Dillon, MT

This morning August and I were extra lucky - there was a fishing lodge just across the road that had a little cafe. So, we walked over for breakfast. I was mainly just excited that there would be food, and it would probably be good. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cafe overlooks the beautiful Madison River, and the place was a cozy little restaurant filled with friendly people.

I ordered an omelet and one blueberry pancake, hoping that would be enough for me and the Augster. It was plenty! The hotcake was as big as a large plate, and the omelet, hashbrowns and sourdough toast were hearty and filling.

August continues to be a very finicky little eater, so I was grateful to see him polish off half of the omelet and nearly half of the pancake. We were both full until nearly dinnertime!

The perk of boondocking, in order to leave you literally put on your seatbelt and go, not having to mess with the hookups. So we drove on through gorgeous Montana, stopping up the road at Earthquake Lake. This lake was formed suddenly on August 17, 1959, when an 7.5-magnitude earthquake caused a massive landslide in the river canyon. 81 million tons of rock face crashed into the valley at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Sadly, it was the peak of tourist season and the campgrounds in the valley were filled with campers in tents. Many made it out, but 28 were unable to escape in time and most of their bodies were never recovered from under the massive rubble. It is said by the surviving campers that the force of the rock tumbling at such a high speed and the air beneath it being pushed out so quickly that their clothes were literally blown off of them. What an awful experience that would have been in this peaceful valley!

August intently studying I am a Little Bear while the informational video plays.

There are still hundreds of skeleton trees you can see sticking through the water, but time has begun to heal some of the trauma to the earth and vegetation.

The next stop for us was Virginia City, a quaint little town with a lot of history I had heard about from the Bicycling Coast to Coast goddess Donna Lynn Ikenberry. Another former gold boom town, many of the original buildings still stand and the town has done a great job of keeping it up for tourists.

We took an antique fire truck tour of the town, but first stopped at the candy store to peruse. I am including this picture of the insane variety of candy for my friend Sam, who loves these places.

The tour was informative, explaining the crooked economy of wild west frontier towns like this. A sheriff and two of his deputies were actually hanged in this region for stealing essentially everything from everybody in the area.

One of my favorite stories was of the resourceful Chinese population that once resided here. They were forbidden from owning land, but they would wait until miners had abandoned their claims and then go in and do a more thorough search for gold, often netting plenty. Other tactics included opening up a laundry where all wash water would be saved and sifted at the end of the day to recover any remnant of gold, and pulling up the planks in the floors of the saloons to recover all that had fallen out of miners' pockets. Several were made very wealthy with these strategies.

Then, because mommy is a sucker, August had his portrait taken at the Old Time Photo Station. If an 18-month-old wearing chaps and a cowboy hat isn't cute, I don't know what is.

We met up with Chris in Dillon, our stop for the night. We were happy to find a KOA so we could do some laundry and enjoy a really nice playground and heated pool.

We rode our bikes into town to grab dinner at La Fiesta Mexicana "The Taco Bus". It is a school bus converted to a taco stand. It was delicious, with a very long wait. I decided to go back to get a couple more tacos (they were so good!), but they had closed due to running out of food. We were glad to have found it, but disappointed to have left after spending $30 and still being a little hungry.