August 6, 2017 – Traveling to an important Lewis and Clark site

I put my foot down last night and said that I would not eat the horrible hotel breakfast on Sunday. Rather we should head up the road and stop somewhere to get breakfast. Mistake, big mistake. As you head out of Idaho Falls there is nothing, no food, no gas, no lodging, nothing. We travel on and on without even a convenience store. I was like Dorothy saying to Toto, ” We’re not in California anymore.”

Finally in Dubois, ID right before the Montana border we find a sign that indicates that there is a gas/convenience store. We and most of our fellow travelers get off the road. We choose pre-made English muffins with sausage, egg and cheese. As I eat around the cold edges of the sausage I wonder if I am going to pay for this later?

A cute aside –  we have been traveling along with some older Harley bikers since we were in Idaho Falls. They have stopped at Dubois as well. As soon as they get some food their party of five crowd around someone’s phone and do a video chat with one of their wives. “Yes, we are all fine. We had a good time last night but needed to get to bed early. We are heading up to Canada today. We’ll be careful. Do you have all the other spouses to forward our news to?” Tough guys!

We cross the Continental Divide at the border between Idaho and Montana. John is driving now. We put on a podcast of the History of the English Language. I will be asleep soon. Before nodding off though, I catch an interesting exit sign.

I sent this picture to Jon who asked “Is Conquer, MT next”

I snooze through the podcast. We stop for gas in Butte, MT and change drivers. Now that I am revived I drive the rest of the way to Great Falls. We get in around 1 PM and stop at Jimmy John’s for a sandwich. Then we head to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

We go in and watch a movie called the Confluence of Time and Courage about the plight of the expedition as it hit all the falls of the Missouri River and what they had to do to get around them. There was a model of the men taking the boats out of the water to portage them to the next navigable spot. Apparently this was a make it or break it moment along their trail to the Pacific Ocean.

Model of the portage

Uh oh, I am not feeling at all well. The spicy Thai food and the awful egg/sausage muffin have caught up to me. We must go check into the hotel! We make it to the hotel on time and I will need some lying down time. We will not be able to do all the things I had planned for the afternoon.

Luckily I am better for dinner (of course) and we go to a place called Artisan Fire Pizza and it is really good. Most of the reviews on Yelp have bemoaned the awful dining scene in Great Falls but have said that this place is an exception. We share a pizza and a salad and even a dessert. Guess I am okay.

Excellent Mediterranean salad
Pizza Margherita
Salted bittersweet chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream

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