Thursday, July 17, 2008 - Rest Day in Lewistown, MT

We've had a very productive rest day here in Lewistown, in the very center of Montana. They kind of lied to us about it being dead center; the official geographical center appears to be about 7 miles north of here (shameless boasting, don't you think?). The name of our hotel is Yogo Inn and we enquired about the name. Yogo is a Native American word for blue and its the name of a very rare kind of sapphire that is found only in this area of Montana. One of its unusual features is that it remains lustrous in artificial light. Other sapphires apparently absorb artificial light and look dark and dull in it. We spent a little time wandering around the town center; there are a number of historic buildings dating from the early 1900's. Lewistown was a regional center during the gold rush days and its train depot was an important part of the local industry. When its usefulness began to decline after WWI, it was due to be torn down but the community pitched in to have it saved. Today it's part of the Yogo Inn. We were surprised to hear live music last night in our after-dinner stroll. It turned out to be a very good 8-person band playing country rock on the sidewalk in front of a tavern on Main. Today we ventured out for lunch and found a little bistro with amazingly good food. Surprising what you can find in the middle of Montana!

Next week we'll be going through a lot of very small towns spread very far apart, so we're not optimistic about our cellphone or internet access. Expect delays, possibly long ones. By the end of the week we'll hit North Dakota and we should at least have good service in Williston where we'll be next Thursday and Friday.

A great restaurant in Lewistown

Buildings on Main Street dated 1909

A tavern with murals from the Chokecherry Festivals held here

Another old building and interesting mural

The old Judith Theatre still in operation and a 1904 building

A building dated 1914, also with a mural

Our hotel and conference center, showing the old train depot part

This shows how large the hotel is