We had to get up EARLY to make the flight out of National. It doesn't seem that long a flight but we do loose 2 time zones. When we got to National the Sorority that we ran into in DC at Brew in the Zoo was leaving DC in mass. The airport was completely full, and there were a lot of delays. We finally boarded and then settled back for the trip to St. Paul Minnapolis. From there we fly on to Billings arriving 10:30 am their time.
We gathered car and luggage and then took a ride through Billings and found the pub that I thought might be a good fit for lunch. The Montana Brewing Company (113 N Broadway Billings, MT) was a great spot. The menu featured grub food and Tom's hamburger and and my Philly Cheesesteak were both good. The beer - Whitetail Wheat and Fatbelly Amber were both good, as was the pale ale.
We struck out on the way to Great Falls, about 250 miles northwest, which got us closer to Glacier National Park. We stopped along the way to Great Falls at the Pompeys Pillar National Monument. It's part of the Lewis and Clark Trail that was named “Pompy’s Tower” in honor of Sacagawea’s son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, whom he had nicknamed “Pomp.” The name was changed the name to “Pompeys Pillar by the scribe of the expedition. ”Pompeys Pillar is one of the most famous sandstone buttes in America. It bears the only remaining physical evidence of the expedition as Clark scraped his name and the date, July 25, 1806, on the face of the 150-foot butte, during his return trip east through the beautiful Yellowstone Valley. It really is amazing to look at something that was carved 200 years ago. The facility is very nice with a glass tepee (behind Tom) and a new Visitor's Center that has a view onto the butte and a representation of the trail on the floor.
We also got my first look up close at windmills - something I did not have a appreciation of the scale of until you see them in person.
We struck out on the way to Great Falls, about 250 miles northwest, which got us closer to Glacier National Park. I had planned for us to do dinner at The Front Brew Pub (215 3rd Street NW, Great Falls) but by the time we got to the Fairfield Inn, we were pretty well toast and just did a quick meal at a mall restaurant, and then collapsed into bed.