Day 16

Day 16 - Tuesday July 7th 2009

Billings, MT to Great Falls, MT

The day started bright and early with a trip across town to fix a nick in the windshield we picked up in the Badlands, SD. Upon return to the Holiday Inn, I started the search for a room in Great Falls, finding nothing at all. Tara took over and after an hour passed, we bit the bullet and booked a room at a Bed and Breakfast called the Collins Mansion. This will be the most expensive night of sleep yet on our trip. Before leaving Billings we stopped by the Staggering Ox Sandwich shop. They have three locations in Montana and one in Spokane, Washington, and are known for their club foot sandwiches. The bread is basically in the shape of a hoof in which they remove the soft innards and placed the lettuce, cheese and sandwich meat in the middle. The look was much more interesting than the taste, but we appreciated the experience.

The drive through the plains of Montana was wide open.

We passed through a few tiny "towns" during the 3 and a half hour drive. We made one stop at a gas station to find that they had an extensive wine selection and grabbed a bottle of Menage-a-Trios. Our main goal in Great Falls was laundry. When we asked Bobby, the proprietor of the Collins Mansion, for a laundromat in the area, he offered the washer and dryer located on the premises. We gladly accepted. Once the last load was in the dryer we headed out to the Breaks Ale House, a local restaurant that had wonderful reviews on TripAdvisor.com. The reviews were more than accurate. The wine selection, food, service, and local beers were excellent. So was the stay at the Mansion.

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