I quit my job on Fri afternoon and was on my way to Montana that evening.  Once again we drove as far as Post Falls and spent the night.  This time I tried the Riverbend Inn.  It was nice enough but I don’t know that we’ll stay there again.  The bed had one of those hotel “mattresses” that feels like a big hard sheet of foam.  It was not very comfortable.  I think we can do better and still stay in the same price range.  We also made the mistake of walking across the street to eat dinner at The Cabin restaurant.  My steak sandwich was okay, nothing special.  However, N ordered some beef stew that she said was terrible and cold.  She ate the meat and potatoes out of it but would not touch the broth/gravy.

Saturday morning we were up at about 6am and headed for the river.  It was great weather for a drive and we made good time.  As always, we turned off I-90 just east of Missoula and drove over Hwy 200.  We had a small bite at the hotel but had put off eating breakfast so that we would be hungry when we passed through Lincoln.  We stopped at Howdy’s Deli to finally give their lunch menu a try.  I had an Out West sandwich that was pretty darn good.  It is grilled roast beef and chilies with pepper jack cheese on sourdough bread.  I don’t recall the price just now but I think it was around $6 - $7 and that included a side (chips, soup or salad).  I thought it was a pretty good lunch and would have no problem eating there again.
 

There were a lot of us here this week so the house was pretty full.  With all the people it was a little difficult to get a consensus from everyone on when and where to fish.  So, for the first few days, we just played around in front of the house.  You can usually catch fish and every once in a while someone will scare up a nice one.  This week however, seemed to be full of small fish.  Instead of complaining about it, I decided to go to the small rod

Hscott fishing the Missouri River with a 5'6" bamboo 1-weight

and make it more fun.  I have a 5’6” bamboo 1-weight that was perfect for the job.  I fished a little riffle just upstream from the house and caught a few small rainbows.  They were a lot more fun on the 1-weight then they were on the 6-weight Winston.  We have a couple friends driving up from Helena tonight and we’re hoping Tim will bring his Clackacraft.  With Tim’s boat, our wood McKenzie, and a couple kick boats; we should be able to get everyone on the water tomorrow for a nice drift.  We can put in just upstream from the house and slide the boats down to eddy in front.  Everyone else can load up and then drift down to the other place just past the Gary Cooper Bridge.  We'll pull in there for a picnic lunch and then fish on down to Mountain Palace pull-out.