Great Falls Redux

We picked Sleeping Wolf RV Park as it is at the junction of US-2 and US-89......we needed to drive over to Great Falls in the 'Bird to take care of some personal business, but didn't want to have to back track by heading further down US-89 in the coach to Choteau, our original choice.  From Browning we plan to head west of US-2 up to Whitefish and Flathead Lake, so this is the perfect place to leave the coach while we make our drive.

We carry a firearm with us in our coach for personal protection while inside our coach.  Since it is difficult to take firearms, if not impossible in some cases, into Canada we opted to leave ours in the care of a local gun shop in Great Falls while we were in Alberta.  Since we have now re-entered the USA it was time to retrieve the firearm, hence our drive into Great Falls Friday.

Once you get over the mountains between St. Mary and Browning this is what US-89 looks like for miles and miles......straight as an arrow!  The distance into Great Falls from Browning is 126 miles each way.  Since we were talking about a minimum of 4 hours driving we decided to just make a day of it and hit Walmart after the gun shop, then find a place to have lunch.  We got away from Sleeping Wolf around 10:30 am and with me in the co-pilot seat and TLE as the pilot we cruised listening to XM Radio's Classic Vinyl station (26).....me singing along, and TLE wincing from time to time.  We had a big chuckle when Elton John's classic Bennie and the Jets came on......there is one line that I have always, apparently, gotten wrong....it goes: "She's got electric boots a mohair suit.....you know I read it in a magazine...."  I have always sung the words as "She's got electric boots a mohasoon....you know I read in a magazine"......TLE, for the first time in our 42 years of marriage realized what I was singing and started laughing.....we both laughed so hard our cheeks hurt.

There is not much else to say about the drive......it was mostly long straight views for miles on end.....a lot of mostly flat, rolling farm and grazing land.  We arrived in Great Falls around 12:30, headed directly to the  gun shop, retrieved our firearm, then headed to the local Walmart.  I had dropped my clip on sun glasses while in the visitors center in Lake Louise and before I retrieved them they had been stepped on by another visitor breaking one of the small tabs off that hold the clip ons to the glasses, and Walmart is the only place I can find the ones I like.  We also needed a few other things.

Then it was time to find a local brew pub for lunch, and there happened to be one not too far from Walmart called Front Public House on 3rd Street NW.  We took two seats at the bar, and ordered up two pints of their Coffee Stout (6.0 ABV).....as my friend David Rothwell says...."Combining nature's two most perfect foods -- beer and coffee... pure genius!".....and, yes, it is!

To go along with the great brews we split some sort of Salmon sandwich with home made chips......very, very tasty and just the right amount of food.  They don't yet have their website up and running, otherwise I would link that instead of Yelp......however, Yelp does give Front 4 stars.....I gave it a 5.

By that time it was 2:30 pm so we began our 2 hour trek back to Browning and our "home".  The drive was uneventful, and we arrived "home" by 4:30 as expected.  Surprisingly the cell service over the 126 miles was pretty consistent.  

We had a couple of filet mignon steaks left over from Alberta so I BBQ'd them while TLE cooked up some great fried potatoes.   It was a nice Friday with a delicious ending.  Saturday we are off 12 miles over to East Glacier Park......the original entrance to Glacier National Park before the "Going to the Sun Highway" was built.

Thanks for stopping by!