March 15 /St. Patricks Day in Montana

On Thursday March 15 I deliberated about taking the bike and sidecar to the Western Montana BMW meeting in Fairmount Hot Springs in Montana. However on looking at the weather report and the conditions I might be traveling under I decided to take the Highlander and my friend Carol. As you will see by the following posts It was a good decision. Carol and I left Calgary about 9AM and decided we would travel a different route as Carol usually goes the same way to the US and I wanted to make this trip eventful. So we entered the US through Carway south of Cardston. Of course St Marys is closed at this time of year and although the roads were good this is what it looked like...

As we crossed the border I had commented on almost bringing the motorcycle and the lady border guard thanked me profusely for not doing so or I might have brought on a blizzard. As we crossed between East Glacier and West Glacier we decided to stop for a bite of lunch and found this quaint little place called the Snowslip Inn and I had a homemade turkey barley soup and Carol had a BLT sandwich with fresh cut french fries to die for.

This is a Montana Buffalope

We continued on after lunch and I took Carol down the east side of Flathead Lake and I called Betty Heidrich from Big Fork to find that her and Art and some friends were having dinner at 6:30 at the Mustard Seed and we were invited so we checked in at the Brooks Street Motor Inn and had a delightful dinner at the restaurant and gave Betty her Birthday gifts. Annie and I had brought a bird feeder and birdhous in John Day Oregon in July and Betty's birthday is in Nov...We were just a little late. I also told everyone that in Calgary The Mustard Seed is our homeless shelter..a far cry from this high class Asian restaurant. The next morning we met Art, Hal, Jerry & Carolyn Abbott and Roger at The Press Box for breakfast and then headed East as I wanted to take Carol to Philipsburg and the Worlds Largest Candy Store and they are not open on Saturday. So we had a room booked at the Motel 6 in Butte for Friday night never dreaming that Butte has the largest population of Irish descendants in the United States and that St Patrick's Day is a highly celebrated occasion.