TuzigootJournal: Red Lodge and Fishtail

As of July 8, we've been on the road for a month -- seems longer to us. You, too?

Anyhow, we marked the occasion by spending a night in the Red Lodge Comfort Inn. Susie misses having a bath tub, so she's catching up -- three baths during our stay. That should get her home.

I had been thinking of surprising her before our trip to Cody and saying, Pack an overnight bag. But, when I tried to get a room in historic Irma Hotel and couldn't, I went to Plan C. Plan B was to get a motel in Billings this weekend. However, when we left Cody, Susie saw a Comfort Inn and said, I want ... . I didn't say anything then, but the next morning (yesterday, 7/8) when I got up, Susie said she hadn't slept the whole night. She went to bed and I went in to Red Lodge for the morning. While there I made a Comfort Inn reservation (Plan C). Went back to campground in late morning and told Susie, Pack an overnight bag. We had planned a loop drive from Red Lodge and I was going to finish that by driving up to the Comfort Inn. Well, she wanted to know where we were going, in order to choose the proper wardrobe, so I told her.

Our afternoon activity was to take the aforementioned loop drive. The main objective was to visit the General Store in Fishtail. Just before we left Cedar Crest, Susie saw an article in Country magazine about the oldest continuously operating general store in Montana. It's known for its monster cinnamon rolls and friendly, wide-ranging service. Their motto is "A Little Bit of Everything Since 1900." Stuck that article in our folder of things to do on our trip and luckily looked in the folder in time to plan a visit to the store.

Here's a picture of the magazine one-page article. We took that page with us and had the staff all sign it. They were tickled. They had had a few visitors since the article was published, but nobody had asked for their autographs. The owners, Katy and Bill Martin, were away on a rare vacation. A friend of theirs works in the store as a volunteer and just raved about what fine people the owners are and how much they do for the community. E.g., miners on their way to work stop in for burritos and to pick up sandwiches for lunch.

We had the cinnamon roll -- took us two days to finish it. Lots of cinnamon and brown sugar, covered with creamy frosting. Here's Susie with the cook.

Thursday, we 'did' Red Lodge. Walked both sides of the five blocks or so of shops. Had lunch at one of the locals' favorites - a combination organic grocery store and cafe, mostly the latter. Then we took another loop drive in the afternoon. Managed to find some barns and other scenic shots on these drives.