We'll Miss You, Missoula!

TOP: One big buck

2nd: "Cosmo" Kathy enjoying a Missoula Martini

3rd: Wonder why they call them "Bighorn" sheep?

4th: Bullwinkle's legacy

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After spending the day touring GlacierNP, we drove into Kalispell and Missoula. Kalispell (surprisingly!) had the best coffee shop that we found on the whole trip...awesome baked good, great foo-foo coffee, and an outstanding breakfast. We spent the afternoon driving around Whitefish, then headed down to Missoula for the evening.

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We were quite surprised upon arriving in Missoula, as it was not what we expected. It was actually a little college town, surrounded by beautiful hills, with a couple of rivers running through it. Kinda of like Chattanooga, but with snow. And liberals. We found a great little game restaurant...how did we know it was a game restaurant? Well, because when we walked in the door, it was wall-to-wall with stuffed dead things; moose, bear, elk, deer, rabbits, and liberals. Great little place, and we had a fine game dinner. I feel so Lewis and Clark...

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Tomorrow we'll tour the area a bit more and do some hiking. But tonite, we are mountain men.

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"Who the heck ever came up with stuffing and mounting anyways?" Lumpy out

Glacier Shots

Happy Freakin' Birthday!

TOP: Mom and Kid rock hanging

2nd: Daddy checking out the tourists

3rd: Horses catching up on the latest prarie gossip

4th: Lumpy riverside

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Today we went from one of the ugliest places in the country (Butte), to one of the prettiest (Glacier National Park). And, what a way to spend Kathy's 49th birthday!

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We wanted to get to Glacier this trip, because the glaciers are almost gone. Even though our brain-trust of a president says that global warming is not real, try telling that to the mountain. Soon it will be "Big Pile of Rock national park". But, at this point, it is still an incredible place.

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The negative that comes with an incredible place is, of course, tourists. In marked contrast with Zion Kolob, Flaming Gorge, and some of the other parks we had visited on this trip, Glacier was stuffed...I'm talking stuffed, like NYC stuffed. Thousands of cars in a relentless procession through the park. We decided to go east to west, and that turned out to be a good plan as the other direction was even more crowded. Add on the fact that the park service had decided to do major highway reconstruction smack dab in the middle of the tourist season (in their defense, they probably only have a 2-3 month construction window due to the severity of winter), and it was a madhouse scene. Cars and people everywhere, not a lick of quiet to enjoy the serenity. Still, magnificent vistas of the mountains, lakes, and lots of native wildlife. The goats were especially entertaining, beautiful with their pure white coats, and totally unspooked by the tourist volume.

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We spent her whole birthday touring through the park, and it was a day well spent. This makes our 49th state, with just alaska to go; our 50th state, on our 50th birthday and our 25 anniversary, and alaska's 50th anniversary of statehood. The numbers are in alignment for next summer!

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"Tough way to spend a birthday" Lumpy out

Butte; Not Sharp Enough to Spell "Butt"

TOP: The town of Butte, which could have been a bucolic mountain setting

2nd: The Berkeley Pit, a massive hole in the ground.

3rd: The visitors stand to look at the big hole in the ground

4th: Yup, the town welcoming sign is an oil derrick

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Today we travelled up into montana, and did a short detour to Butte. Butte is famous for, well, the best example of environmental rape in the US. Mountaintops leveled, a huge hole in the ground for mineral mining, oil derricks. Frankly, when you drive into town, it looks like something out of a post apocolyptic world. Like somebody dropped an A bomb, and then built a town over the explosion pit. It is about as ugly a town as we'd seen on all of our travels. In short, not a honeymoon resort.

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"Let's just call it Butt, Montana and be done with it" Lumpy out

Rodeo Shots

TOP: Exiting the chute on a bucking bronco. We saw one cowboy slip down in the chute and get stomped. Not pretty.

2nd: Lady calf roping. Very impressive speed and roping skills. They did a similar thing with young kids and sheep.

3rd: Even the rodeo "queens" would have totally kicked my butt. These were tough gals.

4th: Sometime you get the bull, sometimes the bull gets you.

Potato Time

TOP: Cowboy riding the wild horse

2nd: A good rule of thumb is not to be UNDER THE HORSE when it goes insane. 5 riders tried this steed, and not one survived more than about 5 seconds. One tough horse...

3rd: An if it wasn't bad enough riding it, then you have to catch it

4th: Brought a patriotic tear to my eye. Here's a native group that has been raped and pillaged by the US, yet they proudly salute the colors and are proud Americans.

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Today we hit Pocatello Idaho, Kathy's 48th state. Pocatello is a small city, some manufacturing, and a small college (but not really what I would call a "college town"). After a brief driveabout, we found out about the Shoshone rodeo that was scheduled for that afternoon.

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Now we'd been to rodeos before (notably Snowmass, a really big one in Colorado), but this one sounded different. It was all native americans, with some different events. So, we drove on up to the fairgrounds on the reservation, and took in the view. It was actually quite cool, a very different tone than the "white guy" rodeos. This was more reverential of the animals, there was no sense of time (the next event starts when the next event starts, not keeping to some arbitrary timetable), and the spectators were very laid back. It was more like watching flowers bloom on a spring day than a rugby match with pack animals. Very pleasant and relaxing. But make no mistake; these athletes were as good as they come.

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We spent a day or so around Pocatello; a nice city, but nothing to write home about. But, the native rodeo thing was very cool.

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"Why do reservations exist anymore anyways" Lumpy out

A Few Dam Pictures: Hoover Dam Driveby

TOP: Hoover Dam power grid

2nd: Power reservoir

3rd: Line of cars snaking their way down the hill to cross the dam. Note the white stain along the cliffside; that is the "normal" water level for the Lake

4th: The new Dam overpass that is being built, all in the name of homeland security. It will be hundreds of feet above the dam.