Thursday, May 1st, 2014

Busy day!  I went to Fuddruckers for "brunch" at 11:00 a.m. - it's every bit as good as the ones I've been to in Texas.I'm so glad that Lorna told me about this one - very large parking lot with double spaces, so I could park my rv.  Then I found a Starbucks and got a vanilla frappacino to take with me - I needed the fix!
Driving to Cut Bank was great - you look around at rolling hills and cattle and buildings - then off to your left, waaay in the distance, you see a mountain range filling the entire horizon - all off in the distance and a bit misty - picture postcard, snow-covered, beautiful peaks just marching along as far as the eye can see!
The very first thing I saw on arriving in Cut Bank was the giant penguin - and to think that I thought I was going to have to search for it! Ron even etched his name on the side of one of the feet: "By Ron Gustafson".  Amazing creation - trust Ron to think it up and then figure out how to constuct it!  I took tons of pictures of the Penguin, the Gateway Motel - inside and out - and I drove around town - couldn't really stop to take any pictures, though - no parking spots big enough for my rv.  There's what looks like a new mall on the outskirts of town - and the lady who works in the Snack Bar there said to say Hi to Dora.  She said she used to have the restaurant, and that Dora would know who she was.  The Riverview RV Park is at the bottom of a road that is pretty rough and looks like it's used for construction.  The Park sits beside a rocky gorge (maybe a cut bank??) with a river at the bottom - beautiful.  I took a stroll along the upper edge.

Fuddruckers in Great Falls

Yum - a swamp

You can barely see the mountains in the distance - much more visible to the naked eye.

There he is!!!

The motel Ron and Dora used to own and manage - don't know if the name is the same

Going in to the Office of the Inn

Waterfall in the lobby - wonder if Dora did this??

The Lobby

Door into the dining room

Bench outside the office

Sign going out of Cut Bank

Motel across the street - when I was there, a sign in the office said to go over there and ask about rooms.  The same guy apparently owns both.  I went over, but no one was visible behind the desk.  I could see a man inside the office around a corner with headphones on, but he didn't see me.

Signed by the man himself!!

I parked my rv in the lot next to the penguin

That's the gas station where I filled up - trying to contribute to the local economy, I let my tank get very low so that I could fill up in Cut Bank.

Mall on the edge of town

Same mall, different angle

Right beside the rv park

I walked the perimeter

The Riverview RV Park - Mike says that it fills right up in the summertime.

The office building of the park

Riverview again

. . . and again/.