Victor's Meanderings

The Annual Three Forks horse drive has become a popular community event. Thousands come to watch over a hundred horses driven down Main Street. The horses are being move from their winter pastures, south of Willow Creek to summer pastures north of Three Forks. Ultimately some of the horse are taken to dude ranches and horseback concessionaires for the summer. About a dozen would be cowboy & cowgirls pay a heafty fee to ride along as wranglers. Some don't look very comfortable on a horse. The drive takes three days. Other events included the high school rodeo, a dance to the music of Montana Rose, a pig roast at the Sacajawea, horse sale and wagon rides. People lined the streets starting 5 hours before the horses arrived. It was like a big open air spring party. Quite cool in the early morning, things warmed up by early afternoon. The kids had a good time of it, climbing up and down Sacajawea's statue and rock walls.

Last week, I went shopping in Bozeman. When I woke the next morning, I was greeted with several inches of wet spring snow. This is Bozeman's Lindley Park, a favorite spot for lunch and a nap.

Whitefish Montana is a charming with it's logging, rail and national park aspects. Now a ski area north of town provides a winter alternative for tourists. Daily Amtrak rail service from Everett or Chicago provides a great method for tourists to visit the community. The Depot is an example of fine Tudor architecture and is on the National Historic Register. (Double click on the placque to enlarge, should you care to read the fine print.)

Saturday, April 5, Evan and Kristin arrived in Montana. After spending a night in the Sacajawea Hotel in Three Forks, they headed for Browning Montana. It is on the Blackfoot Reservation. They will be spending a month there working in the clinic. They don't receive any pay, but they are provided with travel allowances and a nice apartment. I supplied an old pickup for their travels. A week later we rendezvoused in Whitefish, cross country skied at Big Mountain Ski Area and hiked in Glacier National Park. It was quite warm for this time of year, in the sixties. The locals like the warm weather for a change but were concerned about flooding if is persists. In the Park, bike riding and walking on the plowed dry roads was especially nice as they were not yet open to vehicle traffic.

In March I drove over to Butte to watch the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Things start with a parade. A number of bag pipe bands, old cars, coconut girls?, Governor Schwietzer, fire trucks, a tank, politicians and crazies all marched in the parade.