September 29th and 30th 2024
We left from Medora in the morning and once again entered Montana on our way to Billings where we spent the night. As many times as we weaved around Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, Sandy said that instead of calling this our Yellowstone trip (as we crafted all the dates around Yellowstone) we should call it the “Drunken Goat” trip. She’s not wrong.
Even I am getting a little woozie with the drive. I think I could have planned this better.
Eddie, if you aren’t having fun, we can let you out.
No, no, no! I’m kidding. I like goin’ round n round. I might have missed something the first few times.
Sigh.
On our way to Billings, we stopped at Pompey’s Pillar, a large rock formation in south central Montana. It was designated a national monument in 2001and is only 51 acres making it one of the smallest national monuments in the country. It’s 150 feet tall, about one acre in circumstance and is known for the Native American petroglyphs as well as William Clark’s signature (of the Lewis and Clark expedition). Clark climbed the sandstone structure to get a view of the surrounding area and then signed his name. He named the pillar after the nickname he gave to the son of Sacagawea who was a valued member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacagawea traveled thousands of miles with them, interpreting the natural landscape and smoothing the way with the native tribes. After our visit to Pompey’s Pillar, we arrived at the Quality Inn in Billings in the late afternoon and decided to forego dinner out and just had PB&J sandwiches in our room. We posted on our blog and hit the hay. A note about this Quality Inn: it is by far one of the nicest Choice Hotels we’ve ever booked. The rooms were super clean, the beds were wonderful, and the breakfast was fantastic! A nice woman named Mary made our breakfast to order and it was delicious. Most “breakfast included with your stay” are reconstituted eggs, greasy sausage or limp bacon, rock hard muffins or biscuits and mushy potatoes. This was fresh with perfectly cooked to order eggs. If you ever find yourself in need of a hotel room in Billings, you can’t go wrong with the Quality Inn.
I don’t remember any eggs. Oh, yeah. I sat out that meal in the car. Specism.
The next day’s drive to Pocatello, ID was truly breathtaking! We’d been driving along the Yellowstone River, along the Lewis and Clark trail for days and it was drop dead gorgeous. We were using Waze as our GPS navigator and as we got to Bozeman, it turned us south and took us all through farm and ranch country. It was very rural, and it seemed like there must have been a more direct route but who are we to argue?
No one listens, anyway.
It was quite pretty so we just enjoyed the ride although Eddie seemed a bit uncertain about this part of the journey.
Da da da da da da da da dah…
Eddie, quit humming Dueling Banjos. You’re creeping me out.
I’m sure everything is fine.
Once we reconnected with the highway, we were paralleling the Gallatin River, and it was so beautiful! We couldn’t resist stopping to take pictures of the river, the dense pine trees and the occasional pop of fall colors. In the drive from Billing MT to Pocatello ID, we went from farmland to dense forests to hills and cliff formations to rolling hills and ended up back at the western most part of Yellowstone. We continued to Pocatello and arrived in the late afternoon. Breakfast felt like it was a long time ago and we were quite hungry. A side note: Last year on our road trip we didn’t have much trouble finding places we could eat outside with Eddie. This trip, it seems we are just past the point when they close their patios for the season.
Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed.
As we arrived in Pocatello, we REALLY wanted some good food because as you’ve no doubt read in our past blogs, the food choices were limited and not very good in Yellowstone and the Dakotas. It took some perseverance, but we finally found a place called The Yellowstone Restaurant (yes, the irony is noted) that still had outside seating. The food was really great! Michelle had trout, Sandy had salmon, and Eddie was able to join us. A round of huzzahs! from all three of us.
I told them to keep looking. I got to sit outside and have my martini. The cars are fun to watch as they go by and there were 2 old dogs across the street I got to watch.
Eddie, make sure your audience knows that “martini” for you means water.
If you say so.
An interesting note about this Quality Inn, it was certainly longer in the tooth than the Billings QI and not nearly as nice, but it did have one feature the Billings location didn’t…a colony of mice was living right outside the front door in a somewhat neglected flower bed. Eddie was fascinated with it, and we were amused. We settled in for the night to prepare of our journey to Boise and visiting with Steve D and family.
Mouses houses! No one ran so I just watched…
October 1st and 2nd 2024
The drive to Boise/Eagle again provided interesting and arresting scenery. We passed both fallow and productive fields of hay and other crops and arrived at our Airbnb in the late afternoon. We unpacked and called Steve to let him know we were in town. We had dinner plans in the evening with Steve and Tammy (Steve’s sister) and Bryan (his BIL). So, we drove to Tammy and Bryan’s beautiful home in Eagle (Eagle is a suburb of Boise). Eddie came with and met Maui their adorable Cockapoo. The two of them got along great. We crated Eddie and took off for a local restaurant called “Crave”.
I’m pretty sure I was invited, but you just left me to watch Maui through the bars of my jail cell.
The food and drink were truly incredible, and the company was fantastic, and our food server, Emily, was so much fun! She really added to the experience. After dinner we picked up Eddie and headed back to our Airbnb and a good night’s rest. The next morning, at Steve’s suggestion, we had breakfast at ‘Rembrandt’s’ a local eatery. The food was so good, we went back for breakfast the next day as well. Afterwards, we headed for Tammy and Bryan’s, crated Eddie and the five of us drove into Boise.
I’m seeing a pattern here. I want to see Boise, too. I’ll just drag my water dish across the jail cell bars until they remember me and come home.
We spent a couple of very enjoyable hours at the Idaho State Museum. It is really well done and super informative about the state’s history, agriculture and geology. We then had lunch at ‘13th Street Pub and Grill’ in an older, quaint part of Boise – again, really good food. The Boise area is certainly making up for the food desert of the prior two weeks! We drove back to Tammy and Bryan’s place and had a wonderful visit while Bryan started prepping his hand-built pizza oven for our evening meal of handmade pizzas with homemade dough, freshly made marinara sauce and all kinds of other wonderful fixings. Steve’s brother, Frankie, sister-in-law, Jamie, and father Frank, arrived, and we all set about creating our own Tuscan (or maybe Scillian or Napolitan) masterpieces. So, so good!
Hey! I don’t remember getting any pizza bones!
Eddie, sweetie, you had lots and lots of treats and you managed to play with every one of Maui’s toys. You also got lots of loving. I don’t think you suffered.
Your viewpoint.
Eventually it was time to say goodbye and head back to our Airbnb for the night. We loved seeing Steve in the place that shaped him and enjoyed his stories of living here during high school and college. We loved meeting his family and, not surprisingly, we loved all of them. Like Steve, they are warm, funny, interested in the world, great conversationalists and just super good company. We hope they will come to the Coachella Valley to visit Steve soon so we can spend some more time with them. They were so welcoming to us in their hometown, and we’d love to return the favor. Tomorrow is a regroup day as we prepare to travel to Boulder, CO by way of Odgen UT.
So much hay in this part of the country.
You have to wonder why he felt the need to sign his name. Regardless, it is now a National Monument.
The Beauty of the Gallatin River.
Dense forests as we were traveling along the river.
And, because this is the drunken goat tour. here we are back at Yellowstone National Park (the western end)
Our amazing dinner at Crave, with Steve’s sister, Tammy, and brother-in-law, Bryan. the conversation was lively and entertaining. Emily, our food server extraordinaire took this picture.
Thank you to Steve, Tammy and Bryan for a great time in Eagle/Boise, Idaho. Here’s to many more times in the future!
It was great meeting you three! Thank you for the wonderful conversation. And I’m loving the blog! – Jamie