Journal Entry ~ Day 4

Leaving well before 7 am. Sun is shining down on the sprawling town of Butte. When we stepped outside it was 40 degrees. Beautiful. Rocky out-croppings reminds us of Colorado. Steam rises from ponds and waterways.

As you may recall our last stop, yesterday was Pompey's Pillar. It was raining and so we couldn't get up close to it. So, we went on to arrive in Butte. The sun came out as we moved on. That was promising. The motel, Days Inn, was a much nicer place, and Papa Johns was right around the corner. Even though we'd had pizza the night before (Pizza Hut), this was much better. Besides, their garlic sauce rocks!

The next morning we had a very good breakfast, so we got out the door in record time!

Montana is nothing if it isn't big. Big enough to have plenty of farm land and room for lots of rugged mountains, buttes and flat-topped mountains, and endless roads.

I make notes along the way of several sites to stop for. We try and stop for lunch, but they weren't serving when we were hungry. Why does it have to be 11:30? We walked out, and the woman stopped us and said they'd be willing to fry up a hamburger.

Hamburgers, and sub sandwiches have been our fare for days, now. Not interested. Sorry.

We continue on, and eventually reach Browning. This is an Indian Reservation. It shouldn't surprise me, therefore, that a lot of horses in pastures.

We reach a bridge that is being re done. A major operation, let me tell you! So, we take the road that has always been in used, going beside the newer bridge.

Because I had gone on-line and had figured out the lodge was not within the park itself, I knew that it had to be coming up soon. We soon came to a small town (East Glacier), and Dennis sailed through. We saw the sign, which was large enough, and it wasn't exactly saying TURN HERE or OOPS, YOU MISSED IT, DUMMY, TURN BACK!!!

I knew we had to turn somewhere and got my mule--er--husband to turn around and go back.

We had to go through this archway, and there it was. OMG! Exactly like I had seen it on their site, but these are OUR pictures:

We were early. And I mean about 3 hours early. They were not going to check us in (or give us our room number) until 3 pm.

We went and had lunch, I had a scrumptious chicken sandwich on flat bread. Our view out the window, looking at the mountains was the kicker that made our lunch perfect. We made it! I could have been eating cardboard, for all it mattered, we had so many upsets, a few times not really thinking we'd be able to go, and then Dennis' back problems...

Tomorrow, or Friday will be continuation of the trip.