Crisscrossing Montana and Idaho

Wallace,Idaho

We headed next to the little town of Wallace, Idaho. Why? Glad you asked. For it's Wallace that is one of the only towns that didn't get destroyed by the catastrophic wildfires with hurricane force winds blowing through in 1910. It, too, is a living museum to the mining era of this area. Almost every building in town, including the homes, is on the National Registry also. No theaters left here (there were three at one time), but the town is very prominently displayed in the movie "Dante's Peak" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118928/ and also has a smaller role in the infamous film "Heaven's Gate" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080855/ . We did a four mile hike up to the area where a group of firefighters took refuge in an old mine while the firestorm in 1910 blew through the area. While several of them died, most made it back to Wallace due to the heroics of a fellow named Ed Pulaski. It's a fascinating story, and we're not sure why someone hasn't written a screenplay for a film about it. The Coeur D'Alene bike trail winds through the mountains from there all the way to Wallace, and there are several well known ski resorts nearby. Smarty drove us down I-90 to Coeur D'Alene

Coeur D'Alene

, a beautiful resort lake area surrounded by mountains. The town is bustling with restaurants, shops, hotels, and tons of tourists! It was busy. We decided, after having lunch with the tourist crowds, we would come back over to stay during a shoulder season sometime when it's not so crowded. Down the highway about 20 miles to the West is the much larger Spokane. We toured around the old and active downtown area and then deadheaded it for a resupply of food stocks at one of our ever reliable targets on the road, Trader Joe's. We were running low so this hit of TJ's was especially timely.
Next stop is Helena, Montana, which sits in a valley in the North Central part of the state. It's a pretty short jog from the Wallace area to here, and entering through the mountain passes in the west, we start descending into town. We drive past the State Capital building and the interesting looking, mostly old, but well preserved, downtown. In preparing for our trip in and since we're both (always) in the mood to look at the theaters in these towns (mostly because they're still there and the locals frequent them), we noticed that one of our all time favorite actresses from any era, Myrna Loy, 


Inside The Myrna Loy Center

is from Helena, and that there's a movie theater named for her. Two local movie enthusiasts started a film society and named it with reverence to her. Later, with the help of a grant, they bought a great old building to house the Myrna Loy Film Center  http://www.myrnaloycenter.com/aboutmlc.htm . It's quite unique, and the town's lucky to have it. Food in Helena? The most interesting find is The Parrot http://www.parrotchocolate.com/. Around since 1922, this is THE place in Helena for home made candy, ice cream, sodas, and some yummy fun food. Almost everything here is made in-house, as it was over 90 years ago. As the Myrna Loy is to movies, this place is to the old fashioned fountain. I ordered a cherry phosphate with vanilla ice cream and a foot long Sabrett hot dog while M A went with the homemade chili and a chocolate mocha shake. Yum! We got the tourist pass from a very sweet young employee named Jade (below). Think she could tell we were more than normally interested in the place, so she took us to the kitchens and let us sample the just made candy! Wow, what a fun treat. Made lunch there all the more special. Their chocolate reminded me a little of that we used to get from our St. Louis chocolatier as kids, Mavrakos. Very special.

From Helena, we begin our track back East and south, towards the West Yellowstone area again. Our trajectory has changed, and we are heading to....Iowa. Why? Stay tuned....