helena we’re on US12, a good road, and very scenic. Somewhere west of Helena we crossed the Continental Divide, but if it was marked, we missed it. Another photo op lost! I had already forgotten to take our ‘departure’ group shot when we left the MicroTel in Bozeman. Anyway, US12 is a very nice road, but it gives up after a while and merges with I90. There is really no choice for the rest of the trip into Missoula.

By the way (or BTW for the hip), I haven’t mentioned the trains on this trip, have I? I really love trains, real live full size trains, narrow gauge, model trains – it doesn’t matter. But real trains are probably best. The sounds they make, the whistle especially. I think it might be my Aunt Maggie’s fault, because of the stories she use to spin to put me to sleep – they always involved trains, usually with cow-catchers and cabooses. And whistles, of course! She is probably why I like (or think I like) bears – there were always bears in the stories as well. But I digress – there have been trains throughout this trip. Many of the places we stop are built around or because of the train – or the train comes through here because of some mineral or livestock that had to be moved. The trains – I hear the whistles at night. When we drive the highways, there are always trains, all sizes, all kinds of cargo. Trains – they help to make the trip very special.

Another thing I haven’t said much about is driving. Let me just say this. Up until Bozeman, things were fairly normal. Oh, there was the occasional terrible signage, or lack thereof, but generally speaking, driving was fairly ‘normal’. Well, first Casper managed to make a potentially easy situation as difficult as possible – hard to do in such a small town, one would think, but they did a masterful job of making navigation as difficult as possible. Bozeman, on the other hand, is in the never land between the lazy old and the bigger better new. Take Main Street for instance. It is four lanes with parking on both sides. There are no left turn lanes, and lane changes are not permitted within roughly 100 feet of traffic signals, so if you’re in the left lane you are stuck, sometimes for many changes of the light – because they don’t have the minimum of two cars turn left per light rule! Add to that the large number of places where the lane rules change, without noticeable warning, so that you better turn right here even though you had no intention of doing so. It’s not too bad, really, but it does cause one (me) to drive with extreme caution.

Well, back to Missoula – that’s where we were headed, Missoula. We got here and easily found our La Quinta on the west side of town, at the last of three Missoula exits off i90 – yes, Missoula isn’t very big. But it is pretty, and it’s a college town which brings an enjoyable atmosphere all by itself. Especially in summer. We checked in, went to eat something, came back and unloaded the car. Then I crashed. It had been a long time since 4:30am!

We eventually got out of the room, primarily to take the boys to a Bark Park, at Jacobs Island Park. Would you believe it is the only ‘fenced’ dog park in MONTANA!?! And it isn’t really fenced all around – it’s an island, and the fence goes across, but the other boundaries are water – on one side it is fairly swiftly flowing water – the Clark Fork River, I think. We’re pretty sure that if we turn both boys loose they’ll quickly be pretty far downstream! But by keeping one on lead at a time we can control the other fairly well, and it works out very well. We’ll be going back here during this stay.

After gassing up and a quick, automatic, LOUSY car wash, we went on a driving tour of the downtown area, in search of food. We haven’t identified the likely candidates yet, so it’s pretty much a guess. We drove around a bit, to scope out the area, and didn’t really see anything that grabbed us. So we parked downtown and started to walk a few blocks to look a little closer. Well, right where we parked there were two large birdcages on the sidewalk! They marked the Red Bird wine bar. We were dressed in our on the road best, and I thought perhaps it was too nice a joint at the time, but we went in to look.


To make a long story a bit shorter – we sampled a flight of Spanish wines, all three were wonderful. We had a fantastic soup, very spicy, and a special pizza that was incredible. We’ll go back there. Later S-H discovered that they have won just about every ‘best of’ award a restaurant can! Talk about luck!

That’s the day – it was a great day, and we’re in for the evening – ready to get started hiking tomorrow. After breakfast!

[S-H: I really enjoyed Bozeman we had incredible scenery on our hikes Hyalite was one we’d do over and over when here, great dinner and conversation with Doug and Karen, comfortable accommodations, an abundance of places to have meals that were above the usual. Here in Missoula the “Red Bird” was one of those rare excellent finds: atmosphere, service, wine food. I could do it every night here]