First I need to make a public apology to Jim for questioning his siting of a sign for the "Testicle Festival." This is indeed an annual event at Rock Creek Lodge outside Missoula. If you are interested you can get more information at: http://www.testyfesty.com/ --WARNING this site is for mature audiences only. The reference is to rocky mountain oysters which are served in abundance at the event.
Also, while I was looking things up on the web, I found a site for the "anti monkey butt powder." Evidently "monkey butt" is what you get when you ride a motorcycle all day -- or something similar. If this is a problem for you, check out their site at: http://www.antimonkeybutt.com/whatisamb.html
We toured Butte this morning. As you go uphill you come to the Historic Landmark District, and Historic Uptown Butte. This is really old town Butte, very well preserved with lots of bars and restaurants in old buildings. All through the old town you see mining equipment and buildings -- it is like the city was built as part of the Berkeley Pit.
Then we went further up the hill and ended up in "Historic Walkerville". This looked like housing for the miners right in the pit mine itself -- or very close. Mainly small houses. The only business we saw was a tavern called "Pisser's Palace."
We went back down the hill into Butte residential districts. Jim said it reminded him of a down-scale San Francisco. There are a lot of very interesting Victorian houses on very hilly streets.
We were wondering what industry is keeping Butte afloat now that mining has ceased. When we asked Jim's cousin, she said, "bars." There certainly were a lot of those and numerous casinos attached to almost every motel down by the freeway. Also, evidently anyone being inducted into the US Military has to go through Butte. And there is still some activity related to mining.
There certainly are a lot of casinos in Montana. I'm guessing that non-tribal gambling is legal here, because of names like "Lucky Lil" and the fact that nearly every motel/hotel also has a casino.
After our tour of Butte, we headed off East on I-90 across the Continental Divide. We found that we were following the Lewis and Clark trail -- have been for some time -- just hadn't noticed those familiar signs. At Bozeman we discovered we were at the headwaters of the Missouri. Lewis and Clark named the 3 rivers that came together here to form the head waters (Madison, Jefferson, Gallatin). This is also where Sacajawea originally lived before she was kidnapped by another tribe.
The countryside is a vast high plane. We saw a for sale by owner sign for 269,000 acres. We can see the mountains of Yellowstone to the south. According to the map, one of the peaks is called Mt. Cowen (11,000 ft). Wonder what relative that was????
Billings is nestled below some shear cliffs. Evidently the Indians used to do religious sacrifices off those cliffs. They also would herd Buffalo off the cliffs in the early days. And no doubt some settlers/soldiers as well. This area was quite a battleground in the Indian wars.
We found a nice motel near the hospitals (there are quite a few here) and met with Jim's cousin Carol and her husband. Jim and Carol hadn't seen each other in 50 years ! They took us for a tour of the city - and up on the cliffs overlooking the city. We had a great steak dinner at a very local restraunt and a very enjoyable evening.
Also, while I was looking things up on the web, I found a site for the "anti monkey butt powder." Evidently "monkey butt" is what you get when you ride a motorcycle all day -- or something similar. If this is a problem for you, check out their site at: http://www.antimonkeybutt.com/whatisamb.html
We toured Butte this morning. As you go uphill you come to the Historic Landmark District, and Historic Uptown Butte. This is really old town Butte, very well preserved with lots of bars and restaurants in old buildings. All through the old town you see mining equipment and buildings -- it is like the city was built as part of the Berkeley Pit.Then we went further up the hill and ended up in "Historic Walkerville". This looked like housing for the miners right in the pit mine itself -- or very close. Mainly small houses. The only business we saw was a tavern called "Pisser's Palace."
We went back down the hill into Butte residential districts. Jim said it reminded him of a down-scale San Francisco. There are a lot of very interesting Victorian houses on very hilly streets.
We were wondering what industry is keeping Butte afloat now that mining has ceased. When we asked Jim's cousin, she said, "bars." There certainly were a lot of those and numerous casinos attached to almost every motel down by the freeway. Also, evidently anyone being inducted into the US Military has to go through Butte. And there is still some activity related to mining.
There certainly are a lot of casinos in Montana. I'm guessing that non-tribal gambling is legal here, because of names like "Lucky Lil" and the fact that nearly every motel/hotel also has a casino.
After our tour of Butte, we headed off East on I-90 across the Continental Divide. We found that we were following the Lewis and Clark trail -- have been for some time -- just hadn't noticed those familiar signs. At Bozeman we discovered we were at the headwaters of the Missouri. Lewis and Clark named the 3 rivers that came together here to form the head waters (Madison, Jefferson, Gallatin). This is also where Sacajawea originally lived before she was kidnapped by another tribe.
The countryside is a vast high plane. We saw a for sale by owner sign for 269,000 acres. We can see the mountains of Yellowstone to the south. According to the map, one of the peaks is called Mt. Cowen (11,000 ft). Wonder what relative that was????
Billings is nestled below some shear cliffs. Evidently the Indians used to do religious sacrifices off those cliffs. They also would herd Buffalo off the cliffs in the early days. And no doubt some settlers/soldiers as well. This area was quite a battleground in the Indian wars.
We found a nice motel near the hospitals (there are quite a few here) and met with Jim's cousin Carol and her husband. Jim and Carol hadn't seen each other in 50 years ! They took us for a tour of the city - and up on the cliffs overlooking the city. We had a great steak dinner at a very local restraunt and a very enjoyable evening.
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