Day 23 - Missoula to Woods Bay

Missoula to Woods Bay, 147 miles total and 31.4 mpg. Totals for the trip, 3783 miles, 26.3* mpg. Those are the stats.

Today was another day of surprises. First surprise, we had breakfast at the La Quinta for the first time – primarily to save some time. Second surprise was that we were up and moving in time to have breakfast at the La Quinta – they shut it down at 9am! More surprises later.


We packed up, loaded up and got out. We’re getting pretty good at this. Even the boys know what to do and what to expect. Before we leave Missoula though, there is one more hike on our list. It is a short hike in Rattlesnake Canyon, very close to town, on the north side. It’s a relatively easy trail up a canyon with obligatory creek gurgling on down. It is very pretty, and a good way to start the day. If one wanted to the hike can be extended to just about any length, but 3 miles is enough for this morning, thank you.
After the hike we’re on the highway. A short stint on I90 east, then MT200 to US83. All of it is scenic, as is becoming the norm, but US83, after just a little while, is a case of travelling up the middle of a valley between two very high mountain ranges, complete with snow. At times it is simply incredible, and other times it is just wonderful. Not only that, but it must be all downhill, because we get 31+ mpg on the trip.

A quick lunch at the Hungry Bear, and on to Big Fork. Here we initially take a wrong turn (north) and immediately find the ranger station we wanted to visit, then retrace our path and head south to Woods Bay, the Islander Inn. No problems here, and we are soon in our room unpacking [again]. The next couple of hours are undeserved. I needed a nap. Briefly, here’s what I got.

I couldn’t connect to the wireless system. Contacted Dell. They recommended installing a new Intel PRO/Set Wireless program. Did this. (keep in mind, each activity is at least 30 minutes). Couldn’t connect still, but for a different reason. Switched to the Windows wireless manager. Was able to connect in the office. Went back to room – not enough signal strength. That’s where it is – tomorrow is another day….

Turns out that we are across the street from The Raven, a restaurant/bar on Flathead Lake. That means 1) a place to eat dinner, and 2) tonight (Monday) they have live music, and I may be able to sit in! I don’t know what kind of music it might be. But around 8pm, after the computer tug-of-war is put on hold, we walk over. The place is packed! But we manage to find a table on the porch, overlooking the lake. It’s a beautiful view, even though Mr. Sun is streaming into our face. There are sailing, boating and kayaking going on, and that’s not the only thing that is fun to watch.

My buffalo/bear burger is great, as is Sally-Heaths shrimp salad. We finally hear the band getting started inside – inside is tiny – so we manage to get one of the few tables inside. The crowd doesn’t seem nearly as interested in sitting as we are. It’s a very youthful crowd. Turns out the band is, I think the best description is, a grunge band. I’m not familiar with very much that they play, but I like their music a lot. One or two songs are familiar. I’m thinking it’s time to take a pass – I haven’t spoken with them, but the Islander Inn owner has!

They take the first break – during the break I introduce myself, and I meet the drummers parents! The make the suggestion that we must go to Waterton on our trip, for at least the lake boat tour and the number 2 trail in North America. He says it is better that Banff. We may find out! Anyway, I finally talk with John, the lead guitar and singer for Sick Pony (Sean on bass, Kit or Kim on drums – guess what, the keyboard player is out tonight!).


We decided to play a Tom Petty song to lead off the second set. Which we do, it went well, I had fun, the crowd appeared to enjoy it, and I sat down with the understanding that I could join in on anything I felt like trying. There wasn’t a song in the next 6 that I could handle, so I packed up, and we went back across the street to collect the boys – remember the boys, they’ve been in the car all this time – and hit the hay.

That’s where we are now, but I’m not in the hay yet. Good night!

Day 22 - Missoula - Bitterroot Divide hike

Missoula, 170 miles total and 25.3 mpg. Totals for the trip, 3636 miles, 25.6* mpg. Those are the stats.

There was a marathon in Missoula today. We missed it. Hope everything went well. I expect the first finishers crossed the line just before I got up.

Remember the leftover pasta from Ciao Mambo? We ate it for breakfast! First time we’ve done leftovers, excluding the week in Red Lodge, of course….

It’s a good day to get out of town, we think, so our hike takes us about 54 miles west of Missoula (on I90), to a town called Superior (2700 feet altitude). We did the last 12 miles on the ‘old road’, which gave us a lot more view of the Clark Fork and the local area. From Superior it’s a 24 mile drive to the trailhead, on mostly good dirt road. I say mostly good, because there are quite a few places where they have recently installed drainage pipes under the road, and the road surface there is HORRIBLE! But the rest of the road (surface) is great.

The best comment I can make about the drive is that I have never driven so long with a shear drop on the edge of the road, one side or the other. The road is an old logging road, of course, but it’s only one lane wide, and in a few places that’s a thin lane indeed. Still, the road is cut into the side of some very steep hills, and the drop-off is constant. The drive is beautiful – wide vistas, you can see forever, snow, trees. Just that drop-off….

We got within a mile of the trailhead parking, at about 6500 feet. So the road came up about 3800 feet in those 24 miles! The drop-offs got steeper and deeper – but even the baby drop-offs would surely be fatal. Sheridan, if you’re reading, you would not have survived this drive. Snow stopped us – well, stopped the car anyway. We parked on the side of the road (what side there was) and hiked to the trailhead. There was just enough snow on the road to keep us from trying it, but there was no snow in the way at the trailhead.


The trail is an easy, relatively flat ridgeline trail of about 2.5 miles one way. The objective is a couple of lakes at the end. There is something different about this hike though – we’re alone. Just Sally-Heath, Jake, Woody and me. There is no one on the trail – we met very few vehicles on the 24 mile drive, and most of those were cycles/atvs. This is both good and bad. It is wonderful having the forest to yourself. That’s the good part. On the other hand, the regular inhabitants may be a bit more interested in the new guys. I’m hoping to see wildlife, and I’m hoping not to see wildlife, if you know what I mean.


But WAIT! What’s that ahead on the trail? A moose you say? Incredible! And more incredible, the moose waited for me to take a picture – even two! Okay, it’s not a prize moose, but it’s my prize. I “shot” a moose at 75 yards or so. It just doesn’t get much more exciting. And actually, that was exciting enough. I was happy when the moose decided we weren’t interesting enough to visit more closely!

We had the boys off-lead, with shock collars, before the moose, but decided the leashes would be a good idea from there on.

I kept searching and hoping, but no more big animals today. We got to the high point of the hike, and the lakes are about 400 feet below us. The trail to the lakes is pretty steep – we decided against going down, and instead continued a little further on the Ridgeline trial. I took some pictures of the lake, and some videos. There was more snow here, and we were at the level of everything else in the area – what incredible views.

After a brief rest, we headed back, still vigilant, but still no big animals. The hike back was quick and easy. It took an hour to drive back to Superior, and another hour to Missoula. We were exhausted, but very happy with the day. We forced ourselves to clean up and go out for one last meal in Missoula – at Scotty’s Table. Scotty’s is downtown, close to the other restaurants we have visited. We sat outside, it was a perfect temperature, and except for Mr. Sun in my eyes, everything was great. My pork chop was wonderful, as was all of the food. The service was great too.

Back to the room, write this, Sally-Heath is doing the laundry, and tomorrow morning one short hike on the way out of town, headed for Flathead Lake, Woods Bay.

S-H: I wanted to drive out the 24 miles to Superior from the trailhead area but no, and on the way down the comment was made that he’d rather scare me than have me scare him! The drop offs were gut twisting! The scenery spectacular!

Day 21 - Missoula

Missoula, 129 miles total and 25.5 mpg. Totals for the trip, 3465 miles, 25.7* mpg. Those are the stats.

Slept in again. This could get to be a habit. I hope.

Today we decided to take a day off from hiking. Instead of hiking we’re going to drive around Missoula, walk around Missoula and just do whatever. After some discussion of options for today and the next several days, we headed out for breakfast.

Breakfast is at a restaurant right next to Ciao Mambo where we had dinner last night. The place is called Hob Nob, and our breakfast was great. I stuffed it all in. Ummm. There was a young Brittany lady tied up close to us. I took the boys over to say hi, and I think something else must have been said – she wasn’t ready for two new friends, even if they looked just like her! Oh well, she was cute, small (normal Brittany size – Jake and Woody are large for Brittanys) and all of her mannerisms were just like the boys. Too bad they couldn’t be friends.


After breakfast we had a few minor things to take care of – resupply dog biscuits and get some Windex wipes for the car windows. There is a River Trail in Missoula, and we checked out a little of it. It’s nice, and good and well used exercise path for pedestrians and bicycles along the Clark Fork River through town. It is very popular. We also found an old high school football field next to the trail and we exercised Jake and Woody there. They are very good at running back and forth between us – one at a time. So we set up about 40 yards apart and send the dogs to each other. It’s good exercise for them, and they seem to enjoy it. When you don’t have a fenced dog park, that’s what you do!

We stumbled on a car wash – this was a ‘real’ one, with people working on the car. We had to do the interior, but they did the exterior (along with the machine, of course), and this time the car came out looking pretty darn good. Yippee! Finally.
Back at the room we had a one game Cribbage tournament before getting out to explore the city and surrounding area. Our first stop was Big Dipper ice cream. Wow – I had a 2 scoop Hot Fudge Sunday, $4 (!), and it was great. Got to get back there before we leave.

Then it was back to Jacob Island Bark Park to give the boys a little freedom. But this time they were a little more active, and less responsive, so they didn’t get as much off-lead time. Remember, there is nothing keeping them out of the river, and the river is flowing pretty fast. But they had a good time anyway.

Then we went driving. We didn’t have any maps with us, so it was blind, but with luck it worked out. We headed southeast out of town, on a road that went through a residential area adjacent to the recent burn on M mountain. The road turned to dirt, and we kept going. It was a nice, fairly long, mostly downhill drive through forest that ended up at I90 just east of Missoula – we had gone completely around M mountain, and who knows what else! Nice drive indeed.

Back in Missoula, this time we headed south on US12/MT93. We were sort of trying to get to Lolo mountain which was still showing some snow – it’s 9700 feet I think. So we headed south, and when we got to Lolo we tried US12 (the two highways split at Lolo). That was a nice drive, and a fruitful one, but it didn’t get us any closer to the snow. Two things about this drive. First, we noticed the Lolo Creek Steak House, which looked busy. And second, it was very scenic. We drove west about 20 miles, fed the boys, and drove back.

Then we went south on US93, still trying to find a path to the mountain. We didn’t find a path, but we found a curiosity. On the side of a mountain close to US93 there were ski runs, or what looked like ski runs, about 8 of them. But we couldn’t see any lifts, and we couldn’t find any way to approach the area. We drove as far west off of US93 as we could, but no path to the ‘ski area’.


Stopped at the steak house and had a wonderful meal – tenderloins for both. The meal was great – steak cooked perfectly, everything just right. What a lucky find! Found out that the ‘ski area’ may actually be a ski area in the future. I’m sure there is a story here, and we didn’t get it.

Now we’re headed back to town (Missoula), but first, we wanted to check out the marathon route – tomorrow there is a marathon, starting at Frenchtown (about 18 miles west of Missoula) and ending at the bridge in town close to where we have been eating our meals. We drove the route (backwards), making a few wrong turns (because the route wasn’t marked yet!), and it was just a beautiful drive, for the most part. Mr. Sun was trying to set – it takes him a long, long time – and that just added to the scenic beauty. We finally found Frenchtown, and I90, and sped home.

It’s been another really good day, a little bit different, but that’s good too.

Day 20 - Missoula - Hayes Point hike

Missoula, 68 miles total and 22.6 mpg. Totals for the trip, 3336 miles, 25.8* mpg. Those are the stats.

I slept in again. Really nice. No early start today! First things first, breakfast at 10:30 (!) at The Shack. After a slightly shaky start everything is fine – the food is excellent and the service is great – nice ambiance too. We think perhaps one or two wait staff didn’t show up today.


After breakfast, back to the room, get ready to hike. Today we’re going to Hayes point, about a 3 hour hike, and easy hike, not far from Missoula. We did the hike – it was as expected, very pretty forest, good, easy trail. (1200 foot altitude change, abt 5 miles.) No bears. I tried to get a picture of Missoula – there were some places where it was fairly visible, but there is still smoke in the air, and none of the pictures came out well. We didn’t encounter anyone on the trail! That was very unexpected. But welcome! It was almost like we had the whole mountain to ourselves. I enjoyed the hike and the forest.

After the hike it was back to the room, feed the boys, and then get ourselves cleaned up and fed. We headed out to eat downtown at Kettlehouse Brewery. Got there and found out two things about Montana. Microbrewerys are subject to a special set of rules! I probably don’t have this quite right, but they can’t sell small quantities after something like 8 pm, and they can’t serve food! Talk about a strong restaurant lobby! I should have suggest they move to Arizona, where they could do business on a level playing field!

So we went trolling for a place to eat. Ended up at Ciao Mambo, and Italian restaurant. It was great. We had a bottle of wine, garlic bread and pasta dishes – nothing extra, and we couldn’t finish what we had. I don’t know when or how we’re going to eat the leftovers, but they’re in the fridge, and we have a microwave….

Back at the ranch, boys are passed out (so is S-H!). So will be I, very shortly. Goodnight!

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]

Day 18 - Bozeman - Spanish Creek

Bozeman, 84 miles total and 28.2 mpg. Totals for the trip, 3024 miles, 26.5* mpg. Those are the stats.

What happened today? Let’s see… First of all, we slept in, ‘til 8! It’s a wonderful thing. There is only one reason that sleeping in is a problem. The wild animals don’t sleep in, first thing in the morning is when they’re out and about and can be seen. Moose, bears, deer, buffalo, elk – if you’re going to see them at all, early, early morning is the best time. Or perhaps late in the evening, right at sunset.

We stayed out too late, ate too much and drank too much last night with Doug and Karen to get up early today. We wanted to, but we just couldn’t. The reason we wanted to is simply this: today we are going to drive across the Flying D Ranch, Ted Turner Industries, and it is a wildlife refuge – a virtual zoo – if you’re there at the right time. Well, we weren’t. Drat. I’m not the best wildlife spotter in the country, but I didn’t see any large animals until we were driving out, and then there were only one buffalo and one deer. Got there too late (about 1pm!), and left too early (about 5).

But, even though we missed the wildlife, it is a beautiful drive – what grand countryside. With the Spanish Creek flowing rapidly through the green rolling fields, bordered by forest – it was a great drive to the trailhead, and back.

Our first plan was to spend Wednesday at Yellowstone National Park. We decided that would be foolish – a lot of driving for very little time in the park, and we have been there several times – so we know that to do anything adequately in the park requires a lot of time. So instead of Yellowstone we had planned a couple of hikes in Paradise Valley, an area not too far from Bozeman, south of Livingstone. At dinner with Doug and Karen we talked about options, and Doug easily convinced us to go to Spanish Creek, which requires a drive across the Turner Ranch. A great decision it was.

Driving to the trailhead was pretty easy and very pretty. We only erred once – we took the first turn after crossing the Gallatin River, which was a paved road immediately after the bridge, instead of waiting for the first DIRT road after crossing the river, about a mile further on. But no biggie – we got to see some farmland we would never have seen, and it was nice.

Once at the trailhead we had to decide which trail to attempt. There were apparently three, and we had very little information to go on. Doug did his best to describe it, but it was very tired out (and maybe a little winey), so our notes weren’t top notch. Anyway, we talked to a couple of returning hikers, and decided to take the easy trail along Spanish Creek (West, I think). It’s pretty flat, but it is upstream, so there is a gradual rise – I can’t really guess how much, perhaps 500 feet overall. The hike is fairly flat, with only a little up and down. It’s beautiful.


So that’s what we did. Hiked out to a fork in the trail, we think about 3 miles one way – took a break, and hiked back. Along the way I took pictures of scenery – but it’s really hard to capture because of how huge it is. The camera, my camera, with my photographic capability, just can’t capture it.

We completed the hike, returning the way we had come, and drove back across the Turner Ranch – seeing, count’em, one buffalo and one deer. The drive back to town was uneventful, and we checked email for recommendations for dinner in Bozeman.

Doug recommended several places – we decided to try the Crystal Bar – Rooftop. Went there, and the place was packed. Packed. We were over twice as old as anyone there, and it was packed. So we went with the second option from Doug, Bob’s Burgers, just up the street. Bob didn’t have much business at all, but the burgers were very good, and we got the TV off of FOX “News” and onto anything else (a ballgame).

After Bob’s we walked a few blocks of downtown before going back to the car to rescue the boys. Then a drive – cruise – Main Street – and back here, where I am writing up today’s adventure.

Tomorrow we leave Bozeman headed for Missoula – we’re working on the route now….

Day 17 - Bozeman - Bridger and Dinner with Doug and Karen

Bozeman, 84 miles total and 26.2 mpg. Totals for the trip, 2940 miles, 25.9* mpg. Those are the stats.

I guess we were pretty tired after the hike and jam session yesterday. We slept in ‘til after 8! We had agreed that we would be good and exercise this morning, S-H to Curves, me on the floor (abs). By the time that was done it was after 11, and we hadn’t eaten anything yet! One reason it took so long is that Curves is well hidden. It’s a long story, but just let me say that the address doesn’t do it justice…

Finally made contact with Doug Alexander, after a short phone tag session. We’re going to dinner tonight, steaks, 6:30, they’re driving.

We went to the Pickle Barrel for lunch – they are a deli, and there is a sure ‘nuf pickle barrel full of pickles for people to pull out themselves. The food was good. This is one of many eating places on this strip of Main St. – the one’s we have tried have all been very good.

Had to call Doug A. back – I forgot that we can’t just leave the boys – we pretty much have to drive ourselves. So I left a voice mail to that effect.

After lunch we decided to visit Bridger Ski Area, just north of Bozeman. It’s a short, easy drive, and very scenic. The countryside is just beautiful, and represents a ton of money. What picturesque farms, and huge homes! Another thing that sticks out is that all the trees seem to have a slight angle to the northeast. I wonder what that means???

Doug (Lloyd) called on the way out – all the news from Phoenix is good, except no job yet. Oh, and the humidity is up – but still no storms. He is probably headed for San Francisco this Sunday.

The Bridger Ski Area is, of course, closed off – but hikers cannot be deterred by such small things as gates across roads, so off we went, up the trail that goes pretty much straight up what appears to be one of the easier ski slopes. The great thing here is we let both Woody and Jake off lead AT THE SAME TIME, which in the past would have meant immediately lost dogs. The area is quite large, and they tested the limits, of course, but they obeyed our commands and didn’t get out of range. It was great seeing them roam free, and I hope we can get more opportunities and feel safe doing it.

We hiked up for about 45 minutes, an elevation change of roughly 750 feet (pure guess). Then we hit the road, and decided to hike back down the road for a different view and for an easier hike – much less steep. The hike down was easy – we went by a lift, I think the bunny lift, where maintenance was being performed on each and every seat. We finished up the hike, and headed back to town.

Had a message waiting from Doug A. that the new plan is good, they’ll meet us and lead us to the Mint, a steakhouse in Belgrade.

S-H is off shopping now, and I’m uploading pictures, videos and typing this blog entry. More later. after dinner.


It is after dinner – in fact, it is the next morning. I couldn’t have written a word last night! We had a wonderful time with Doug and Karen. They took us to the Mint in Belgrade. Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing! From the outside you would think it is just another smoky bar, but go in, and you find a wonderful atmosphere with a large bar area and larger dining area. Everything is top notch – the food, the service, the ambience - what a great place – Thanks Doug and Karen!

It was a fantastic evening with Doug and Karen, a very comfortable evening with good friends. Though we missed having them with us in Red Lodge, we made up for it this evening. We had a great time.