I had heard about Nevada City but didn’t know quite what to expect. The town was definitely deserted. Even the highway didn’t hardly have any cars on it. Walking around looking at the false front wooden buildings and old trains was a bit like stepping back into 19th century Montana. I want to go back and get a better sense of what this place is all about.
Saturday Hilary and I drove from Missoula to Bozeman, by way of Dillon, Twin Bridges, Sheridan, Nevada City, Virginia City, Ennis, and Norris. Calling these places “cities” is a little generous. Dillon is the biggest by far, with less than 4000 people. Virginia City and Nevada City are literally ghost towns. Ghosts literally live there. They are haunted. Scary business. I need to go turn some lights on.
These pictures were all taken between Missoula and Dillon.
Over the weekend we rode our bikes over to Waterworks Hill and went for a walk in the warm sun.
Here is a short list of things I owned on Saturday but did not on Sunday afternoon
The above items were sitting in an unlocked car overnight outside Hilary’s apartment and someone came along and liberated them. I feel like I am usually careful about what I leave in the car and remembering to keep it locked. I was faintly aware the car was unlocked but honestly did not give it a lot of thought. In the back of my mind an insistence on keeping the door locked was being too compulsive.
I noticed the coat was gone in the early afternoon and that was sad. Hilary mentioned maybe someone was getting more use out of it than I did, which was somewhat of a comforting thought.
That evening I remembered my Ipod used to be sitting in the glove compartment and was not anymore. What is someone going to do with a collection gathered over 4 years of relatively strange independent rock, hip hop, 90’s, etc? How are they going to know when the “broken Ipod” frowny face makes an unwelcome appearance you have to smack it a couple of times to make it work?
I can picture someone getting satisfaction from wearing the coat, but from an old(ish) semi-working ipod not-so-much. Also, the addition of the Ipod turned what I was viewing as a spur of the moment decision into a more calculated effort. On the bright side though it certainly could have been worse.
Now I am sure there is a lesson in here somewhere…
In a little house. in a little village, not far away from Thunderbolt City, lived a whistle fixer named Lunchbox Louie. He had a wife named Bigfoot the Chipmunk and a little son named King Waffle. Every day Lunchbox Louie would kiss Bigfoot the Chimpmunk and King Waffle, and walk to his shop in Thunderbolt City…
We were almost to Drummond and drove out of the sunlight into the fog of the inversion. Everything was coated in ice and we drove by some giant animal sculptures. I made Hilary turn around so we could check it out.
It turns out the place is the residence and museum of an almost 90 year old retired rancher, Bill Ohrmann, who just paints and sculpts now. (I got this information from this article in the Missoulian) The man makes some amazing things. If I was an artist I would like to made an 8 foot tall steel grizzly bear. The ice covered stillness of it all made the experience a little surreal.
Instead of taking 50 miles of I-90 between Bozeman and Missoula you can take a detour on the Pintler Scenic Loop. I have driven past the sign for it countless times, but until last Monday never scoped it out.
The route leaves the interstate at Anaconda and comes back at Drummond. Calling it a loop is a bit of a misnomer, more like a “Scenic C”.
There were some interesting sights along the way, Anaconda is a classic small town. The town of Philipsburg is located on the route, and we stopped briefly to walk around its vibrant (for a town of 900 at least) downtown.
These pictures are all from a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a hike up Mount Pisgah, a Sulock family favorite. It was my last day in North Carolina and it was probably about 65 degrees.
My friend Valerie Hastie made the drive from Charlotte to Asheville for a short and sweet visit. We went and played some disc golf and Asheville’s excellent Richmond Hill course.
