Livingston Saturday Night

 Jimmy Buffet loved this area when he was just starting out and discovering this big ol world . It's weird here in Montana, you hear it all the time in different forms and they might even blame Jimmy to a degree... "it's been discovered '  ' it's been gentrified '  ' it's being ruined '.....What ? Hello ? I don't get ti , not a bit. It looks like all the old timers or non thinkers just like things the way they were and ignore the  never ending spiral of change. I used to tell the commercial fishermen in Alaska that pined away for the old days and wanted to have first rights that if they're able to build a time machine make sure it's big enough for everybody !  For me I see a nice place to live, people who can do it want to live there , it's a good thing and an inevitable thing so the only discussion should be is how do we do community development and shape it into something that is good for everyone....a vital friendly town with an economy and housing for all strata's, THAT should be the goal .

Here's a shot of typical downtown Livingston . It's just gorgeous and certainly has it's share of studios. bistros and real estate offices. I suppose the negativers would rather see empty run down or falling down 100 year old buildings.

Now where I hang my rain gear these days in Helena they took a different approach. In the early 70's while I scratched a living in the frozen north Helena went through a thing called ' urban renewal ' and ripped down major portions of the historic area including the Marlow theatre, the sister to the Wilma in Missoula that is now one of the most wonderful music venues in the Northwest....what kind of town wouldn't want a theater like this one in Livingston ? 

Every town in Montana has one of these . Why should Livingston be any different 

The retro vibe in Livingston is tangible, you feel it. For me it's as simple as the word ' interesting ' and what could be wrong with that....if that's ruined I guess we could all use a good dose of ruinitity....I guess I'm making up a few words here because I guess I just don't have the vocabulary to properly describe how damn stupid people can be...or maybe greedy....it's a type of the old ' I was here first so I have more rights ' , jeez I've bumped into that my whole life and errrrrr... I hate it. 

It struck me....for those that hate change the problem is simple to solve. Just move to Ringling a mere 40 miles up the road, it's a time capsule.

Ringling Ringling slippin away\

only 40 people

livin there today

streets are dusty 

and the banks be torn down 

it's a dying little town

Here's a couple shots or Ringling. One from the road and then a pic of main street and the bar.

behind the bar theres a pile

of beer cans 

been there 27 years

think of all the heartache and tears

in 27 years of beer

So you move to Ringling and you're 40 miles closer to one of the Hot Springs which has wonderfully hot mineral water in several pools. It's one of our favorite places . Interesting Murals of Montana history surround the pools and waterfalls . Because of the minerals etc a lot of the hot springs we've been to look to be rustic with a little algae bloom or debris that collects on the bottom....not this one, it's spotless clean.

And I learned something, which is always good. Untill I really scoped out the murals done by a local guy named Gary Larson I had no idea that the Vikings had a part in pioneering Montana.

11:00 a.m. Sunday in White Sulphur Springs. Church bells are ringing, the air is crisp, cool and clean. There's just a bit of termination dust on the mountains.....life is good.

Well, that's it for my foray into Montana ruininity. Things are different in Jeff's world and I like it. If you don't like the world you're living in I guess there's only a couple things you can do....you can adapt....change your view, get new glasses so to speak . OR....you can move to Ringling.

It's always something

 And I thought Alaska was a place with a lot going on....maybe it's just coincidence but this Montana deal is full of it, dynamic lightning storms that always result in a fire that's treated as routine in these parts. Then there's the accompanying toad strangler as Geno would say, if you've ever wondered what a one and a half inches of rain looks like in 15 minutes here's a  short video. Now in Mexico we've seen some serious rain but not like this and in Alaska the rain just pitter paters around but lasts for days....and I mean days.

In fact as I type this morning the world famous is experiencing another flood watch. The Snow River Glacier dumped ( the Jokulhaup )\which is does routinely and with another 5 days of rain in the forecast the Kenai River is sure to reach at least minimum flood stage. Now in Soldotna I've dealt with that many a time, I've worn raingear for 27 days in a row, I've had it rain so long that I never had to wash the boat for 3 weeks....but I ain't never had it run in the house like here in the Big Smokey Sky country.

And how does that work....well, just the other morning me and MPeasy were driving up the hill to our house when a red pick up with flashing lights passed us and Mp said " guy sure is in a hurry " . And I said  " yup he sure is. looky there ".

That was just the start of the show. Turns out our house was the perfect place to watch from. it is literally only about 5 blocks away right up into our mountain view. Here's a look see without tele.

So for me it was kinda the Helena version of watching Yellowstone being filmed over in Ham Bone. I got on my bike and humped the hill for a closer look. I was impressed with the industry of fire fighting. We easily had 30 trucks and another 20 police blocking traffic as well as two helicopters and a four engine jet that brought the red stuff that put the final touches to the 18 acre fire which nobody knows how it started.  

Now how do I say it...mmmmm.....well I've known a few firemen in my life and I've never met one that don't drive a new pick up truck, ya know what I mean.  So I figure with all the watching, preparing , radio calling and nut scratching there had to be about 1.4 million in payroll hanging around.

But I gotta say , those guys are good and there was no doubt that fire was going out. The State Forestry people got in the air first and the guy driving that Huey pretty much put the fire out single handedly. He flew that thing like a piece of his body . He never hovered just kept moving and swinging the load so the water would disperse in a line . He made a trip from a local lake about every 7 minutes, it was like watching choreography.  He had the bucket on a short leash so it wouldn't swing much, watching a man and his trade is a beautiful thing.....thank you firefighters.

So, being a little stressed from all the natural disaster avoidance me and my running mate decide to hit the links and we drive back to our new favorite golf course in Elliston. We hit our first shots right to the edge of the Blackfoot River where MP notices that the chokecherries are ' gorgeous ' and perfectly ripe. So as we tee up for the next hole out comes a real Bear. Now this guy is about a 300 pounder as ol retired guide 003 has seen a few bears. He's acting like he owns the place because of course he does.  Now the left side of my brain said ' he's only a black bear ' and the 69 year old side of my brain said ' you need to quit doing stupid stuff all the time '....so we decided to not play through. we were the only people around and well it was time to make an adult decision. I left a note in the money box and Tom the owner invited us to another round on him. 

With the air quality index in the red and me being an asthma guy we got up Monday morning and decided to exit stage left. We found nice clean air at our new favorite casino, Northern Quest in Spokane where I won 20 bucks. Yup, we spend gas, food lodging and of course a few Pacifico's for twenty bucks..  But the highlight of the trip was Kootnei Falls in the very Northwest corner of Montana , very close to both Idaho and Canada.

What a gorgeous spot. You can feel and hear the power of the water. It's a mile and half hike to the suspension bridge which of course we had to walk. My only other experience with a swinging bridge is in Puerto Vallarta where they have everyday suspension bridges over the river that are rusty and  well, mexican. But they're only 15 feet above the water....now this baby is tall , long and sways pretty darn good. Perfect . 

And the views....man oh man....

So Team X will be in Mazatlan October 25th.  I'll have pics of Day of the Dead celebration and I'd bet dollars to donuts a few slimey's . I'll get a couple Mile 14's out before but please come back...I'll get inspired by something more often I'm sure....😎