A brief bit of background for the Betty’s Diner post. My wife and I were on a 4700 motorcycle trip. On the day of my first experience at Betty’s Diner, we left Great Falls, Montana about 7:30 in the morning and rode north to Glacier National Park. After enduring three major construction zones with extended delays and large crowds and much congestion at the park, we finally made it to our hotel on the south side of Flathead Lake.
I needed to go for a walk just to appease my poor south end which had been on a motorcycle for about 12 hours that day. I came across Betty’s Diner on my return trip to the hotel. There was a sign for Huckleberry Ice Cream out front and so I thought I would surprise my wife with a cold treat after a long hot day on bikes. I ordered a cup of ice cream to go and started looking around the diner. It was really a fun little place. It brought back memories of days gone by when diners like this were common. I reached into my pocket to get my wallet to be prepared to pay for the ice cream. Oops, it wasn’t there. In my haste to get out of the hot motorcycle clothes I forgot to transfer my wallet to my shorts. I shouted over the counter to cancel the order. It was too late. The young man came out of the back with my ice cream and I explained my mistake. “NO WORRIES!” He said. Come back and see us again.
I was really touched by how gracious the server was. He insisted that I take the ice cream anyway. I thanked him for his generosity and brought the ice cream to my wife at the hotel. (It was very good by the way). I had to tell her the whole story about my forgetfulness and the graciousness of the people at the diner. To be honest, I was exhausted from being on the road for a long time and then the very long day we just experienced.
After a good nights sleep I got up to enjoy the cool mountain air. I ended up walking back to the diner and had a great breakfast. It reminded me of Cheers as several locals at the diner obviously knew each other and chatted away while they ate. I told the waitress to about the ice cream situation from the night before and asked her to add the ice cream to my breakfast tab. She looked at me like I was a little nuts. (I am) I left a nice tip which I asked her to share with her co-worker from the night before.
Moral of the story. If you find yourself in Polson, Montana, check out Betty’s Diner. Great food, amazing views of Flathead Lake, fun ambiance and most importantly very kind people.
