Day 2: Livingston, Montana. 393.8 miles today; 6 hours 15 minutes driving.

We got up about 7am, had our continental breakfast at the motel, and decided to take a walk before departing.  Walked back through town to the lake.  We stopped at a distinctive moose statue along the sidewalk.  He seemed to have a growth on his ear, turned out it was a mouse.  We found another moose statue at the swimming area of the lake and he had a mouse as well--on his nose.  We looked closer and found that the moose is named Mudgy and the mouse is named Minnie.  There are 5 Mudgy/Minnie statues around town forming what we call the "Moose Trail."

The park at the base of the lake is beautiful.  We passed other morning walker/joggers.  They all seemed to be walking/jogging with a cell phone to their ears.  I put my ipod up to my ear so I would fit in...  I wanted a picture of Mudgy, but hadn't brought my camera (still raining -- light mist) Then I thought, "I have other devices that take pictures with me, namely my phone and ipod.  It is a new phone that I'm still getting used to, so I thought this would give us a good chance to get to know each other.  Well, for some reason, when you press the button on the side to take a photo, it takes 9 photos in rapid action.  I couldn't get it to take just one!  So I thought that I had about 50 moose shots and switched to my ipod.  Turns out , I had exactly 0 pictures of Mudgy on my phone.  After investigation, I discovered that after taking 9 photos, you have to choose which ones you want to keep and physically save them....The logic escapes me, but I'm glad I took some pics of Mudgy with my ipod.  (Although, getting those pictures from the ipod to my mac was another frustrating experience in technology.  Jim saved me by looking it up on google.)

Discovered a paddle board store and found out that they have paddle board races in Coeur d Alene.  Note to Teresa and Conrad.

We headed out and looked at the temperature:  53 degrees.  That is the coldest we've experienced in about 3 months since we had an unusually warm summer with respect to LOW temperatures.  As we got back onto I-90, Jim noticed that the speed limit was 75!  He was so happy he made me take a picture of the sign.  Jim insists that the Nissan just naturally WANTS to go about 75mph.  And he let her have "her way" until he got a ticket in Oregon.  Funny, I told him, she doesn't want to go that fast when I'm driving.   Anyway, he is very happy about the speed limits in Idaho and Montana.

We passed the old mining town of Wallace (population 784, elevation 3223 ft.)
Wallace is at the junction of four canyons and has several of the world's largest and deepest silver mines.  The mines were founded in the late 1800's and have over 200 miles of tunnels.  The freeway is elevated going right through the town where you can see many historic buildings with turrets.

Just past a sign that said, "Click it, don't risk it," we entered Montana.  They have a lot of traffic slogan signs in Montana.  We passed through Missoula.  Lewis and Clark were here and the Clark Fork River is Clark's namesake.  The city is located in a valley that once formed the great Glacial Lake Missoula which was responsible for the rush of water that helped create the Columbia River Gorge.  No lake these days, just river and rolling hills.  This is elk and lumber country.

Just after Missoula, Jim abruptly pulled to the side of the freeway and told me to take a picture of a sign.  This was a sign that he had seen on our last trip and I didn't believe him.  This time he wanted some evidence.

The landscape has changed since we went over the pass into Montana.  It more like the Bend area, high desert.  Even so, the rain is still following us, on and off.

When we approached Deer Lodge, Jim said, "Let's get off here.  I want to show you a place that my uncle took me."  Jim's uncle was the sheriff of Cascade County in Montana and Deer Lodge was home of the Montana State Prison until 1979.  When Jim was a young lad, visiting his aunt and uncle, his uncle took a prisoner named "Indian Joe" to the prison and Jim came along.  He had to wait in the car, but remembered the trip and the prison.  Evidently Joe wanted to get back into the prison and asked Jim's uncle if he would just take him back.  Sheriff John said no, can't do that.  So Joe threw a rock through some windows or something to earn his trip back to what he considered "home."

We found the prison which is now a museum.  In fact, it is now a prison museum AND classic car museum combined (to the right, the prison; to the left, the cars).  So that was a pleasant surprise for Jim.  After looking at the prison, I con't imagine why Joe wanted to go back there.  They had a small building on the side with about 10 cells that they turned into the women's prison.  They started by putting their first woman prisoner in the same area as the men, but quickly realized that wasn't working and had the separate building by the time the second woman felon was admitted.  The men's cells had a toilet in them, the women's did not.  We couldn't quite figure that out.  In an old theatre building (looked like a barn) they had the "galloping gallows" on display.  Evidently they could move the gallows to any location on the grounds as needed. There were some owls and other birds in the building making ghost-like moans -- at least I think it was the birds. Spooky.


On to the car museum.  Jim said that they must not like Chevy's because the first 3 or 4 rooms of old cars were mainly Fords.  But then we got to the "Chevy Room" with cars Jim drooled over.  And the final room was the best yet,  the Corvette room.  Jim posed for me by his favorite.  He entered a raffle to win a 1960's vintage powder blue Mustang 290 4-speed convertible.  He is sure he is going to win and thus solve his current dilemma about replacing the Buick.

Back on the road again, we went through copper country passing by Anaconda, and Butte.  Just after Butte, we went over the Continental Divide at an elevation of 6393 feet passing through rain squalls.  This was different from the Washington-like rain (drizzle) of the day before.  These squalls were spotty, but very intense.  And the mountains are getting taller with snow caps now as we approach Yellowstone territory.

We stopped in Livingston (population 7K, elevation 4500) for the night.  There was a group of standard motels, but one stood out.  The Livingston Inn Motel has a very western and touristy look -- so different from the regular motel chains.  Jim said he felt like singing "Home on the Range" as he entered the room.  Lots of wood panelling to  give it a faux log-cabin feel... And we got an actual key (not a key card).  We got a real key last night as well.

We read about the Montana Rib and Chop House in our AAA guide book (paper).  When we got there the parking lot was packed which was good and possibly bad news.  The food is probably good, but since we didn't have a reservation (which was recommended), could we get in?  Luckily they had a table right at the front and slipped us in.  

Jim ordered the baby back ribs (which according to the waitress won an award in New Orleans) and I had a shrimp salad which was delicious as well.  I asked if they had any local beers.  My choices were Moose Drool (from Missoula) and Red Lodge Bent Nail IPA (from Red Lodge).  "Dorothy you are not in the Northwest anymore..."  I chose the Bent Nail (reminded me a little of Rusty Grape).  Told Jim I couldn't quite get past the image that Moose Drool conjured up.  He said, "It could have been worse.  It's from Missoula, so it could have been Moose Testicle something."  Only in Montana...