By Thursday, July 26th, we were on the road again up over Beartooth Pass towards Red Lodge. After a night of much needed showers and reenergizing at a campground outside of town, we went to Red Lodge, one of our favorite locales. This is a town rich with scenic views and authentic Montana character. We worked through the day in a downtown coffee shop and then were joined by Dan, Rebecca and Sam Staebler for much anticipated weekend festivities.
Welcome to Red Lodge
After dropping off their daughter Sidney at camp, the Staeblers came to town with sightseeing plans. The first must see? Bear Creek Saloon of course and weekly Pig Races. We sat down at 6 pm for steak and burgers (no pork on this menu) and then went outside to find good seats for the show. At 7 pm sharp the bets are placed and the pigs are off!
Bear Creek Saloon, Home of Montana’s only Pig Races. This parking lot will soon be packed.
And they’re off!
With 10 races each night, there is plenty of time to get to know the field. We all had our favorites and we placed our side bets accordingly.
Red is my personal favorite – he may not be the fastest pig in the pen but look at that personality
Even an evening shower didn’t dampen the crowd’s mood. It paid off with an extraordinary sunset and huge double rainbow.
The gold at the end of the rainbow
After the races, we popped the 2 Sportsmobile tops in the parking lot and settled in for the night beside the snoring swine.
Next morning, we were eager to get back to Red Lodge. Vintage cars had been roaring by and we wanted to get to town for the big Red Lodge car show. Detroit classics lined the streets and in this historic town, it was easy to imagine life 50 years ago.
Red Lodge is transformed to 1965
Sweet Carolina Blue Chevy
Cars cars and more cars. You didn’t need to be a motorhead to appreciate the wheels on the street.
Sam looks as cool as the car that he’s inspecting
Historic Yellowstone Touring Bus
Peace out
After our fill of the cars and town, the Bradshaws and Staeblers were ready to get back to camping. We hopped back in the vans and drove to Fishtail Montana, another prize stop on the sightseeing tour. On the way, we detoured to the Grizzly Bar in Roscoe for a world famous burger. We’d had huge breakfast so we split a single burger 5 way…which tells you something about the size of a Grizzly burger.
We then drove to Fishtail, a tiny town on the West Rosebud River. Founded in 1900, Fishtail is renowned for its General Store, with its inventory of housewares, organic local foods and ice cream cones.
The Fishtail General Store lures in customers with ice cream and local foods
The Staebler’s had found an awesome camp spot right on the creek and we settled in for an evening of good conversation, deviled eggs, fresh garden veggies, steak, tomato basil salad and margaritas.
Sunday, we checked out the famed General Store and then drove back up to Bozeman. Tim and I were on our way to Seattle so after loading up with zucchini, peas and lettuce from the Staebler’s garden, we kept heading West towards our sailing adventure.