A Montana Wedding - Part III

Have you tried those Clorox Gel Bleach Pens on the grout in your bathtub? It's like a miracle product! There was one stain I couldn't get out with Tilex (which normally eats through all crud!) in our green bathroom, so I put some of the gel bleach on it and left it there for a bit. Came back and it looked like I had just re-grouted that area!

Oh... so you didn't come here for bathroom cleaning tips? OK, OK! Day 2 in Montana began with continental breakfast (included in the price of our room at the Grand Union). You know the fare... sticky buns, hard boiled eggs, cereal, juice, toast, fruit. I'm almost thinking we should do that at the beach instead of cooking 5 lbs of bacon and getting splattered with grease. Anyway, after breakfast, Val headed back up to take a nap and the rest of us went down the street to the Chouteau County Fair. As it just opened, there weren't too many events going on except for the Steer Competition:


The guy in the middle (red shirt) won. We went into the barn to check out the other animals. Mike stepped in cow poop. Or was it lamb poop? Freddy made a new friend and wanted to take this baby mini-ninny home for Molly:

We went back to the hotel and headed out to the H family house to help set up for the wedding. Everyone was on hand to set up the chairs:

Here's Mike and Aaron (Heidi and Tiff's brother) setting up the tent:

The wedding rehearsal was at 4:00, followed by the rehearsal dinner at the Grand Union for the wedding party, hosted by Eric's dad. Since William and Freddy were the only ones from our group in the wedding party and the rest of us were not invited to dinner, John, Val and I headed to Great Falls to see the town and have some dinner. Mike stayed at the rehearsal.

(crickets chirping - tumbleweeds rolling by)

The three of us roamed the streets of Great Falls looking for something to pop out at us, but ended up at Borrie's Family Restaurant. This was one of Bart's recommendations and was also listed in the little Great Falls guide we picked up. The restaurant was a steak & Italian joint, very reasonably priced for what we got. Each meal included soup (minestrone or chicken broth), salad, and breadsticks. The minestrone was yummy! John and Val both ordered the smaller 12 oz. tenderloin/filet and I had the rib steak ($21.50, folks!):

It was GINORMOUS! They said it was 20 ounces, but I think it had to be much more than that! I was already getting full after soup and salad. I ate a small 1" chunk off the end that was hanging over the plate and boxed the rest. Little Susie (pictured above left) was amazed at the size of this Montana steak! After dinner, we headed back to Fort Benton. We stopped at this Scenic Overlook to see the Missouri River and valley:

When we got back to the hotel, the wedding rehearsal dinner was just beginning. The original plan was for the dinner to be held between 6:30 - 7:00, but it was almost 8:00 and they had just finished ordering. Merle invited us to come back down in a bit for dessert.

I was too tired and headachy to go back out for bar hopping with the rest of the group, so I just stayed in and watched Batman Begins. John headed down to meet with everyone around 9:00 PM (and he missed dessert - NUTS!). Everyone had a great time at the Banque (bar across the street). John came back to the room while everyone else headed to another bar and stayed out till 3:00 AM.

Poor Val came back to her room after a couple drinks, opened up the door and a BAT flew at her! Apparently, bats hang out under the bridge and occasionally, they somehow make their way into the hotel rooms. The hotel staff didn't seem too concerned about it, but Val was a little distraught. More on this story later.

Stay tuned for Day 3 details tomorrow!