We went on up into Montana and stayed at the Conestoga Campground & RV Park in White Sulphur Springs. On Google Maps the Conestoga Campground is listed as an attraction. I don’t know what you would do here if you weren’t in your RV camping, but it was nice and well maintained.
Cute little fountain in front.
The slips were entirely too thin. Almost exactly the width of your RV. The slide outs were over the grass, but at least there was grass. When we were setting up our neighbors came home and I felt I needed to apologize because my slides were almost encroaching on their picnic table.
About the only thing we found interesting to to in White Sulphur Springs was go see The Castle Museum and Carriage House. This castle was built by Byron Sherman in 1892 on some 300 or so acres and now sits in the middle of a rough residential section of town. It actually has neighbors across the street. Can you imagine giving directions to your house by saying, ‘I live across the street from the castle.’ I believe the original views from this place would have been spectacular. In 1894 Sherman enlarged a pond on his ranch that was fed by an abundant spring, and laid a twenty-inch pipe about 150 yards down the hill to a two-story electric light plant that had two dynamos in the basement. The electricity was carried into town on bare wire strung on pine and spruce poles. The plant could run only about six hours before the pressure of the pond became too low. Consumers learned to plan their activities around the 'on' hours, but they could lay claim to living in one of the first towns in the state to have electricity. Sherman did not live there long until he become ill and his family moved him to California thinking he would get better there. Well, he did not get any better and no one else ever lived in the castle. It was an interesting story, but it was just another old house. So, now you know.
Look at this view
This pipe has actually been confirmed to be Sitting Bulls!!
He is my ancestor, so - cool.
This coin operated game is still playable! It is like foosball!
Training potty. So cute!
This is how they made copies back in the day.
A huge camera to take a shot of every page.
So after seeing the castle, the only thing we really did here was had dinner at the steakhouse. They serve their food on plates like they used at Pancho’s. Anyone remember that place.
But seriously, this perpetual vacationing can be pretty exhausting. We are still having great fun, but need our down time when we can get it. So we relaxed and caught up on few things and rejuvenated ourselves.
Next we headed out to Bernie and Sharon’s Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT. This place had plenty of room. They initially had 3 slips where there are two now and when they started building RVs with slide outs they took one out and planted apple trees in its place. It was a pleasant place, but with no real amenities to speak of.
It was time for an oil change so Dennis found a place with some good reviews down the road in Deer Lodge, MT. It was called Old Stage Lube and they were very friendly. We walked down the road to grab lunch and wait for their call. When we didn’t hear anything we waked back to the lube shop and the mechanic said the transfer case was completely empty and was missing some bolts. He put fluid in, but as he was backing out of the bin he heard a rattling noise that worried him and he did not think we should drive it back home. He will drain the fluid and see what comes out and then get back to us.
While we waited this time we did have a real good time down at the Old Montana Prison Museum. Along the sidewalk I tried to enter a door and noticed a sign saying if you have a gun you need to leave it at the counter. We couldn’t get in through that door, so when we found the entrance I told the young girl that I had a gun and asked if it was her I was supposed to leave it with and she was blown away. So an older woman came up to me and asked if I had a gun and I told her yes, but there was a sign to leave it at the desk. Anyway, she was so excited that I had a gun - she finally said no, don’t leave it, just go on into the museum. She did chase me down and ask if I had a permit and I told her I did and Montana was a reciprocal state, so I was legal. So we went on our way. As we left the museum the lady asked to see my gun. She was so funny! We actually realized later that the sign was probably from when the prison was a working prison, not for modern times. Oops, my bad!!
Part of this museum is the best old car museum I have ever seen in my life. My first car was a 1968 Nova, they only had one other Nova in the entire shop, but so many GTOs, Roadrunners, Mustangs, Corvettes, Volkswagens, one of the first ever electric cars was there - very interesting - and they even had an antique jet ski. If you are a car enthusiast, as I am, you should go there. Very cool. We really took our time in this place.
Then we got to the prison part and that was kinda creepy. The place was built in 1871 as an attempt was being made to tame the Wild West. Again, it was an interesting place, but so cold. There was no running water or sewer facilities so each cell had two buckets. One for sewage and one for water. The stone buildings had such thick walls (3 ft thick and extends 4 ft underground) it reminded me of the Castle. Or maybe the chill was just the place. There had been some famous prisoners in here. The most famous was Paul ‘Turkey Pete’ Eitner who was sentenced to life in prison for murder. Turkey Pete was a model prisoner and was assigned to tend the prison turkeys until one day a man stopped to admire the birds and Eitner sold him the whole lot of them for $0.25 a piece. This marked the end of his farming days and the beginning of his decline from reality. Now that he thought he was an entrepreneur and philanthropist the prison began humoring him and allowing him to have checks printed at the print shop and began an illustrious career with Eitner Enterprises. He used these checks to ‘purchase’ - not really - the prison and begin running it - again, not really. But he would write these worthless checks to the guards for their salaries and for prison expenses. Eitner Enterprises also wrote checks to save Brazil’s coffee crop, purchased alfalfa seed from Poncho Villa, sold grasshopper legs to Fidel Castro, sold pink alligators, and sold ships to the Navy’s. He was quite busy. His cell was cell number 1 and the cell was retired and converted into a barber shop upon his death in 1967 at the age of 89. His was the only funeral ever held within the walls of this prison.
As we were on the grounds we could see that a pretty good storm was brewing and coming towards us over the mountains. Since we were on foot, we had to cut this visit short. We went back down to the lube shop and I believe God was watching after us on this one. The mechanic believed that the drain plug had also been screwed in to far and had cracked the transfer case. We needed it replaced immediately. He also saw where a stearing bar was bent and worn almost completely through. Wow! Okay, now what? They immediately got to work on procuring parts and thought they could still have it ready tomorrow.
As you can imagine, there is no Uber or taxi service in Deer Lodge, Montana. We asked how we were getting back to Garrison. They called a friend and he happily took up back to the RV. We ended up running into a couple of hiccups getting it fixed, but only had to extend our stay for one day. I had stayed home to prepare the RV for departure and Dennis drove the mechanic (who had worked until after 11PM the night before on this thing) back to the shop and came back to hook her up.
I gotta tell you, I was a tad nervous heading out with this truck so soon after the all that work was done on it, but it was fine. We also noticed a noise that we figured was a rock in the wheel was no longer there. We had been hearing that noise for a long time. Guess it was the transfer case. Yippies!
We made it to Columbia Falls, MT all safe and sound. The park is nice with short but wide slips. We were able to pull the truck in across the slip and not be in the road. So it was good.
At Columbia Fall we are practically at Glacier National Park so we headed there. I had not done a lot of research about this park, but it is quite different from most national parks we have been to. Basically there is a road around the whole park with a few unconnected roads that go toward the center, and then there is the Going to the Sun Road which cuts right through the center. That road is an engineering wonder of the world with many narrow tunnels through the mountains. They will not let anything but small cars drive this road. So we would either need to rent a car or not go. They were also requiring passes to drive the road. We actually got on the road and drove some distance without a pass or anyone telling us not to proceed. We got less than half-way and they had the road closed down. There were some beautiful sites here, but we never got to see any of the glaciers. Here are a couple of pretty shots of what we saw.
After we left the park the first day we went into Columbia Falls and found a fantastic place for a drink and a snack. The place is called The Gunsight Saloon in the historic park of town. They have an amazing outdoor area like at Luke’s on Calder in Beaumont. They have an historic bar inside - that is where we sat - and an old safe in the dining room. One of the guys told us no one can open it, but knowing a couple of the previous owners he is sure there is nothing of value in there.
I love old buildings and this ceiling and the light fixtures are pretty amazing. The bar here was actually made by Brunswick, the bowling company. Both my parents retired from a company that was a former subsidiary of Brunswick’s oilfield division. We got cheap bowling gear back in the day. I never knew they did bars.
Columbia Falls is also very close to the Canadian border. I know it is currently closed, but we wanted to go chunk a rock at Canada anyway. Along the way we saw 5 antique cars traveling down the road. They were all in perfect condition! I tried to get pics of all of them, but my phone delays sometimes. I might get a tire or a hood ornament and that is it. They all had this sign on the back of their rides - something about Pathfinders. They were pretty amazing!
The border was unimpressive.
Their was a US Border Patrol building across the street, but not a soul in sight.
It was time for a mani-pedi for this girl so I went to town and found me a great place and had my hour and a half of pampering and on my return I found an antique car show. So I went home to get D and we went back. They had some neat old cars, and some guy driving by with an antique RV pulled in to check it out too.
For our last full day in Columbia Falls we found a bucket list item to entertain us. 2FlyUs.com aka the flying Flanagans! They are Debbie, Kevin and their daughter Devin Flanagan who have a Hot Air Balloon operation. They fly out of Phoenix, AR during the winter and Kalispel, MT during the summer. They are so much fun and the ride in the hot air balloon was exactly as I expected! Absolute blast! If you ever have the chance you gotta fly with these guys. We were with one other couple on their honeymoon and that is it. They don’t do 25 people at a time. It was very intimate and a perfect ending to our time in Montana.
It is such a small operation you gotta work to fly. LOL
This is Devin - She is also a pilot and she performed the ritual of the Champaign toast, but with sparkling juice because of Montana’s alcohol laws. They are strict around here.
So we will be saying goodbye to Montana and heading straight through the Idaho panhandle and finally into Washington. Montana has stolen our hearts. It is one of the most beautiful places in these United States. We hope to return here and stay a while.
We are currently afraid we may not have a place to stay for July 4. It snuck up on us and we are currently scrambling to find a spot. Wish us luck!
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