Breakfast Report, Best Western, Laurel, MT.
We ate with the Harleyite couples – each and every one wearing a something or two with Harley Davidson emblazoned, or Sturgis, their mecca. They are quite a club, and there is something appealing about their “hobby.” But oh! the noise. Same ole, same ole breakfast buffet – the styrofoam plates did not bend – the hardboiled eggs were chilled, the sausage gravy may have been the best bet, but the biscuits were sorry-looking…and how many plates of sausage gravy can you eat in a week? Just tasteless spread for the frozen French toast. …I’d rather eat lard. TV turned to CBS.
ASIDE - I know I am out of touch with something – but having to unwrap all the little restaurant plastic containers and wrappers of things is wearing me down. Even in nice restaurants – steak meal, even cloth napkins….and there I sit – trying to open the salad dressing packet – of course spilling it on the table, which I use my napkin to clean up. Then the baked potatoes come with a packet of butter to unwrap, and I’ve got butter on my fingers and then the sour cream…and there I go again… And breakfast is a marathon of unwrapping. And I won’t get into the waitress’ usual inquiry. “Are ya still workin’ on that?”
Some pretty wide valleys along the Yellowstone River as we drove west….but not of the heart-stopping kind. Maybe we are plains people, rather than mountain people. I loved Iowa – that Ohio upbringing?
Stop in Bozeman - some sophistication there – artsy western town – a great western bookstore where we browsed and eventually bought a book. I got sidetracked by a book by the daughter of Stephen Ambrose - on the underestimation by Lewis and Clark of how important Sacagawea was to the success of the journey. She went on to say that Lewis was an unusual man, a strange man – this confirmed by many who knew him and the expedition party after their return. She proposes that he had Asperger syndrome, and was prone to depression – Jefferson had previously noted this – and sometimes seemed to have no common sense.
This is not to demean Lewis’ tremendous accomplishment – and maybe it took an unusual, even strange, man to do what he did. The deprivation was hard to fathom. After eating 9 pounds of meat a day – they joined up with the Shoshones who ate roots and fish, and most of the party got very sick, including Lewis. And Ms. Daughter of Ambrose also emphasized the good happenstance of Lewis’ finding a woman who accepted him as he made first contact with the Nez Perce while trying to find the headwaters of the Columbia. His success seemed to depend totally on his rapport with the various tribes he encountered.
Lunch iin Bozeman was terrific – a Mexican place on Main Street – Mott said it was the best food he has had on the trip.
We headed for Virginia City – a frontier gold mining town that has been preserved by the National Historic Places Trust. The buildings and signs are wonderful – but do they have to sell T-shirts and trinkets in every other one? And the parking was all along the street, totally spoiling any attempt to get the feeling of an 1860’s street and town.
Idaho City – ditto – except you had to pay to get in and walk around old buildings, many of which weren’t original to site. We kept on driving and decided to take a gravel road loop over to an Interstate – which became much longer than we thought – 30 miles – no–one – barren fields – a few cattle…Mott kept looking at the gas tank. No cel service. Reminded us of New Mexico – this an unlush part of Montana.
And now we are in Butte, Montana –we like it – old mining town. Now decrepit, but remnants of past grandeur – exploring tomorrow. Deciding we hadn’t moved enough during the day to deserve to dine – sowe had a pizza in a funky place.
Taking the Pulse of America
Fox News watchers 4 of 7
Mozz Stix offerings 5 of 6
No comments:
Post a Comment
comments welcome!