The adventure begins

Today we started the day with a morning hike around Devil's Tower.  It was a crisp and beautiful morning, and a lot of people were out.

The view from the hiking trail was gorgeous!

We saw many climbers climbing to the top of the Tower.  Can you see the climbers in the picture?  There are actually about five of them.

After returning to the hotel, showering, and checking out, we went on a search for groceries and food. The local grocery store was a bust.  

Out of the six items I needed, they only had one.  So we decided to try again in Baker.  

Our next task before getting in the car for a 2.5 hr drive was to get some lunch.  We started at the Itching Post.  As we were walking in, two couples got up and left.  One muttered, "Don't stay."  Not a good sign.  So we followed them out the door and asked for more info.  They said they had been waiting for a long time.  They were shorthanded, and there was only one person cooking.  No one was getting served anytime soon.  So, strike number two for Hulett that Sunday morning.

We walked down the street to the Ponderosa Cafe, but they were closed for a private party.  We kept walking to the R Deli, but they were closed.  We tried the Saloon across the street, but apparently they don't serve food.  So we were left with a BBQ food truck or the Red Rock Cafe that is attached to the Hulett Motel.  We decided to try the Red Rock, and were pleasantly surprised.

The food was good and the portions were large.  Lunch is served.

After lunch, we hit the road to Baker, MT, the site of the first race.  As soon as we got to Baker, we located the grocery store, Reynold's Market.  It was a nice sized store with everything I needed.  Much better that Hulett.  But things got difficult after that.

The packet pickup and pasta dinner was supposed to be at Triangle Park.  We asked how to get there when we were at the store, and no one had ever heard of it.  We decided to try to find the hotel and check in, thinking they would know where Triangle Park is.  So we headed up the road to find the hotel.  After turning down many roads with no road signs and not finding it, we decided to go back to the grocery store and ask directions.  We attempted to follow the directions and got lost again.  So we called OnStar to get turn-by-turn directions.  Their directions took us to a trailer on the wrong side of Main Street.  So we turned around and decided to just drive down the road and see if it was the other direction.  After three methods of trying to find it, we finally found the hotel.

Being a small town, there were many choices for hotels, and apparently the Red River Inn was the best option out there. 

Our next adventure was to find the packet pickup and pasta dinner location.  We got back in the car and headed toward the lake.  After driving around for a short bit, we were able to locate them in a pavilion on the back side of the lake.  

The race will start and end at that spot next to the lake tomorrow.  We will have 14 out-and-back laps to get to the marathon distance.

After the pasta dinner, meeting some of the other runners (including a guy named Nads....Can you say, "Go Nads!"?), and a short walk around part of the lake, we returned to the hotel to retire for the night.  My first race of a four race week is tomorrow at 6:30am.

Wish me luck at http://anython.com/running-for-sissy-simon.