Glacier National Park to Missoula, MT – 139 Miles
For the first time in several days it was not crystal clear as we woke up. While it wasn’t 100 percent cloud cover, it seemed very dark in the thick stand of trees where we were camped. It never really rained on us, but as we drove south toward Missoula we went through a couple of light sprinkles. However, we did hear that it had rained quite a bit more in Missoula and even in some of the area we drove through coming down. But fortunately for us we missed it.
Our goal for today was to get to Missoula to have dinner with my friend Ed Nesselroad, whom I had known for several years in Denver until his job with the Forest Service transferred him up to Missoula. I had only seen him briefly a couple of times since his move, so I was anxious to catch up with what had been happening in his life over the past few years. I called him as we passed through West Glacier, the town at the west entrance to Glacier National Park and he suggested that we take Montana State Highway 50, a scenic road on the east side of Flathead Lake, rather than the main highway, US 93, that followed the western shore of this extremely large lake. It was a good suggestion, as it was a very scenic, back road sort of drive.
We stopped for lunch at the small town of Ronan, MT, which is about halfway between West Glacier and Missoula. Jeanette had seen a sign advertising the Ronan Café and Bakery, which sounded like a good home-cooking type place – and it was. It’s a typical small-town Main Street café on a broad street with angled parking along the curb. It is run by a Mennonite family, and is a very cheery place, obviously popular with the locals since it was crowded with real cowboys who were discussing the morning’s rain. We had a delicious crispy chicken sandwich on a homemade bun and a slice of chocolate cream pie that could have fed a party of four (but we ate it all, just the two of us). Plus, we bought two luscious looking cinnamon rolls – one for us and one for Ed and Cindy.
We arrived in Missoula about 2:30, and since the directions to Ed’s house were rather complicated, he met us out on the highway and we followed him in to his house, a very nice two-story home on a five-acre lot on the western outskirts of town. After a quick tour of the house, we all unwound with a glass of cold beer. While Ed did a few chores and Jeanette rested, I took advantage of his wi-fi to do my usual e-mail and to upload the blog posts for the past couple of days. Then we all went into town for dinner at a local eatery, where we were joined by Ed’s wife, Cindy, who was just getting off work. Afterwards, we returned to their house for a longer visit before retiring for the night.
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