June 7, 2019 Friday
Wall, SD to Broadus, MT

We started this morning with our drive to Mount Rushmore Nat'l Park.  Just some quick facts about the sculpturing of the monument.  The sculptor John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was the creator of the monument.  The monument was started in 1927 and completed in 1941.  Over the 14 year period there were almost 400 workers, men and women. 

Just like "Wall Drug", The Firehouse Winery & Brewery had there share of signs along our trip.  We did a quick stop to check it out.  They offer there private label wines, growlers (which they will fill for you with there beer).  We bought John a shirt and had to get on the road to our next destination.  

We continued our trip, through Wyoming and into Montana. 

A bit of Broadus History.  When the town streets were being planned, they were made wide enough for the horse-drawn carriage to turn around.  You can see in my pictures below how wide the streets still are today.  When Belle Creek Oil Field opened in the late 1960's, the economy of Broadus boomed.  In 2009 the natural gas production began to slide in Montana. Much larger wells were being drilled in the Eastern state and Texas which caused natural gas prices to fall dramatically.  Montana having shallow wells and unable to reproduce at the rate of larger states has caused the Gas and Oil industry to dissolve.  There really is not much in the old mining town.  They have a City Hall, more bars then population, grocery store and a handful of Restaurants.  The only place you find cars parked on the streets is in front of the bars 

Now that we have arrived in Broadus, Mt. for the night at Sagebrush Inn, which has a 220 volt charger for Tessie.  It has become harder to find charging station out in the country.  We were so fortunate to finding this place, basically in the middle of nowhere.  We walked into the office to check in and there was nobody around but, they had a sign on the office door to call Dan or Steve if you are checking in.  So I called Dan, and immediately he came riding over from across the street on his bike.  After checking in we discussed the bad weather that was being predicted, which was Thunderstorms with possibility of golf ball size hail.  YIKES!!!  The Inn doesn't have any covered parking so Dan was very accommodating in letting us park Tessie in his shop garage.  Since the storm wasn't arriving for a couple of house, we charged Tessie (not a full charge) and moved her to the shop.  The storm did come in on time but, no golf ball size hail, just thunderstorms through the night.  Being prepared is better then not. 

Dan recommended some eateries around this small town and when he mentioned pizza, John's eyes lite up, mine eyes rolled.   BTW, the pizza was delicious.  So good, we at first ordered a personal pizza to see if we liked it, well we did and went back and ordered a medium one.  Walked to the grocery store for the beer and we were set for dinner.

Thank you to Dan for his outstanding customer service and a very comfortable stay at the Inn.  If you every travel to this area, we highly recommend the Sagebrush Inn!!