We made a leisurely start – leisurely for this
trip, that is – and got away about 8am. Headed west into Idaho, then turned
north to re-enter Montana.
It was kind of a ho-hum drive, actually. We’d
skipped breakfast expecting to find something along the route. But unless we
were going to knock on the door of one of the seemingly innumerable ranches,
there was really nothing until we got to Ennis, an hour or so away from our
start.
Ennis is a charming little town that boasts of
being in the heart of the world’s best fly-fishing country. A sign
advertising corned beef hash caught my eye and led us to Yesterdays Soda
Fountain and Restaurant, adjacent to the Ennis Pharmacy. Loved that pharmacy!
Old-fashioned: medicines and sundries, greeting cards, some local pottery and
craft, and huckleberry EVERYTHING.
The restaurant, too, was charming, with the
expected soda fountain and booths for dining, and pictures of the locals were
plastered all over the walls. Lots of friendly chatter surrounding us. Sue
tried Indian Fry Bread, which kind of struck us both as a cross between a
fritter and the fried dough you’d find at the county fair. It was yummy, and
had awesome thick-cut bacon to go along with it.
I passed on the hash which had lured me in the
first place, and went with biscuits and gravy. Don’t ask me why a girl from
the South, who feels she has a right to be picky about biscuits because she is
a dab hand at making her own buttermilk biscuits from scratch, would risk
ordering biscuits so far away from the South. Because she won’t be able to tell
you.
The biscuits and gravy wasn’t great; I won’t
lie to you. But it was good enough, and plenty filling enough to send us on our
way. We ordered a couple of scones for the road, and set out again, to drive past
even more vast cattle ranches and crop fields.
Eventually we entered the Blackfeet Indian
Reservation and in the town of Browning, I spied a large supermarket and
suggested shopping before we went to St. Mary, which seemed like it would have
limited choices as to groceries. In retrospect, this was a dumb idea, as I now know that St.
Mary does indeed have its own “supermarket;” additionally, after shopping we’d returned to the
car to find that Henry had helped himself to the remnants of the delicious
scones we’d purchased back in Ennis. That little boy canNOT be trusted! He does
love him some people food, and although he manages to maintain a perfect weight
despite being able to eat as much (dog food) as he wants, pretty much any time he wants,
he cannot resist getting into people food that you may unwittingly leave within
his reach.
While I was trying to deal with this newest betrayal by my oh, so loyal pet and the theft of my lovely orange-cranberry
scone, a young woman approached me, claiming to have run out of gas, and could
I help? I spared her $3, figuring if she were truthful, I’d have helped her a
little bit, and if she were not, I hadn’t lost much. She quickly vanished when
the parking lot security loomed into sight. Oh. So that’s what security is
there for.
The rest of the drive from Browning to St. Mary
was horrible, though not because of us brooding over our scones. The GPS directed
us onto a road called “Starr School,” but as sight of Browning
receded in the rear view mirror and nothing but wide, mostly empty spaces were
visible ahead – and once again, we were on yet another Native American reservation
whose roads do not appear in the Rand McNally Atlas – I panicked and went back
to Browning to pick up US 89, which plainly leads directly to St. Mary.
My mistake. Yes, over the years I’ve been using
the technology, the GPS has led me astray a handful of times. But my track
record for second-guessing the GPS, only later to regret it, is close to 100%. So
much of the road was under construction which, of course, the GPS system “knew.”
But there was some pretty scenery along the
way. In this area, you understand why the Rockies are called “Rockies.”
St. Mary is an OK little town which probably owes what size it has to the fact that it’s on the eastern end of Glacier National Park’s
most popular feature: the Going-To-The-Sun Road. I think we’ll have everything
we need for our four-night stay here. This KOA sure is nice. Nice and friendly,
typical KOA accommodations except for the incredible bathrooms that are near
our cabin. I feel a little weird about taking a picture of a bathroom, so I
didn’t, but … these sure aren’t facilities that remind you of 4-H camp. There
are three in all, housed in a well-constructed log cabin, and are completely
private. Each features infrared lighting/heat and electric heat, a skylight for
light during the day and electric lighting for the night, and two of them have
showers that are as nice as I’d expect to find in someone’s private home.
The views from our cabin are amazing!
Sue pulled out her spotting scope and watched
elk, and, high up on a ridge inside Glacier N.P., a mountain goat.
We’re tucked inside the cabin now, and it’s rainy
and windy outside. Kind of fun to be sleeping in a cabin, high in the Rockies,
listening to the wind howl!
PS: This picture was taken close to 9:30pm:
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