In Montana State Capitol - Helena

 We left West Glacier, MT Sunday  and drove south and east to Missoula.  At right is Flathead Lake that we drove by.  Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River in the contiguous 48 states. It is some 27 miles long and up to 15 miles wide.

We stopped at a roadside stand for some fresh cherries.

Spent Sunday night at Jim & Mary's RV Park about 10 miles north of Missoula near Interstate 90.

We did go into town for a "look around" and had a great meal at Mustard Seed & Noodle Express Restaurant  Excellent meal (which we had to take half home for supper) and fine service by man who I perceived to be the owner.

   

   The high school in Missoula is Hellgate.  Sort of an interesting name.

At breakfast we had some of the yellow cherries of the area (as well as red bing cherries) and some fresh mint jelly we bought at the roadside stand with the yellow cherries.  Also, some peach preserves we had gotten a few days earlier.

Our rig at a rest stop on way from Missoula to Helena yesterday.

 We are now located in RV Park 10 miles north of downtown Helena.

        Ate lunch at the Grub Stake Restaurant just a mile east of our RV Park.  Split a huge hot prime rib sandwich with potatoes and gravy for $8.95.  Phyllis assumed they were using up the Prime Rib from the weekend.   Delicious

As is our custom, when possible, we went to the state capitol-- arriving in time for an hour guided tour.  On this trip we have toured State Capitols of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and now Montana.

Think our guide was a retired professor--he gave lot of background to the building and items in it.  Lot of this area is tied to Lewis & Clark with many references to their journey through here.

We Proceeded On at right is a huge bronze mural (2006) by Eugene Daub in the Senate chamber of Montana State Capitol. Helena, MT.

 Huge mural type painting at left is "Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians", 1912, behind the speaker's chair in the Montana House of Representatives  This was painted by Charles M Russell.

     

                  This is closeup of right side of the painting showing the Lewis & Clark people.

 After the tour of the State Capitol we spent a couple hours in Montana Historical Society and Museum  that was quite interesting.  Among other things it had a huge collection of paintings by Charles M Russell.

Then, at 5:30 pm we went on an hour long "train" tour of Helena with an excellent guide/driver narrating a lot about the area.  She had grown up in Helena, moved away during work years and retired back to Helena, snaring her "most wanted job" driving the train.

Today we are driving about 20 miles north and take a two-hour boat ride at Lewis & Clark site

Although all cropping, sizing and deleting of duplicates or fuzzy photos is not done, I have posted photos from last couple days at Here

I have also added many photos to our experience at Glacier National Park at this site  Picasa album of Glacier

More later, Lynn