Montana Hwy 1-Road to Phillipsburg-Tues.6-1-10

Montana Hwy. 1 is the Pintler Scenic Byway. We came out of Butte with a fairly good report from the eye doctor but he said I should have it looked at in a week just to be sure. After the doc we had to go in search of more pasties to take with us. We ate b-fast with the M & D at the Great Harvest Bread Co. Cafe. We met them back at the coaches after the doc and thank heaven Dee had a slight bit of room in her freezer for the pasties and the povitica. Then the boys went in search of something at an RV parts place and also came back with scones and bread and coffee from the Great Harvest. We finally got on the road. It rained on us up the road. Probably should have stopped in Anaconda. It looked like a neat little town, but we left too late out of Butte--next time. We did see the huge smelter stacks we were told about in Butte. You can see them from a long way off even with low clouds. They are 585' high, the largest free standing masonary stacks in the world. The drive thru the valley and then up the mountain and down the other side was breath taking. The stream flowing down the mountain made us stop and take a better look.

We parked at a little campground going into the big town of Phillipsburg. The town is lovely. They have old buildings that have been restored and painted and have neat shops. We ate at the Doe Brothers Restaurant and Soda Shop--I had buffalo meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes over bread with brown gravy and a salad--half went home for a later meal. Then we went to the huge candy store. It has 982 different candies give or take if they run out of something or get something new . Right now, they have more flavors of jelly belly jelly beans that the factory in CA because they have bought up all their discontinued flavors. All kinds of fudge, etc. You would go into diabetic shock just going thru the door. Talk about a kid in a candy store. They were making fudge while we were there. We also went into a gem store-beautiful things. We wandered into a number of small stores. It was a fun day. We went driving around the town--lots of dirt streets and some mud. The people in town were very friendly and they said that when we were sightseeing that it is called P-burging. People who live there are called P-burgers. By the time we got here our cars were splattered and after driving our around town and thru the mud Bob had to at least hose it off. It is entirely useless trying to keep either the cars or the coaches clean because we get into rain usually every day and the cars just get splattered by the coaches. Oh well!

We finish the scenic byway today and head on north and west. We continue to experience very early spring because we keep going north ahead of the season. I haven't been in anything but long pants and long sleeved shirts or sweatshirts and coats, but I'll take that over the heat.