Father’s Day 2016 has rolled around. Last year we went to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington; who was one of the main Founding Fathers and our First President. We were in Virginia, so that was easy to do. This year, we are in the Big Sky State of Montana. So what did we decide to do? I switched it up and we did some Fathers Day Recon.
What is Father’s Day Recon? Each new place we visit, we look at the different sites and events that we may want to potentially visit or experience. What I noticed is that we will gear up, plan our day, get to the locale and, at times, it is not what we expected. So, we make up new plans, on the spot. Which, I might add, we have become quite adept at doing. Instead of repeating the same process, I thought, “Why don’t we do a little recon (reconnaissance – preliminary surveying or research)?” That way we can check it out and see if it is worth returning to.
With that in mind, I created a recon list. But before we ventured out, Mama Nomad and the boys had some well crafted, hand made cards to give me and an actual Father’s Day present. I am not going to share the present just yet because I want to try it out and come back to write about it.
After reading the cards and playing…umm…fully examining my present, we set out. Now, I am not going to share my whole list here and now. That would give away some of the places that we are going to return back to in the future. What I will do is list a couple of places we will not be returning to. They are Signal Butte and 12 Mile Dam.
Signal Butte is supposed to be the tallest point in the area. Well, we were driving up to it and we came upon a sign that said “Private Property – Do Not Enter.” As we do not make it a habit to trespass, especially when the property owners own guns and take that seriously, we decided to turn around and we have no pix to share.
12 Mile Dam is named as such because it is located around mile marker 12 on Highway 59 in Custer County. The dam spans the Tongue River. There is a bathroom out there and some picnic tables. We saw some patches of rock out in the middle of the river where people setup lawn chairs to enjoy the sun and fish. The water is not deep enough to swim for us and we do not having fishing poles, so we left.
We did, however, scout at least 4 more locations that we will be returning to including a museum, a lake, an island and a recreation area where a creek runs through it out to a major river.
Finally, I will say that we did recon on a restaurant at the end of the night. It was called the Montana Rib 
and Chop House. We walked in and they asked us if we had a reservation. The place was packed, we had no reservation, so I planned on us having to sit and wait a bit. Well, not many people came without a reservation and they sectioned off an area for people like us. Good ole Nomad fortune landed us at a table within a few minutes.
The boys each ordered BBQ Ribs, Mama Nomad had the grilled chicken breast with twice baked potato soup and I had the rib eye (medium rare). Everyone loved their food. The boys said those were some of the best ribs they ever had. They forgot to bring me a steak knife. No worries…I cut it with a BUTTER KNIFE! That is how tender it was. So, I topped my Father’s Day Recon trip with a success.
I look forward to exploring all of the places that made it to my list and coming back and sharing it with you all. What a great Father’s Day! I am truly blessed. Safe Travels.
