The beauty of the country overwhelms us as we round each bend in the highway. Katherine and I are fortunate to be able to take the backroads. We love the backroads.
In Montana we gave concerts in Great Falls, Lewistown and Havre with a "spur" concert in Sioux Falls, SD. All concerts were a real joy. It is always a highlight each night to meet the technical help at each venue. We haven't met a "techie" we didn't like. A benefit is that each "techie" serves as a "roadie" in hauling our equipment in and out of the car.
In Great Falls we played at the Great Falls Civic Center. The city combined the gorgeous performing arts center in the same
building that houses the city administrative offices. It's a convenient place to come for a concert as you can hear the symphony and pay your parking ticket at the same time! A tremendous venue. John showed us a great place for lunch called Bob's Bagels, just a couple of blocks from the auditoreum.From Great Falls we wandered to Sioux Falls via the long way through Yellowstone, with a
stop for lunch in the capital city of Helena. If you have an opportunity to take a tour through the capitol building, do so! Just for the Charles M. Russell mural in the House of Representatives chamber. His paintings a more than a work of art. He is very well known in Montana being what I would say a hero in the state. Many places are named after him in his honor. Almost as many places named for him as there are buildings named after Ronald Reagan in Washngton DC. I enjoyed Russell's art because I knew what I was looking at! He painted what he saw, not what was made up in his head. I would say he was a practical artist ( if you stumble across a new way to interpret art and the term "practical artist" is used, tell people that it was used here first).We spent the night in one of the quaint cabins at Yellowstone Lake Lodge. After traveling through the park we could easily see why Yellowstone was created as the world's first national park. The park astounded us with it's unique geothermal features. There is a geyser that is more acidic than battery acid.
Wildlife abounds. Growing up in a city environment, I am not used to seeing such a variety of wildlife actually in the WILD!! Turning a corner as we meandered along , I was shocked when I saw walking toward us in the opposite lane a heavy-set woman with an amazingly HUGE hairdo, wearing a fur coat. When we got closer it turned out to be a buffalo. What a city slicker I am!
Snow flurries were occurring during the day. We discovered that "Old Faithful" is not quite as faithful as promised. With the sun setting, the breeze blowing and the snow falling, we could not stand in the cold any longer as we didn't have our winter coats. We were at Old Faithful 10 minutes before the predicted time
of blasting and stayed 15 minutes after the predicted time of eruption. We have a reason to return to Yellowstone.
We ate dinner in the lodge at Yellowstone Lake and were charmed by the waite staff who are employed from all corners of the globe. Two gentlemen from Poland were polite and courteous, although were looking forward to going home after the tourist season.
We
traveled to Sioux Falls past the coal towns of Eastern Wyoming and arrived at Mt Rushmore at
sunset to be inpired by another artist Gutzon Borglum who spent the better part of his life memorialing Presidents Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington. It is a patriotic site to behold. A national park ranger sang the National Anthem to open the evening light ceremony. her voice was much better than any typical park ranger I've encountered singing around the campfire!On we went to Wall, SD to spend the night. We were in Sioux Falls the following night at the beautiful Washington Pavilion. The concert went well. We were a bit anxious each night wondering how our program was going to be received. People seem to enjoy what we are doing from Sioux Falls to California. Community Concert patrons are the greatest!
We were able to "rub shoulders" with the mayor of Sioux Falls as he presented a community award for the Sioux Falls Concert Association for their contribution to the community. There were close to a thousand in attendance. The mayor showed up and it wasn't even campaign season! A quality politician.
After the concert we went to dinner with Ted Fazer and others on the board. A small world as Mr. Fazer was one of our pastor's professors in seminary. As I turned the corner to get into the restaurant parking lot, a light flashed to capture my license plate
to give a ticket as there is no free right turn on a red light. Fortunately I was in the center lane when I turned right and the camera didn't get my license. At least the ticket has shown up yet. Two wrongs DO make a right in this case. My excuse is that I was lost
and didn't really know where the restaurant was. I saw it from the middle lane. If I do get the ticket, I know the mayor!!!The next day we drove towards Lewistown backtracking through South Dakota. We drove through the Badlands after driving through Mitchell, SD which has the most amazing decorated building we have ever seen. A building adorned with corn!!
The Badlands were bad in a good way. The earth's crust looks like it is puckered in all different ways. We were able to make it to Gillette, WY to spend the night and saw Devils Tower along the way.
We visted The Battle of Little Bighorn where General Custer made his last stand. The wind was blowing quite hard on the hill. History comes to life when one visits sites as this. I encourage you to stop at all of the roadside attractions that the states have posted for the traveller to read. The states are proud of thier history and well they should be. The battle of the Little Big Horn ( Custer’s last stand as it is popularly refered) was a good history lesson for me. I didn’t listen to the teacher in school when I was young! I encourage you to stop at all of the historical points of interest that you can. History comes alive: it seems more “real.” You can touch history and feel it, unlike reading history from a book.
We continued up to Lewistown, MT. The citizens are proud of their geographical location as being the direct center of Montana. I would say that they considered themselves the heart of Montana as well. The generalization of Montana is that it is a cattle state. Many of the citizens of Lewistown work on a cattle farm, own a ranch or have a financial connection to cattle. One nice lady I spoke with was going to have a busy day vaccinating her cattle. It was actually going to be a week before the task was complete.
We stayed at the Duvall B&B and had a lively conversation with Earlene. She is also on the board for community concerts in Lewistown. Most of the time our schedule is such that we don’t have a chance to spend extra time with members of the board of community concerts in each town and city. I feel like a guest who “eats and runs.” But there is not much of a choice. We were able to have nice conversations staying with Earlene Duvall’s B&B. It was up a 7 mile isolated road in a canyon which was beautiful with the changing of the leaves on the aspens lining the creek.
We headed for Havre in North Central Montana on September 27th. The short drive of 200 miles ( short compared to most days as we have been driving over 500 miles in a day) consisted of another history lesson. We followed the Chief Joseph/Nez Perce trail all the way to Chinook, MT and the Battle of Bear Paw . We walked the battle field and past depressions dug in the hard soil with hands and knives where Indian soldiers lay protecting their families. History came alive once again for me in the windswept plains of Northern Montana. Little has changed in this area from the time of Joseph’s last battle. It was at this place when Joseph surrendered that he pronounced, “Today I will fight this way no more forever…”
Havre is defined by it’s roots as a railroad town. There is a very large underground Havre where commerce was alive underground at the turn of the 20th century. Havre burned down to the ground in the late 1800’s. The reputable store owners moved underground next door to the illegal liquor dealers set-up during prohibition. Underground Havre was begun because of illegal activities. Illicit stores were sent underground when the railroad came to town so that visitors could not see alcohol, brothels and opium dens. When the town burned reputable businesses had to set up shop next to the illegal ones as there were no longer any buildings above ground to set up shop. You must see underground Havre when traveling in highway 2.
A highlight for Katherine and me was giving an assembly for al of the elementary students in the Havre school district and beyond. We felt like movie stars! Busses came from all around dropping off students to hear us give a 30 minute program. They were an awe of the music! It wasn’t so much Katherine and me but it was the harp and her voice. The 1000 seat auditorium was filled with students. The fascinating part for us was the sound that the students made. The seats were theatre style seats that many of the student’s feet could not reach the ground. The seats made a fascinating noise. More like a “hum” as the spring loaded seats were moving up and down because of many students lack of size being able to hold the seats in place. When Katherine sang her final passage, the high notes in “Think of Me “ from “Phantom of the Opera” there were many gasps of amazement from the audience. We had a real joy that day. The evening concert for the community was also a real joy for us. I must admit that the evening concerts audience was not as entertaining for us as the school audience. Jay was of great assistance to us at the auditorium. He is a busy teacher as he also helps construct sets for the school play.
On we went to Calgary, Alberta Canada on the 28th of September. Katherine grew up in Calgary. We drove to Calgary to celebrate my father-in-laws 80th birthday. It was a special family event with Katherine’s brother and his wife coming from Toronto to be there.
