A whole heckin’ day in Helena
Woke up, made a little breakfast, and drove into town to see what was around. Grabbed a very delicious honey cinnamon latte at Montago coffee and read for a bit. Afterwards I spent a few hours walking around, shopping, and seeing what looked good for dinner later that night.
I headed back to my spot for a bit of a chill. I laid down to take a quick nap but ended up sleeping for an hour and woke up super disoriented with 15 minutes before the bang trim I had scheduled. I rushed out the door, and made it on time. After the bang trim (which was great), I grabbed some things at Target and the Natural Foods store nearby to prep for the 3 days of camping ahead.
When I arrived back at the AirBnb, the battery light came on on my car and it made a weird sound. After some googling and looking under the hood I realized that the serpentine belt had come completely off and I would definitely need to take the car to a shop immediately the next day before I could drive anywhere. Thankfully my AirBnb host was so nice, let me know I could stay as long as needed to and recommended a mechanic to me.
I ordered a Lyft and headed over to The Union for a steak dinner! I ended up being there for three hours or so. I had a bavette steak with bone marrow butter, beef fat fried onions with charred scallion ranch, a snap pea salad with radish, mint, and sheep’s cheese, a cup of s’mores (a chocolate mousse with graham cracker bits and tons of charred marshmallow on top), and some delightful sparkling rosé. I also had a lot of really great conversation with the bartender (an extremely talented ceramicist and fiber artist half way through a two year artist residency nearby) and the guy next to me (a respiratory therapist who loved hot tubs and music festivals).
After dinner, I grabbed a Lyft home with a super nice driver named Omar. He also had a Subaru in the shop and made some recommendations. I went up to my room, got stuff organized to leave the next day, and trotted off to bed.