(Cheryl) Yellowstone seems like a distant memory, and I can’t believe we haven’t blogged since our visit to the Fishing Bridge where I managed to get a picture of a large beaver in the water. On our way out of the park we made a lunch stop on a sweet little scenic road next to the Yellowstone River. We had this spot all to ourselves and a deer peeked out of the trees on the other side of the river. Frank fixed chicken and cheese tortillas in the trailer while I dangled my feet in the cold, clear waters of Yellowstone.
(Frank) While we ate our lunch on the river bank, a scene directly out of Apocalypse Now replayed as five green, completely-unmarked, conspiracy-theory helicopters in tight formation thundered directly over our heads. There were three transports and two Blackhawk gunships. The only thing missing was the Ride of the Valkyries being played over loudspeakers and Robert Duvall enjoying the smell of napalm in the morning. The copters passed directly over our picnic at low altitude as I sat there with my camera in the trailer. About an hour later I heard the thunder again and ran to the trailer just in time to grab my camera and get a fuzzy long distance photo as they returned from whence they came. Later I found out they were secret service helicopters and part of the preplanning for President Obama’s visit to Yellowstone.
By the way, about the river; Cheryl got to dangle her feet in it, which is a “girl thing”, but she wouldn’t let me take a whiz in it, (even down stream) which is a “guy thing.” Now I’ll never be able to say I peed in the Yellowstone River. Women just don’t understand the significance of these small manly gestures. Sigh, what an opportunity missed.
(Cheryl) We got to Ennis, MT around 3:30 p.m. and caught up with our friends, Pam and Richard Lessner, just as they were heading out to their home 20 miles outside of town. They met us at the Ennis RV Park, and after hooking up the trailer we all headed out to “The Grizz” (Grizzly Bar & Grill), their favorite place to eat hereabouts. I munched down on some of the best ribs I’ve eaten in ages accompanied by beer battered onion rings (to die for) and tenderly grilled asparagus. We both slept like well-fed hogs when we returned to the trailer for the night.
Pam and Rick suggested we take in Virginia City and Nevada City the next day so on Thursday morning we headed out. We were so fascinated with Nevada City’s collection of over 60 pioneer buildings and contents that we didn’t even make it to Virginia City on Thursday. All but about a dozen of these log buildings were moved to the site, content and all back in the 40s before vandals had a chance to destroy things. It seems that when better opportunities came along, people would just lock up their store and all its wares and head to a new city to start again. Most of the buildings stood like that for years until an enterprising guy here collected them all and moved them to Nevada City.
There were rooms full of goods still in their wrappings, buttons, fabric, candy, tins of cookies, celluloid collars, shirt studs, razors, corsets, period clothes and all sorts of firecrackers and other goods, some wrapped with Chinese markings in the China section of the little reconstructed town. We paid the $8 bucks each to get in thinking it was too much, but by the time we finished looking and taking pictures until late in the afternoon we decided it was well worth the money. It was a self-guided tour so we were free to linger and walk through houses all on our own. Trust is a major factor here in the wilds of Montana and our friends don’t even lock their house. Pam said, “If you get there before we do, just go on in, make yourselves at home, and we’ll be along.”
We toured Virginia City on Friday and took in a silent movie featuring Buster Keeton. The film was accompanied by a photoplayer , a combination piano and sound effects unit played by a talented guy who may be the only person left who knows how to handle such a machine. This photoplayer is the only one in the world still in operation housed in a theater. The one other known to reside in a theatre was moved to a museum in Australia recently.
(Frank) In Montana’s early days the local folks were vexed by highwaymen, claim jumpers, thieves and killers. It got so bad the local Virginia City good folks got together and formed a vigilante committee. They posted warnings of their intent and then followed through. On one major occasion they hung five scoundrels from the center rafter of a shop that was under construction. Now the shop is open to the public and has the ceiling exposed to show the rafter, complete with rope burns where the bad guys swung their last dance step. Cool! I just love frontier justice. We need more of that.
We spent last evening out at Pam and Richard’s house having a cookout and great conversation as a rainstorm passed through their valley and the sun behind the clouds put on a great light show on the surrounding mountains. Thunder boomed and Peanut curled up in a fuzzy kitty bed in front of the fireplace content to be “home on the range.” Thanks Pam and Richard for such a lovely and memorable evening.
There is so much more to tell, but we’re going to the Farmers Market in Ennis this morning to get a rhubarb pie and other yummy local produce along with breakfast at a local pharmacy café. We’re heading out to Missoula, MT, today and possibly on to Glacier National Park. We hope to be in Seattle next weekend to visit with our kids. Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose is now in Middleville, OR, at Evergreen Aviation, so that is now on our agenda after Seattle.
Love to all of you from Roy, Dale and Trigger
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