Ruth's Life is Good: Wednesday 9-16-26 Two Museums, Ice Cream, Lunch, Bike Park & Motorcycle Ride

Visiting Montana State University in Bozeman

We had a wonderful day of visiting Bozeman. We visited two museums, the Museum of the Rockies and American Computer & Robotics Museum. We ate lunch at Ollie's Deli & Dawgs and had dessert at Genuine Ice Cream.

We woke up to a brisk 38 degrees and the high temperature was 71 degrees. The weather was perfect to sleep in.

I crawled out of bed at 7:00 and got dressed. Then we had a bagel for breakfast with a shake. Then we hung around the Minnie until it warmed up. We wanted to take the motorcycle to do a little sightseeing in Bozeman. While we waited I did a little housecleaning. I shook out the rugs because they had little pieces of glass in them. They weren't sharp when you stepped on them, they just felt like little pebbles. After shaking out the rug I swept out the Minnie. The rugs had a lot of dust in them. Now we can walk around without worrying about the glass.

About 9:00 Larry moved the Minnie forward to get the motorcycle off it's carrier. Larry took the cover off the motorcycle and put the ramp together. Then we unstrapped the motorcycle and Larry rolled it off the carrier. Then he backed the Minnie back to where it belongs and plugged it back in. We got our helmets and turned on the intercom. We were ready to go. Montana State University was only a couple of miles away from the Gallatin County Fairgrounds.

First stop was the Museum of the Rockies. The museum is affiliated with the Montana State University in Bozeman and with the Smithsonian Institute. It's known for it's Paleontological collections, which is the study of the life of the past, mainly by fossils but not completely. It has the largest of North American Dinosaurs. The exhibits were very interesting. The exhibit fossils had two different colors, the darker color was the actual bones and the lighter color were bones they reproduced to complete the skeleton of the dinosaurs. The museum told the history of Montana and the Northern Rockies. There were exhibits about Yellowstone National Park. There are exhibits about the inhabitants of the Northern Rockies, which were Native Americans, fur trades, gold seekers, and settlers from frontier days through World Warr II. There is a Living History Farm, where costumed interpreters demonstrate life in the turn-of-the-century home and the Taylor Planetarium (Memorial Day to Labor Day). The Tinsley home is at the living history farm. There were a few exhibits getting changed out so we got a discount and we're seniors so it cost $15 a piece. It was busy. We had fun walking around the museum.

Museum of the Rookies

Terminonaris Roblista (Marine Crocodile)

Montana's T. Rex

Tyrannosaurus Rex (real bones with reconstructed material) discovered by Louis Trembley

DF Juvie Trike III (real bones with reconstructed material)

Montana and Yellowstone Morning Glory

Beaded Gauntlets (leather with glass beads) gift of Eleanor and Trevor Povah

Water wagon

Pietenpol Air Camper (mail order plane)

Carving by John L. "Cutapuis" Clarke (at age three scarlet fever took his hearing and speech away)

The Tinsley House (1880's and 1890's)

Alpacas on the farm at the museum

A sculpture of a horse in front of the museum

Our next stop was Ollie's Deli & Dawgs for lunch. It's located a few blocks away across the street from the football stadium. When we were driving by the stadium we thought there was something going on at the stadium because there were a lot of cars. Then we figured the students needed a place to park so they opened the stadium parking lot to them with a permit. The campus was busy with construction and a lot of the roads were torn up. We didn't have any trouble finding a place to park. We parked right in front of the restaurant. It was a very nice deli and the menu was bright and easy to read. We shared a cold sandwich, which was The Grinder ( Salami, Capicola, Soppressate, Pepperoncini, Provolone, Cabbage, Banana Peppers, Italian Dressing on an Italian Roll) and a bag of barbecue chips. It was a foot long sandwich so we brought half of it home with us for dinner. The service was excellent and friendly. When our order was ready they delivered it to us at the table. The sandwich was delicious and they put a lot of banana peppers on the sandwich. It's family owned.

Ollie's Deli & Dawgs

The Grinder

The third stop was American Computer & Robotics Museum. It was a few blocks away. It was on the first floor in a doctor office building. We were greeted by a friendly lady. Once we paid our $15 for the both of us she did a quick overview of the museum. Then she let us walk around and look at the displays. It was a small museum but very informative. It had a lot of displays on the history of computers and what they are used for. We had fun walking through it and brought back memories.

Robby the Robot "Quiet please, I'm analyzing"

Robots displays

Friends and Foes display (Terminator, the Borg and C-3PO)

Robots waiting for the bus

Display on early video games and Ralph Baer father of the video games

Apollo 11 computer guide for the mission

The office in 1922

Display about Apollo 15 and Commander David Scott Omega Speedmaster watch worn on the moon

Comparing the ENIAC and the chip used today

The first printing press by German goldsmith in 1436 Johannes Gutenburg

Entrance to the American Computers & Robotics Museum

Our final stop was Genuine Ice Cream. It a cute ice cream shop with seven classical flavors, which were Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Strawberry, Milk & Cookies (grounded Oreos), Honey Lavender (real Lavender Flowers mixed with Honey), Salted Caramel and Huckleberry and they have dairy free ice cream. We shared a sundae, two scoops of ice cream (Honey Lavender and Salted Caramel), caramel sauce, whipped cream, cherry and a topping (Oreo). The salted caramel was very tasty but the honey lavender didn't have a lot of flavoring, but it was different. All the ice cream was homemade. The service was very good and the employees were friendly. Genuine Ice Cream was located across the street from a mural about Bozeman. It was different you enter from the street and exit at the back of the store into the parking lot. It a very nice building.

Genuine Ice Cream

Our sundae

The mural

When we got back to the Minnie we relaxed. Larry finished another book before going to bed.

I played games. I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. I got all caught up with Mahjong. I played the Daily Event, which was Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 11 minutes and 4 seconds to complete, which put me in 12th place in my group.

For dinner we finished the grinder. Then we walked around the fairgrounds and walked to the bike park. The Bike Park was just a couple of blocks away. The bike park has two bicycle tracks, a BMX Track and a Jump Track. There were a lot of people using the tracks. It was fun watching them.