After all the excitement of the Going to the Sun Road yesterday, we intended today to be quiet and relaxing. We scheduled a 1 hour boat ride around MacDonald Lake in the park at 11:00. That meant we could sleep late, and with the room we had at the Meadow Lake Resort, that wasn't too difficult. We finally made it out the door at about 9:30, but this was one of the few hotels without breakfast, so we would try to grab a bite on the way to MacDonald Lake. At least the room had a Keurig, so the coffee was great!
     It took a little longer to get to the park than we remembered, and there was a long line at the ranger station to get in . We knew we were in plenty of time to make the boat ride, but breakfast was rapidly becoming in jeopardy, and we were hungry! We were sitting in line at the ranger station when the first example of trust came up. We were sitting in line behind a long line of cars when a ranger walked up to us and asked if we had a pass. When I said yes, she said just go ahead in the employee lane and don't bother to stop. She didn't ask to see my pass, she just took my word that I had one and told me to go ahead.
     It took even longer to get to the MacDonald Lodge than we remembered, so by the time we got to the boat dock it was after 10:30 so breakfast was out. The MacDonald Lodge was built about 1920, and it turns out the boat we would be riding on the tour was about the same vintage. We went up to the ticket counter, and told them our name and that we had a reservation we had booked on-line. Here's where the second example of trust came up. The guy looked at his slips and the signup sheet, and said our names were not on the list . Then he asked if we had already paid, and when I said yes, he said he could just print up a ticket for us. He didn't ask to see my email confirmation or anything. He just took my word that we had a reservation and we had already paid and gave us the tickets.   Either Jody and I have honest faces, or people up here are just a lot more trusting. It was kind of refreshing, actually.
     The boat ride was great, and just what we needed to start the day. It had an enclosed lower deck and an open upper deck, but only six people were allowed on the upper deck at any one time. Since we were one of the first to board, we started the cruise on the upper deck. The lake was just beautiful, almost as smooth as glass, with mountains all around. There were about 30 passengers, and there was no problem taking turns on the upper deck. The boat moved slowly, and the captain explained that though the boat was built in the 1920's, the engine was a modern diesel from the 70's, had 50 horsepower and burned fuel at a rate of about 1 gallon per hour . Not bad!
     As we cruised along, the captain explained some of the ecology, and told stories about how the park and lodge were started. We did find out that the reason the water is such an aqua blue is that the glacier particles are suspended in the water and cause reflections making the water a shade of aqua. We cruised alo this way and took a bunch of great pictures along the way. By the time the ride ended, we were sufficiently relaxed - though still hungry - and ready to hit the road. By then it was 12:30 and breakfast was out, so we thought we would just grab a quick lunch at the A&W Root Beer down the road.
     After A&W, we headed west on MT-206, and then turned south on MT-35S. As the larger mountains disappeared behind us, the rest of the scenery looked like almost any other rural area, except for the mountains looming in the distance. When we go to Flathead Lake, and the Flathead Indian Reservation, we decided to follow the lake down on the western side as it seemed there was more activity there . So we followed MT-82W for a few miles across the top of the lake until we connected with US-93S. Once we hit US-93S and the Flathead Lake, the scenery improved dramatically. Flathead Lake is somewhat commercialized, and it looks like lots of people use it all summer for all kinds of water activity. It looked like great fun!
     It turned out our hotel was right on US-93S in Missoula, MT so we just followed along until the hotel was in sight. We were hoping for a decent restaurant tonight, and groaned when we saw the Subway across the street. Not tonight! I looked at the dining suggestions in the hotel brochure, and found a place a couple of miles away called Cafe Zydeco. It had decent reviews from TripAdvisor, and was the something different we were looking for. The place looked a little funky inside and out, but the food was great! I had the Jambalaya and Jody had the Red Beans and Rice. The only mistake we made was to order the large size when the small would have been plenty.
     Tomorrow we are heading south into Idaho. We will be passing through the Sawtooth National Forest on our way to Hailey, ID.   The weather has been warming, so we're looking forward to a bright sunny day!

205.4 miles today
6968.6 miles total

4.659 gallons today
167.537 gallons total