Had an occasion recently to visit the Burger Bunker here in Great Falls at 24 5th Street South.
Upon after getting dry burgers at places like Tracy’s and the Halftime, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Burger Bunker burgers were anything but dry. The condiments were piled on generously by default, along with onions, tomatoes, pickles, and lettuce.
The breaded fries were sort of an added bonus.
The Burger Bunker (tap or click image to enlarge)
The burgers came to us in the classic burger style served up in little baskets that included the fries — Sort of like how they did in the olden days. The young aged crew were helpful and courteous.
The burgers all have their own names, like “The Malmstrom”, “The Sherman”, or “The Desert Fox” for instance. Each one has it’s own somewhat unique toppings and sauces.
I know that a lot of these places around town have their reviews left on places like Trip Advisor and the like, some reviews are good, while other reviews are not so good. In the case of the Burger Bunker however, the reviews are as advertised. Trying some of these places out first hand is usually the best way to learn about them though.
Stop in to the Burger Bunker and take the challenge:
Food Challenge – The General
2 Malmstrom burgers, side of fries, and side of Onion rings. Finish in 20 min or less and it’s free, fail and it costs you $19
Burger Bunker hours:
Sun 11AM–6PM
Mon 11AM–8PM
Tue 11AM–8PM
Wed 11AM–8PM
Thu 11AM–8PM
Fri 11AM–8PM
Sat 11AM–8PM
Phone: 406-952-0130 – (tap number to call from your smartphone)
Seems I’ve never been one for the bars, at least in the traditional sense. I learned years ago in Missoula, when I was the designated driver for all of my drunk buddies, that bar food can be pretty tasty.
Today we had the great pleasure of meeting up with some of my wife’s old co-workers from her Pasta Montana years at the Halftime Bar & Casino.
Sports bars are what they are and the Halftime wasn’t any different. Huge TV’s adorned every wall, and it was dark.
We decided to have something to eat, so I settled for the old cheeseburger standby. Bar food is usually pretty good as a rule, but if you’ve never been into a certain place before, the cheeseburger is usually a pretty safe bet. You can tell a lot about a bar by the way they make and serve up the cheeseburger.
Since I had never been in the place before, my safe bet was the cheeseburger.
I don’t eat out as often as I might have done back in the 80’s, and lately I’ve been somewhat disappointed at how totally dry the food is. The best burger I ever had at a bar was in Dixon, Montana at the Dixon bar. The thing dripped with condiments by default. These days however, the burger is served up dry without any mayo/catsup/mustard. A plain sometimes toasted dry bun is about all you’ll get.
One of the few redeeming qualities of the Halftime Bar cheeseburger was that the beef was fairly thick and it appeared to be hand pressed (like the kind you make on the BBQ at home).
For all of the years that I’ve lived here, this was the first time I had ever been in the Halftime Sports Bar. I’m not much of a bar person to begin with so it’s hard to say if I’ll go in again anytime in the near or distant future.
Okay guys, lets all pile into the truck and head on down City Motors or Bison Ford to buy a new car.
Sounds so simple … Right?
Not so fast.
Car shopping, at least for us, is anything but simple. Car shopping for us requires a bit of reserve in that we don’t just jump up and run right out to buy something we might have seen in a commercial somewhere.
We might spend literally months, driving around town during our regular activities noticing all of the rigs around us in the process.
What rigs look horrible when they’re dirty, or look rather terrible even when they’re clean … and what rigs are used for various different things. Looking at a rig that’s a bit banged up can say a lot about the rig itself.
Then we notice which rigs there are out there that do poorly in town during winter conditions. If I buy that, am I going to have to park it for 4 months out of the year? Sure, it looks all cool and all, but just how well will the bumper cowling that’s only 4 inches above the street fair when the ice ruts form in the middle of February?
When I look around town throughout the year, I come away with the notion that there are a large number people that are driving mostly what they’re able to afford. If the heater and the radio works, then it’s a done deal.
There are also those who drive around in rigs that are totally impractical for the area driving conditions. Those who might still be ignorant of just how bad the weather can get here, or those who don’t care about the conditions because they’re too busy showing off to their buddies.
Then we’ve got the guys that are literally 7 feet tall … I mean who in their right mind is going to put a tool box on a truck that has a 12 inch lift kit with 18 inch tires. Surely the owner of that truck has to be at least 7 feet tall, or he just likes to climb into the back of his truck via step ladder just to get to his tools, because … you know … he’s cool and all.
Most of us around here all pretty much drive what’s practical. 4 wheel drive trucks (that we actually get into without the use of a ladder) and all wheel drive SUV’s are common place.
Our son will be driving himself to school next year, and he’s already got our F-150 4×4 in his sights — Good for him I reckon, because I wouldn’t want to put him behind the 8 ball with a 2 wheel drive.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single car commercial for any of the rigs we have now.
The rigs we have now … sold themselves … in the wild … long before we considered stepping on to the lot of a dealership. Ours is basically the process of elimination when we do our car shopping. If it sells by just driving down the street, then who needs a car commercial or a dealer to tell you about it?
I know that I’m not the first parent in the world to go on and on bragging about how just totally wonderful my kid is, and I also know that I certainly won’t be the last.
But I’m just amazed at how different the world is now than it was when I was a kid … I’m sure that many of you can absolutely relate.
Dustin was born at Benefis in Great Falls, Montana in 2006.
Since then he has done more traveling — has seen and experienced more things, before the age of 10, than I had before the age of 30.
Dustin started out in Great Falls, and just after his 2nd birthday in December 2008, we struck out for Texas to help rebuild Galveston and Crystal Beach after hurricane Ike.
Hurricane Ike struck the gulf coast of Texas in Sept of 2008, but the FEMA money didn’t start pouring into the state until Jan 2009.
His adventures in Texas took him to many gulf coast counties, (Hardin, Orange, Chambers, Galveston, and Harris) where he met a great number of people that lived very different lives. His adventures took him to Houston, San Antonio and beyond. He also ventured over to Louisiana on occasion.
Upon after working in Texas for a few years, it was time to come home. Being since it was the month of February and Dustin had already started kindergarten, we decided to head over to western Washington state where the in-laws lived, and where the weather was more suited to being above zero as opposed to being below zero.
It was at about this time that Dustin was in kindergarten, so we set him up at the local grammar school, where he proceeded to rack up a total of 5 full years of perfect attendance. We stayed a bit longer than I would have liked due to the fact that we weren’t real keen on interrupting his school experience.
As an aside, Dustin is still friends with his kindergarten teacher (of only 4 months) in Texas at West Orange Stark Elementary.
Dustin continued his perfect attendance streak at West Elementary when we got back to Great Falls. He hasn’t gotten perfect attendance since he started Junior High or High School because they calculate attendance differently. (You can show up every day and still not get perfect attendance because every period keeps their own forms of attendance too)
Dustin has been to every state west of the Mississippi with the exception of California and Nevada. From the Alamo in San Antonio, to the Petrified National Forest, to Meteor Crater, to the Grand Canyon, to Mount St Helen’s, to Multnomah Falls, OHSU Tram, University of Oregon, Seattle Center/Space Needle, North Cascades Highway, Olympic National Park, Ocean Shores, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Little Big Horn, Moorcroft, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, and the list just seems to go on and on.
Dustin is somewhat of a history and a geography buff. His first year in Junior High when he met his new geography teacher, the very first thing Dustin pointed out was that the big world map on the wall was wrong (the map was fairly dated) — Dustin knows where in the world all of the countries are. He’s also a European history buff, and knows where all of the countries used to be before all of the major wars.
Dustin with his Mother at the Christmas Stroll (tap or click image to enlarge)
So here he is today. Going to High School is a great deal of fun as far as he’s concerned. We’ve always told him to keep his options open when it comes to any possible future education, and to always take his time and to be thoughtful about whatever decisions he’s planning to make in the future. For all of the living Dustin has so far been able to do up to this point, I could hardly contain my surprise when he informed me last week that he was going to be the first Libertarian Governor of the state of Montana.
You know — Kids say the darnedest things … and personally I would have preferred that his interests wander off into much more productive areas, but then again … who am I to say. I’ll support whatever it might be that he decides to do.
On the final year of Dustin going to Kent Prairie Elementary, he was the only one out of 720 kids that got perfect attendance. (no one even got excellent attendance)
Dustin got one excellent attendance in kindergarten because he started late after our move from Texas.
Learning Montana values at an early age can really pay off, as the video below shows.
During the period of time that we spent on the Texas gulf coast, we never experienced any hurricanes. We did however, experience the time when interstate 5 fell into the Skagit River at Mt Vernon and also, the Oso Mud Slide on the Stillaguamish River in Oso, Washington. Dustin lost a classmate in the slide.
Over the years we’ve met some rather incredible people in our travels. If it hadn’t have been for my work, Dustin might not have ever had the great opportunity to meet these people. Though we were invited to stay in the local communities of Texas and Washington state, we just couldn’t accept, because you see, Montana is our home. Great Falls is where we truly belong. Great Falls is Dustin’s town, and these are his people.
David Caballero (Gnomusy – Gnome of Music) was born in Madrid, Spain in January 1963. A Civil Engineer by profession. His love of music started at an early age. His musical tastes include Jazz, Ragtime, Bluegrass, Electronic and Celt. David first published his music in 1999 in mp3.com under the name Gnomusy.
David Caballero (aka GNOMUSY) began playing keyboards at age seven and composing music at age ten, he says, as a way to express himself and his perception of reality.
After several years of piano studies at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid (Spain), David explored other styles such as Andinian, Jazz, Ragtime, Bluegrass, Folk and Celtic music. This gave him the opportunity to develop a mosaic of influences and to discover the mysteries of the various instruments he practiced including piano, keyboards, guitar, mandolin, banjo and the flute.
A great believer in embracing technological advancements, Caballero says, “In the future, I foresee that artists will jointly create pieces through seamless collaboration between different art sources in which sounds, light and space will co-exist, interact and change dynamically.”
While his state-of-the-art studio provides great enjoyment, the fantasy world and nature are never far from Cabellero’s thoughts. He majored in Forestry Engineering at the Polytechnical University of Madrid, and has dedicated his professional life to the study of forest fires. Besides composing, he is a scientist who researches forest fire and information systems projects such as EUFIRELAB, co-funded by the European Commission.
In 1993, David began composing and sequencing synthesizers using computers and the MIDI protocol. Soon, he discovered that this approach gave a new dimension to his compositions. Using his Korg X3 keyboard, David wrote pieces like “Altair” (1995), “Virtuality” (1994) and “Camelot” (1997). These works, Caballero says, provided a preview of what later would become his particular style.
The songs portray fantasy worlds, which are full of characters and landscapes, exciting to the senses, with nods to mythology and ancient cultures, and, always, with a deep emotional component.
