America the Beautiful

After a nice greasy breakfast at the O'Haire Hotel Restaurant aptly named Louie and Clark's, we went out to explore Great Falls. Our traveling companions begged off sighting work responsibilities until we told them what we were up to. I had it in my mind to visit one of the 5 hydro electric dams that put Great Falls on the map as the "Electric City" and to put my feet into the mighty Missouri River.


Mark above the dam.


A little warning before I got my toes wet.

Mark suns himself while Stephen documents same


Along the way we found a plethora of excellent old neon signs from Great Falls bright past. These great dinosaurs of bygone days stand as beacons in this harsh landscape. For a typographer like myself it's akin to seeing the virgin mary in a tortilla. I was on a mission, here's some of what we saw...







Great Falls seemed a bit sad and lonely and after saying out loud a few times, "where is everyone", we found them all up on the strip south of town getting homogenized, american style. We headed back downtown, a few blocks north and 50 years back in time. After braving the 90° heat for a few hours we decided to go back to the hotel and work on our mermaid moves in the pool while our new friends looked on, before we knew it it was time to go to Eddies Supper Club for…well, supper.



My recollection of this place from the outside was just a big white cinder block cube in the middle of a barren plain. Once inside we were absorbed into an environment that can only be described as womb-like with wood panel walls and plenty of red vinyl, and we were poised to take our nourishment in the form of red meat cooked campfire style which meant black as the inside of cow on the outside and still beating on the inside. Mark and I had the prime rib, Mark noted that it seemed to be served in a pool of blood. I was horrified at the size of it but ended up pleased at how tender and yes creamy it was, the fat was actually creamy. I was worried Maria might throw up as she is not much of a meat eater. I learned later that one of our waitresses had the telltales signs of meth addict. Sadly meth is a big problem in Montana, it's a hard life out there.



One of our new friends embarks on his journey to steak heaven or hell?

After our fine dinner we headed back to the safety and comfort of the Sip and Dip Lounge to reflect on the day and toss back a few too many signature fishbowl drinks. Many hours passed and soon it was time to leave the lounge. We took a few of our new friends back to our room for a bit recap of the events of the last few days and then before we knew it we were thrust back out onto the wide open plains of Montana.