Both establishments are owned by the same family, and are very nice folks. Before the brewery was a brewery it was a grocery store. They did some remodeling, preserving some of the history on the walls. We started off with beer tasting, then we left for a short break, walking all the way across the street to our trailer. When the restaurant opened we went back for dinner. The food at GEM's is fantastic, most of it made in house.
The restaurant was converted from the town theatre to the present eatery. Besides serving dinner, they also provide live music from local bands... and I don't mean just Wibaux. One cool thing is an old canvas billboard hanging from one wall. The restaurant was able to display it because the town museum did not have the space to display it.
As you can see, they did little to the outside of the building. The original ticket booth is part of the kitchen area for the restaurant. The projection room was remodeled to provide a group table and their office. Let's talk dinner.
Both meals required to go boxes... of course we had to order dessert to go also. They didn't skimp on the shrimp in Carol's meal, and they were not afraid to put meatballs on my sandwich. It was hard to tell if the meatballs were store bought or homemade, they had a dense texture with good flavor. Their bread and rolls were homemade for sure, they were outstanding.
Before we left the next morning we stopped at the town museum, you can get more info at: (https://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/museum/wibaux-museum). The museum was more about the area with a lot of artifacts donated by local residents. The town was named after Pierre Wibaux, who gave up the opportunity in his families textile business for ranching, and became one of the world's largest cattle ranchers. Pierre also owned several other businesses in town, one of course being the bank. It is a guided tour through his business office, a railroad car that was taken to a World's Fair, livery stable, and the barber shop which was moved from a different location in the town. The train car contains artifacts about the early and recent history of the area, again, a lot donated. The livery stable holds items ranging from a kitchen cupboard organizer to chain assembly for knocking down brush during fires. An interesting item found in the attic of one of the homes at the turn of the century was a french made bicycle, there were only three in America, mostly because it was a disaster to ride on dirt roads. The reason the barber shop was moved on museum grounds was because of the bathroom, the first one in Wibaux. The water for the bath tub was heated with Kerosene before filling the tub.
Splinters were at a minimum on the toilet seat, it was sanded and varnished. Some of you RVers may look at this toilet and see it as the first prototype for the composting toilet, it required emptying too.
Now that we had our potty break, it was time to get on the road for Billings Montana.
It was a little windy, but very nice drive across Montana. Our game plan was to spend only a night in Billings before heading to an alpaca farm. Our night stay was at the Billings Elk lodge. The lodge was not open the night we were there, they were having a wedding and reception. All we did was sit and relax outside enjoying the evening, it was nice enough that we did not need to run the air conditioner.
The building is behind our rig. Not only can you have fun, but they have a tennis club (you can see it to the left) they run. Unfortunately the Elks are selling this facility for a smaller one.
We left Billings on our way to Belgrade Montana to stay at the alpaca farm (sentinelranchalpacas.com), which is part of the Harvest Host group. Getting to the farm was a small challenge toward the end. After traveling down a gravel road for a mile, into the driveway, we arrived... wrong. As I was driving in another rig was driving out, so I needed to back up and pull over on a side street. After the other rig left I was able to back up around the corner and drive up the driveway to check in.
After we settled in we were taken for a tour of the farm. They have their alpacas organized by groups: males, females, moms with babies, and those in "freezer camp". We were the first trailer to settle in, by the end of the day there were over a dozen RVs in two areas. The temperature was very warm, we needed to run the generator for the air conditioner. We shut the generator off at bedtime, and opened windows. WOW, when it got really dark, the stars just burst into view. We had the big dipper out our front door.
Most of our tour was in the mom/baby pasture. Those creatures eat a lot, we brought a small bucket of pellets so we could feed them. It was fascinating feeding them, their teeth look like they will take part of your hand with the pellets, but they are barely felt. The pellets were really just a treat for them, they are happy munching grass. They only have bottom teeth, four large front teeth for cutting off the grass, the rest are more molar style for chomping/chewing. They are different from goats in the respect that they cut the grass, not pull it up by it's roots.
How many wondered what "freezer camp" meant? That is where alpaca go when their hair is no longer usable. We purchased some of the "frozen camp" alpaca in the form of chops, and ground alpaca. We were told that the meat is very lean and easy to cook, we'll find out.
With the days end it was time to prepare for our next stop in our journey across America.
Thanks for sharing! This has been a wonderful trip!
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