P-burg

Mitch is often asking me to post, so I asked him to pick his favorite photos from our most recent road trip (in Gertie) and I would do the writing.

Destination: Philipsburg Montana. We'd never been to Philipsburg, and I'd been wanting to visit for a quite a long time, but especially since Angela, Jason, and Bode visited Missoula, and their subsequent trip to Philipsburg. Mitch had to travel to Philipsburg for work, and since the hotel was paid for Tater and I tagged along.

Philipsburg almost became a ghost town, like the dozen or so actual ghost towns in the surrounding area, but sometime in the '80s or '90s most of the downtown became part of the National Register of Historical Places. The locals take a lot of pride in being voted one of America's Prettiest Painted Places. Seriously, we saw a bank employee windexing the black paint trim on the bank when we walked around town the evening we arrived. Now the town's hot with tourists, although not this time of year. Discovery Ski Area (seen above) probably is touristy this time of year though.

Since it was the off season, there were only a couple of hotels open for business. The choices were The Broadway Hotel, or some dive that Mitch's boss said he wouldn't be staying at. The Broadway Hotel was very much not a dive. It was probably the most awesome hotel we've ever seen. Tater Tot really liked the fire in the stove in The Cowboy Room, and sitting on a cow hide covered bench while playing with poker chips.

True to form, books trumped all other activities.

Each room has a different theme, the one we were in was The Hard Rock Room. As you can see in the photo above, the room was updated at some point since the photo on the hotel's website, and included a giant pickaxe above the headboard. Mitch and I both gasped a bit before checking to see how secure it was fixed to the wall.

The owner of the hotel was heading to Missoula the morning of our checkout, so Tater and I had to pack up and were left to our own devices. My ability to entertain a toddler in a mostly-closed-for-the-season-tourist-town was really put to the test. Although I didn't get any photos, the best part of our day was spent at an amazing volunteer-run thrift store. We scored some great sales, and had some interesting conversation with the locals. Luckily, they had shopping carts. If you don't know why that's lucky, then I gather you don't get out much with a toddler on your own, and I'm not going to explain it to you. You'll just have to take my word on it.

After we met Mitch for lunch, we headed to The Sweet Palace. Tater spent quite a bit of time pointing at all the candy and asking what it was. She was most interested in the puppets in a back corner of the store, but when she saw a really hairy wooly mammoth puppet, it freaked her out, so we headed upstairs. She kept lying on the carpeted floor upstairs and telling me I needed to lay down with her to read books and nap. That was my cue to find the wintertime substitute for the closed-for-the-season coffee shop. I really needed a place where we could read some books and she could take a little snooze. We found the place, but after we got settled and Tater was well in to her nap, we got kicked out because business was so slow they were closing until the evening. So, I woke Tater and we headed for the elementary school park.

The park was awesome, but apparently not as awesome as this icy frozen slush puddle she stomped in for a good 10 minutes. Wondering why she isn't wearing a coat in Winter in Montana? Well, I'm guessing you haven't gotten out much with a toddler on your own, and I'm not going to explain it to you.

This giant snake was in the back of the park. She was a little nervous when she first saw it, but after she got a close up look at the pictures of hearts and flowers and butterflies on the scales, she mellowed. (For the record, I outwitted her and she put on her coat shortly after this photo.)

The drive was pretty, and the heat was going strong. It was nice, and Tater sang most of the way home.

Oh yeah, and Mitch wanted me to tell you that Gertie got nearly 26.5 miles per gallon. 

(click for map→ miles 912-1070)