Thursday, September 12, 2002Helena, Montana
Happy 78th Birthday, Daddy!
Dear Family and Friends,
Helena, Montana was not anything more on the map to us than a point along the way from Yellowstone to Glacier. This was until we happened to glimpse D & D RV Sales on the side of Interstate 15 at six-thirty in the morning. After two weeks of having to boil hot water on the stove to wash dishes because our carbon monoxide alarm was spiking over 200 whenever we turned on our water heater, the loss of our "basement" compartment after its two latches broke back in Colorado, as well as a punch list of a dozen other minor but annoying things, I decided we could look into a repair day for our little home on wheels. So, after a rare feast of pancakes and sausage at Mickey D's and a photo op with a dinosaur outside a Sinclair gas station (for those of you who didn't know, this was one of my wishes on this trip-- to see a gas station dinosaur once again!), we pulled up to the gate at eight in the morning and greeted the employees as they arrived for the day.
Or at least some of them.
Two out of three mechanics were out sick. Hmmmm. Yep. There was still a good chance they could get us in after noon, though. We were next in line after a big Class A customer who had been having a really bad run of luck lately. Wanna' give them my cell phone number and they'll call us? All right. Sounds good to me.
Now then. What to do, what to do?
I found a coupon for a teeny tiny Days Inn room just up the street and got us settled into there, unpacked what we couldn't live without, detached the trailer, and waited for the call.
Meanwhile, we took on some brochures about Helena and interviewed a few natives about the area. Very interesting. Helena is the capitol of Montana, and many points of interest were literally only blocks from our room. Definitely walking distance. And there is a historic "train" which is quite affordable and takes sightseers to "Last Chance Gulch" (where four Georgians made an attempt at a gold rush towards the end of that period of American history), all around the capitol area, and then into the district where the venerable homes of the very rich and famous were built back in the late 1800's (and since have been beautifully restored or maintained with millions of 20th Century dollars. And the mall (important detail since Luke lost his favorite American Eagle cap in Wyoming while filming some unusual butte formations out the camper window and just can't live without it) is just right up the street from our room, too...
Neat.
So, away we went.
Well, it didn't take us long to realize that the capitol of Montana is about the size of Asheville, NC, and far easier to navigate, for sure. We went everywhere. 'Specially once the RV place told us that there was no way they could get to us on Wednesday and we had our wheels back. We went orienteering, for sure. OK. So what if the mall had two anchor stores (no AE) and little else? Helena more than made up for this by having this lake a few miles back on Highway 12 where in the evening you can see 300 (or more) nesting pairs of bald eagles fishing for silver salmon just before bedtime...
By Thursday morning, when I left the camper with D&D for the day, we could have passed for natives, we were so well-acquainted with Helena and a few of its residents. The secretary of the RV place (bless her little heart) wouldn't hear of us being on foot for the day, so she loaned us her mammoth 4x4 diesel truck (leather interior, sat six adults comfortably!) and told us to "have some fun."
And we did.
"Whoo, whoo, WHOO!" the kids yodeled upon stepping UP into the truck. You'd have thought I'd rented a Hummer for the day or something. "MAN, what a truck!" Luke whistled appreciatively. What is it about boys and heavy machinery, I want to know???
We zipped down to Wal*Mart to get Sarah's glasses adjusted (someone had stepped on them in the night), then over to AAA to pick up the tour books and maps for next week's destination (no, I'm not gonna' tell you just yet! ~grin~), into a Cellular One dealership to pick up a charger for my cell phone (left mine at Yellowstone, I think), went grocery shopping (again), and then stopped into Capitol Barbershop for a few hours where all five of the children got new "do's." And I do mean DO!
At Cellular One, we quickly learned that everybody in Helena knows everybody else. I think "Neighborhood Watch" must have its headquarters here. Upon entering the store, I was greeted by a six foot plus strapping behemoth who said in a very no-nonsense tone of voice:
"Who in the world are you and why are you drivin' my Momma's truck?"
"You must be Luke!" I said cheerfully, with my most disarming smile, having swiftly pieced together some bits of info which I had gleaned in passing back at D & D, having a Luke, myself. Boys and girls, details can save a life!
Slowly. "Yesssssssss."
"My rig is in the shop. Your Mom loaned me the truck. Would you happen to have a charger for this phone?" (slipping mine out of my holster, being faintly reminded of Jimmy Stewart, duels at twenty paces, and the penalty for horse thievin'...)
Big grin. Then I was instant family.
Whew!
At Capitol Barber, we were just flat taken in. The proprietor, it turns out, was best friends with the fellow who ownsD & D RV... So, the stable of five beauticians and barbers turned out to give us the best Helena had to offer in coiffures. The girls were bobbed and fluffed ('bout the most professional job I've ever paid for, and only $8 apiece, too!) within an inch of their lives. EJ got realigned again after a year of his mother's haircuts. And Luke... well, after two years of holding out against a wave of fashion breaking over all his young men friends, I ponied up for a haircut and... highlights. To take the place of the cap, dontcha' know? ~smile~
We got some great pictures of Luke while his hair was being "pulled" through a cap (different kind of cap, boys), treated with purple paste to render it varying shades of blonde, "blowed" out to remove the possibly of those ugly oxidizing orange highlights (yes, we had a young beautician who felt it her bounden duty to educate us about the chemistry of hair, much to the girls' delight), and ~voila!~ we had ourselves a tall Justin Timberlake.
Amazing.
By that point, our rig was finished, good as new, for $43 dollars.
We said our goodbyes, but not before we washed the secretary's truck as a big "thank you," hugged the necks of all the friendly folks from Helena we could find, and tipped everyone in that good town we came across up to Atanta's basic rate for all the goods and services we received.
One other memorable highlight of Helena (yes, I see the pun) was meeting the State Representative at Capitol Barbershop who personally thanked us for adding to the state's economy, told us that Montana could use five more upstanding kids like mine in its workforce, and proudly informed me that the Big Sky State was third in the Nation K-12 in education. "You may want to go somewhere else for college, but come back here to raise your kids," he advised. "You do know Georgia is dead last in academics, don't you?" he said with a blazing smile and warm handshake.
Yep. I do. What I want to know, is, how did he know I am actually on a search to find the five best states in the US for K-12 education and then attempting to cross-reference this information with the top twenty best small towns in which to live??? (For those of you who don't already know, unless God does something major in the next three or so years, I will have to go back to work and the children will have to attend government school. Rather than stick my head in the sand for now, I am doing some serious research to see where God might have us move to next...)
Well, if this is the case, Kay, why are wasting your money on this trip? Because the money I am spending won't stop the inevitable. Yes, it would slow it down perhaps another six months or so, but it IS coming, nonetheless. This dream Bill and I had, of taking the children out West in 2002, was a very serious wish. The only one we actually had on the burner, all these years.
I have no regrets.
Besides. You should see my hair!
With love from Montana,
Kay
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