Our overnight hotel in Edgemont was in The Cowboy Inn, a traditional no frills motel which offered everything we needed included a freezer and fridge to freeze our cool packs and keep the supplies of food, wine and beer cold. The lady on our arrival could not have been more helpful giving us plenty of bottled water and asking us to help ourselves to the various “goodies” (fruit and snacks). Knowing we were English she then offered us tea as well as the traditional coffee!
Last night we were welcomed in a traditional cowboy bar, where being a Saturday night the place was buzzing with ‘real cowboys’ who had come down from their ranches. There was a birthday party going on with karaoke. Beers were flowing (well not literally as they were serving bottles or cans in buckets with ice) and everyone was very friendly and welcoming to these people ‘with a lovely accent’!
We met some men from Alaska who had moved down here to sell their range of specialist, multi functional ‘flick’ knives – we passed on their offer to buy one! Another local told us about the local ‘beach’ on the lake only 20 miles from here and how there was no need to holiday in places like Jamaica with this scenery on the doorstep. He said when we come back he would take us out in his boat and show us more sites of the region. When my credit card struggled to go through to pay our bill because of technical issues with the reader he immediately offered to pay for our dinner. We thanked him but said the card would be ok (which it was on a second attempt), but what a lovely example of kindness to ‘strangers in town’.
We sampled the Saturday night special of slow cooked rib eye with gravy, green beans and home fries (nothing like the fries you get in a well known fast food establishment). It was delicious and felt like the first home cooked meal we had had since arriving in the country.
We have had a few problems with credit cards not working out here. The staff pull the card out expecting us to sign the paper without realising that we need to put a PIN in to authorise it. Then it refuses the payment. A little frustrating but now we know the system we should be ok.
The Victory Steakhouse and Lounge was adorned with loads of typical cowboy artefacts and gave the place a great local atmosphere. Unfortunately we had a long drive ahead of us the next day so we (for once in our lives) decided it was not time for ‘just one more’, and ‘headed on out’ back to the hotel. The Inn was going to be open until 2am and we could not afford to get caught up on a session, although we were tempted!
So we retired back to our motel for a final plan of the next day’s route and settled down for a good night’s sleep. Which we almost had, apart from the quaint regular sound of the train horns going off in the distance. Another reminder we were still in the Wild West.
Goodnight
Ax
