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trip report
Jul. 6th, 2005 10:22 amI just got back from a week's vacation up through Wyoming and Montana and Canada. Terry and I left on Saturday the 25th, picked up Gerry at the airport in Denver, and started off north. And where was Kent, you ask? He was working and didn't have enough vacation time to join us on the road trip. But he did let us drive his brand new shiny red SUV. We thought that this was very generous of him, since it hadn't even been out on the road yet. We drove north along flat to rolling prarie. Had one scare just at the Colorado-Wyoming border when we hadn't been watching the gas gauge - but we managed to roll into a gas station with a whole half a gallon still in the tank. Just before you hit the Wyoming border they have this huge buffalo silouette made out of metal standing on a cliff by the side of the freeway - so for a mile or more it looks just like a buffalo standing up there ready to jump off. They also have buffalo ranches on each side of the road so you get to see the real beasties themselves. I had seen these before and was expecting them, but I wasn't expecting the camels and the llamas. Yes indeed. Whole herds of them. Not sure why, but there they were.
Terry wanted to stop in Buffalo, Wyoming that night because there was a "cowboy carousel". So we stopped about 7:30 and stayed at the cowboy carousel hotel. Most of the horses on the carousel were bucking broncos with their heads down and their feet up high in back. Not sure how Gerry and Terry managed to mount their steeds, but they did. Pictures are promised in the future. We also discovered that we had entered huckleberry land. The gift shops sold everything huckleberry - huckleberry taffy, huckleberry chocolates, huckleberry gummy bears, and the restaurants gave us huckleberry muffins and huckleberry cheesecake and huckleberry ice cream. All of our meals were tinged kind of a light blue.
The next day Terry and I got up early, ate our huckleberry pancakes, then lifted a virtually sleeping Gerry into the back seat and began our drive to Great Falls. There were some beautiful small towns in the little gullies along the plains. I just kept telling myself what they would be like in February - otherwise there would have been an overwhelming desire to buy one of those nice log ranch houses with the wide porch and install wireless and settle down to be a hermit. About 9:30am we hit Billings, Montana and Gerry was sufficiently awake for us to have breakfast. I hadn't done a Perkins in a long time and was really struck by what excellent food they gave us - they even had peach muffins instead of huckleberry! We'd also hit the part of the country where service was friendly and almost eager. I don't think I've been called "ma'am" that many times in my entire life!
Now you know that Terry and I met thirty odd years ago in Great Falls, Montana. I was the "bookmobile lady" and she was the one with the chronically overdue books. So this trip was kind of nostalgic for us both. Terry got to see the houses and the schools where she grew up, and I got to take a look at the town where I spent a couple of years in my first marriage and where John was born.
We stayed at an incredible B&B done up in a 1891 Victorian mansion. Huge place built on a big corner lot with shade trees and carefully asymetrical bays and porches and windows. Inside it was all oak paneled rooms with high ceilings, colored glass windows, and massive fireplaces. And the lady who has been running it as a B&B for seven years now wants to sell it. For only $465K. I would have signed a contract on the spot except that Terry kindly reminded me of the 30 degree below zero winter nights. Close call!
From Great Falls we drove on to Glacier Park. Big, sharp, rugged mountains. And big-horned mountain goats. And Indians and Appalossa horses. We stayed at the Belton Chalet. The railroads built it as a resort back in the 1880s and it looks like a Swiss chalet standing there on the mountainside. I expected Heidi and the goats to come dingling around the corner at any moment. Gerry took a horseback ride which she enjoyed very much, but which left her walking kind of funny for the next few days. I drove out of Glacier on the "Going to the Sun" road. It's 51 miles long and they tell you to allow at least three hours. I was sure I could manage to do it a -bit- faster, but hadn't counted on Gerry asking me to stop approximately every quarter mile so she could take pictures. I think it's quite possible we could have walked out faster than we drove.
Our ultimate destination was Calgary for the Westercon science fiction convention. Kent and I are doing a bid for the worldcon in Denver in 2008, so this was the beginning of our con-going year. We have eight more cons to attend between now and Christmas and another dozen before the voting ends in Los Angeles a year from this August. So we sat at a bid table and answered questions about Denver and ran parties Saturday and Sunday nights and then flew home.
Terry wanted to stop in Buffalo, Wyoming that night because there was a "cowboy carousel". So we stopped about 7:30 and stayed at the cowboy carousel hotel. Most of the horses on the carousel were bucking broncos with their heads down and their feet up high in back. Not sure how Gerry and Terry managed to mount their steeds, but they did. Pictures are promised in the future. We also discovered that we had entered huckleberry land. The gift shops sold everything huckleberry - huckleberry taffy, huckleberry chocolates, huckleberry gummy bears, and the restaurants gave us huckleberry muffins and huckleberry cheesecake and huckleberry ice cream. All of our meals were tinged kind of a light blue.
The next day Terry and I got up early, ate our huckleberry pancakes, then lifted a virtually sleeping Gerry into the back seat and began our drive to Great Falls. There were some beautiful small towns in the little gullies along the plains. I just kept telling myself what they would be like in February - otherwise there would have been an overwhelming desire to buy one of those nice log ranch houses with the wide porch and install wireless and settle down to be a hermit. About 9:30am we hit Billings, Montana and Gerry was sufficiently awake for us to have breakfast. I hadn't done a Perkins in a long time and was really struck by what excellent food they gave us - they even had peach muffins instead of huckleberry! We'd also hit the part of the country where service was friendly and almost eager. I don't think I've been called "ma'am" that many times in my entire life!
Now you know that Terry and I met thirty odd years ago in Great Falls, Montana. I was the "bookmobile lady" and she was the one with the chronically overdue books. So this trip was kind of nostalgic for us both. Terry got to see the houses and the schools where she grew up, and I got to take a look at the town where I spent a couple of years in my first marriage and where John was born.
We stayed at an incredible B&B done up in a 1891 Victorian mansion. Huge place built on a big corner lot with shade trees and carefully asymetrical bays and porches and windows. Inside it was all oak paneled rooms with high ceilings, colored glass windows, and massive fireplaces. And the lady who has been running it as a B&B for seven years now wants to sell it. For only $465K. I would have signed a contract on the spot except that Terry kindly reminded me of the 30 degree below zero winter nights. Close call!
From Great Falls we drove on to Glacier Park. Big, sharp, rugged mountains. And big-horned mountain goats. And Indians and Appalossa horses. We stayed at the Belton Chalet. The railroads built it as a resort back in the 1880s and it looks like a Swiss chalet standing there on the mountainside. I expected Heidi and the goats to come dingling around the corner at any moment. Gerry took a horseback ride which she enjoyed very much, but which left her walking kind of funny for the next few days. I drove out of Glacier on the "Going to the Sun" road. It's 51 miles long and they tell you to allow at least three hours. I was sure I could manage to do it a -bit- faster, but hadn't counted on Gerry asking me to stop approximately every quarter mile so she could take pictures. I think it's quite possible we could have walked out faster than we drove.
Our ultimate destination was Calgary for the Westercon science fiction convention. Kent and I are doing a bid for the worldcon in Denver in 2008, so this was the beginning of our con-going year. We have eight more cons to attend between now and Christmas and another dozen before the voting ends in Los Angeles a year from this August. So we sat at a bid table and answered questions about Denver and ran parties Saturday and Sunday nights and then flew home.
