Giro Alpino 2024 – Day 7 – Coeur D’Alene ID to Bozeman MT

389 miles

The trip from Coeur d’Alene to Bozeman was a lot of highway. Beautiful highway but highway non the less. My one way to take a break from it was to route through Helena rather than Butte.

Crossing the Idaho/Montana border, I had chance to pull over and take a picture of the border sign. This knocks another state of the list of states to visit. I think this puts me at 42 visited.

Helena is not really anything to write home about. I took a quick run into the town to look around. It seems like many an old western town with late 19th century architecture. The road into Helena, off of the interstate, was great to ride. Not too much traffic and plenty of curves and little old towns. I pulled off in one for gas and a snack. It seems everyone lets their dogs roam around off leash. Several came to see if I would share my snack.

When I got into Bozeman, I found a local co-operative store that sold coffee so I pulled over and grabbed a latte. Next door was the Lewis and Clark Motel. If I hadn’t pre-arranged my hotel that night I think I would have stayed here.

After cleaning up and parking the bike at the hotel, I took a walk around. I found another hotel that would have been fun to stay at.

It was Friday night and the town was hoping with folks going up and down Main Street. I could not tell what this group was up to but they were having fun.

At the end of Main Street was another old hotel although not used as such any more.

Given I was in prime cattle country, it seemed only proper to have steak for dinner. I found the perfect spot Open Range. I actually picked it because the bar looked nice and inviting. The question was beef or bison. Bison won given I would be heading to Yellowstone next. I thought I had ordered a filet. I meant to order a filet. However, a ribeye showed up. I made the most of it.

After dinner, I continued my wandering around town catching the buildings as the sun set and the neon lights came. Here’s an alternative view of the Baxxter.

I had never really thought about it before but there are a lot of Rialto theaters around. I’d seen several on my trip. Apparently, Rialto was an area of Venice Italy that was a marketplace. It has also been used to refer to the theater district.

I thought this was another cool neon sign. Apparently, JW Heist is also as steakhouse. Not the one that I ate my ribeye at.