Havre, Montana, United StatesSuper 8 by Windham - Havre MT
Super 8 by Wyndham Havre
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I woke up a few minutes before 6 am and wasted some time organizing things to take out to the car before I went in to breakfast.
I seemed to be the first one thIere. The owner greeted me and asked if I slept well. I said yes and complimented him on the soft, silky sheets. He said they were probably some bargain purchase. They chose to go with colored sheets instead of white and have gotten more negative comments because people can't tell whether the sheets are dirty if they are not white. The owner said I was in the minority who preferred the sheets. I have recognized that condition for a long time now. He made me a cheese omelet and I had wheat bread toast and OJ and coffee. Other people started coming in. The motel is arranged like an inn in that there is a common dining area and a few living areas with seating. The dining area has 4 large round tables and I sat at one facing out the front window and read a copy of the local paper placed on the table. There were articles on school projects, town meetings, and I read through a couple of obits. One of them was very nicely done I thought - an 80 year man named Duvall I think.
I was off by 7:30 am down rt 191 to the Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge West Section. I specifically wanted to see the elk that Katie had mentioned back at Fort Peck. The scenic loop that she recommended had 2 entrances onto rt 191. I wanted the northern one. I stopped at a sign thinking it might be the right turn off and a man asked what I was looking for. When I told him, he said I was in the wrong place. Then he gave me some pretty specific directions but I think I got them mixed up and when I did see a sign where I thought the turn-off might be, I went past it. Of course. I ended up at the lower entrance - which was OK since it went to the Slippery Elm Viewing Area. When I got there, I saw that it was a campground - not a specific place where the elk were going to congregate to be viewed by people. I drove past the scenic loop upper road on the purple road through the viewing area...with my eyes peeled....especially under the cottonwood trees where the man who had given me directions suggested they might be at this time of day. Everyone but Katie seemed to think it was unlikely that I would see any. Well, I drove back and forth in on the purple road - not all-season gravel - and went back to the scenic loop. I had done the easy 6 miles of gravel road along the Missouri River. Now I had to climb up gravel-roaded hills to ride on the ridge for 13 miles....with hardly a chance to see an elk in the sagebrush scrub.
Well, I did see some pretty nice landscape. I guess this is part of the Missouri Breaks - where the breaks are gullies eroded into the hills going down to the Missouri River.
On the way back I was going to stop in Zornan, an old mining town, that the Country Inn owner recommended, but this appeared to be on a dirt road and the Subaru started to make a funny sound just before I turned onto the road. Once on the gravel again, the sound worsened so I turned back. When I stopped and restarted moving, the sound went away on the relatively smooth highway so I continued on. It was only when I checked the map back on rt 2 that I saw I had failed to take the hypotenuse of the triangle and now would have to drive the second leg of the triangle to west. I thought I could drive farther than Havre. I made a brierf stop to pick up some food for lunch for Albertson's grocery store in Malta and then I waited a long time before I found a convenient stopping place to eat. There were no rest stops with picnic tables so I found a park and slipped behind the sign where it wasn't so windy.
It was so windy today that for a while I thought I had a flat tire, the wind was pushing me so on the road.
When I got to Havre, I checked for hotels in a few of the towns west along the highway but was finding nothing so decided I might as well stay in Havre. I stopped at a Super 8 and found out that the Wyndham deal has to be with reservations made on their website. I have mostly been using Hopper so I saved 6 or 8 dollars today. How much would I save if I qualified for the deal?? I wonder. Anyway, I am here - I liked the woman at the front desk - she was very pleasant and had a sense of humor. I managed to get what I think I will need/use in only 3 trips from the car to the room. I worked backwards today. I uploaded my paltry pics first and send a gmail with them. I started a gmail to Jerry, but the computer jammed up and I lost the whole thing. I will just send him a short message to tell him I lost the long one. Then I will eat my dinner and drink one of my new Big Sky IPAs.
2025-05-22