7/6/15, “The Wild West”
Saint Mary, Montana
Reader, if you want to experience the Wild West, and I mean truly
experience it, there is no better place than Montana and there is no better
time than summer. That was what we
learned today as we made our way from Helena to Glacier National Park. I have literally been all around the world,
and it takes a lot to wow me. Today,
Montana wowed me, just as North Dakota did when I visited last summer. The picture you see next to these words? That’s just a small taste, just the view from
outside our cabin. Every place we
visited wowed me in a good way. Like most guys, I love Western movies and
anything to do with cowboys. How many of
those took place in Montana? I’m sure a
lot of them did. While that way of life
has mostly been lost to history, it is still preserved, as best as it can be,
here in Montana.
After I finished my
Jericho Hill last night, I crashed almost immediately. I woke up early this morning to deal with IT
issues on my computer so that I could work remotely the rest of the trip, the
resolution to which was far simpler than I had expected. After that was resolved, I got straight to
work, even working through breakfast, which consisted of a perfectly good plate
of bacon, eggs, and hash browns. This
was Montana, of course they can do that up right. We are in the American heartland.
After I got caught up on work, we hit the
road and went straight to the Capitol building.
There was a sticker on the sidewalk that said, “SELFIE SPOT” with two
footprints facing away from the building.
I took my Official selfie there, and we noticed that there were a lot of
cars in the Official parking lot. Hmm, I
realized that it was a Monday. That
meant they might be in session. They
weren’t. It was just staffers, but we
were able to walk around inside and learn a little about the history of the
Montana governorship. The Capitol
building was extremely impressive, worthy of the third largest state in the
country, and it put its counterparts in Juneau and Austin to shame. My mother was shocked that there was no
security there, but I said I wasn’t surprised.
For neither the first time nor the last time this trip, I offered as
explanation, “It’s Montana.”
We went next
door to the gift shop, where I got a flag pin, and we then made our way to
Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS. We had no idea
where or what it was. Once we got there,
we were both so pleasantly surprised with the experience. It is an active cattle ranch owned and operated
by the government, and it looks just like it must have a hundred years
ago. The Objectivist in me would have
objected to the government owning and operating a cattle ranch, if the site
wasn’t so damn charming. I lit up an
Aroma de Cuba, and we headed to the ranch, where we got “cowboy coffee.” I had a vision of the scene from one of my
favorite movies of all time, “Dances with Wolves,” in which Kevin Costner plays
a soldier separated from his unit in the Wild West. There is a scene where he makes coffee, just
like that, with the Native Americans. I
loved that scene.
We then headed to
Glacier National Park, our last stop for the trip. We stopped for lunch along the way, and I got
my lunch at the gas station, which was quite decent, pizza, bread sticks, and a
milkshake. I ate it while my mother got
her food at the grocery store. I took
the wheel for the first time since arrived in Jackson what now feels a lifetime
ago, and we continued north. The driving
was fine, except for my mother’s fretting about me being too close to cars or
being about to hit a deer over a hundred feet away. However, that was only a minor nuisance
compared to the construction-induced traffic jam we hit that delayed us by half
an hour. I just cared about one thing,
getting the stamp at Two Medicine VC before they closed at 5 PM.
We made it to the park entrance with plenty
of time to spare, and I took my ceremonial picture at the entrance sign. This was it.
When I got back to car, I announced with a pang of regret that this was
probably going to be our last World Heritage Site together, unless we did an
international trip together. We enumerated each and every WHS we visited
together, 8 in the US, 14 abroad. I have
three more for myself for this trip, but she will not be joining me in
Canada. We got our brochure at the
entrance and headed to the Ranger Station.
I got my stamp, we got the list of stamps for the park, which included a
few that involve strenuous and lengthy hikes to chalets in the wilderness. Needless to say, we will not be getting every
stamp, but we got the stamp there and found out where the Plaque was.
We then found a place where we could take a
nice walk through the woods and along the lake.
All throughout the drive today, I kept saying that Glacier would be even
more amazing than Yellowstone. When we
saw the breathtaking views from the lake, we agreed that I was right. It takes a lot to wow me. Today, in the Wild West, this has wowed
me. A year ago this time, I was writing
about how much I loved the North.
Somehow I forgot to properly close out this entry. Well, okay, so after our walk, we headed to
hotel, and we went to our cabin, which was so charming and rustic. The cabin had even more breathtaking views,
so I poured myself a drink, relit the Four Kicks I had been smoking on the
trail, and proceeded to write the first half of this entry. We then went back to the lodge, the only
place I could get Wi-Fi. I went to
publish and realized that my entry had stopped short, so I proceeded to finish
this entry, which I will close so that I can finish publishing, and we can head
out to dinner.
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