Monday July 2, 2012

We left Billings MT heading north to Glasgow in hopes of finding a spinning supercell today.  The first part of the journey was uneventful and we went through some interesting country.  There was a forest fire near Roundtop but I didn't take any pictures because I was so amazed at what Mother Nature had done.  Houses burned to the ground and not 10 feet away the fire turned and a house was spared.  I had never seen anything like it before and sat with my mouth open all agog at the devastation.  It was new enough that the National Guard was still guarding the area.

We stopped in Lewiston for gas and lunch.  It is a bustling metropolis of maybe 6,000 people and the people there are really friendly.  We had hamburgers at Ruby's which boasts they are made from 100% Montana Beef and I will boast it was one really good burger!

Chuck checking weather and email sitting at Ruby's

one of many petunia baskets hanging around the outside dining area at Ruby's.

There are a lot of National Forests and parks in this area but it is beyond me how they can call this a National Forest!

Pretty landscape but not much in the way of trees!  (Sorry for the bug guts, but shooting through the window has its issues. )

It was somewhere along here that the real drama of the day started for us.  The bell on the car started ringing and the motor was over heating.  We were (what we thought was 25 miles) outside of Malta Montana.  (Remember Malta and the Westside Restaurant from the post on the 27th June.)  Anyway we let the car cool down added a couple bottles of water to the system and hobbled into Malta to a repair shop.  Originally the mechanic thought it was just a thermostat but turns out it is a water pump and they won't be able to get the part in or to repair it until Thursday since tomorrow is the 4th of July....So we are stuck in Malta a couple of nights.  

The motel we are in is comfortable and close to everything in town, population 2,100, so it isn't such a horrible thing....we could still be stuck out on the plains.

This is an old fashioned type drive up to the door motel but it is reasonably priced and I would say it is cleaner and more modern then a lot of the Hamptons and Comfort Inns I have stayed in.  It has a lot of charm that they don't!  Look at the old fashioned Motel sign and those flower displays under each window and the big pots are just gorgeous.  

  

Isn't this gorgeous!  See them all down the roadside in front of the motel!  

Chuck and I went to the Great Northern Hotel for supper last night after getting the car taken care of and the hotel settled and had a great steak sandwich and soup.  The hotel and motel are owned by the same people and really nice places.  Here is a picture of Chuck drowning his sorrows in a Gin and Tonic and a picture of our steak sandwiches...can you say yummy?  

Chuck with the GnT!  drink of the gods.

Turkey with wild rice soup, an 8 ounce steak cooked to perfection and your choice of potato!   And they call this soup and a sandwich!

I plan on walking around town a bit this afternoon and will try and take some pictures as I do so.  There are some really interesting sights here my daughter tells me.  Malta is on the Montana Dinosaur trail and has a dinosaur museum and other sites so hopefully I will get to visit some of them in the forced hiatus.  

More tomorrow.