Day 7 August 11th: Drive Going to the Sun Highway, Jammer Joe’s, Belton Chalet

We were given an escort out of Many Glacier by herd of sheep, then went down to St. Mary and had a nice breakfast at the lodge. In some ways the best breakfast we had.

I asked her if there was an amount of cash that would have her lose her hat

You know the answer ...

I was comforted about my paranoia in driving this natural treasure after our Red Bus Tour. I deliberately planned it to drive from East to West because I wanted to be on the Mountain side of the drive. There was construction but the delay was only about ten minutes, and all of the work was on the east side.

Retracing our Red Bus steps to Logan was very pleasant. I was really impressed with the visitor center. There was a display regarding “What’s Blooming” that Edward Tufte would be proud of.

I have failed to yet mention the value we derived from our Handicap placard. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it provided free lifetime admission to all of the parks in addition to parking privileges. I actually turned in a brand new Camaro parked at Many Glacier and the security folks drove me up to the regular lot. At Logan we got row one spot one. Don’t leave yours at home.

The west side however was a different story. It is much more open, much steeper and scared the crap out of me. I drove the speed limit and folks honked and honked for me to pull over but I knew if I did I would never start back down. I pissed some folks up but so much for the considerate neighbor part of the program. When we finally got down to the bottom and pulled over at Red Rock a passing vehicle yelled “You are giving Montana a bad name.” I guess they don’t realize that renters have home state plates.

You need look no further than the menu name to determine the location

so much for subliminal

We landed at Jammer Joe’s Grill after white knuckling GTTSR. Very bright and open, it had a pizza buffet. She Who Must Be Obeyed had a salad on steroids with beans and bacon and a whole lot more with some wonderful huckleberry lemonade. I enjoyed the bison sausage with a creme soda. Good food @ a reasonable price.

We then were the impressed with the Belton Chalet. Again chosen because of Trip Advisor recommendations our original plan had two nights, but because of the EB mess we had to cut it to one night. The rental company wanted $75 to pick up the car we got in East Glacier and originally we figured we could easily drive there by 9:45 AM. With the changed schedule it made it 6:54 the departure way too early to drive over.

The accommodations were comfortable, although there was a measure of adversity due to some water problems at the hotel. They had bottled water in the room, and more available at the desk, for potable use. They advised that we shower before 8:30, when the water would be shut off.

We were lucky enough to have a front balcony, which overlooked the rail tracks. Many had commented about the rail noise, and indeed there were ear plugs in the room but we didn’t need them. It is a wonderful place for solace - sitting there after the excellent meal or first thing in the morning. I almost failed to mention that Deane almost had the luggage out of the car by the time we parked and made our check in the smoothest I have ever had anywhere. Mucho kudos to the staff of the Belton. If I ever return, I would gladly spend another night.

The obligatory train photo from our balcony at the Belton

Dinner at the Belton was awesome, even though they had to rush like madmen to get everyone fed before they shut the water off. Jim the bartender worked miracles, and were we glad he did. She Who Must Be obeyed was absolutely blow away by the Montana Meatloaf - Buffalo meatloaf wrapped in hickory-smoked bacon, served with port wine mushroom demi, roasted shallot mashed potatoes and savory creamed corn. My veal Scaloppini was as good as any I have ever eaten. After the pabulum of the Many Glacier Hotel food, the Belton was blessed relief.