We have seen many acres of wheat since we arrived in this state a month ago, and it was time to taste some of it. To satisfy our well-meaning healthy conscience, we bought some steel cut Montana wheat. To satisfy our more powerful sweet tooth, we bought a pecan-covered cinnamon roll.
If we were asked to name the longest river in the United States, we would have probably given the wrong answer before we started traveling. Now we know it is the 2,341-mile-long Missouri River.
Next stop for the day was the Missouri River Headwaters State Park, just to find out where this long river got its start. Lewis and Clark had planned to follow the Missouri River all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Boy were they sad to find that it actually starts here in Montana--far from the ocean. They were also sad to find that the Rocky Mountains were a lot bigger than they had planned. We love Lewis and Clark history, so we stopped here to see the point where they camped in 1805--where the Madison and Jefferson Rivers come together.
Just a little ways up the road, the Gallatin River joins in. Lewis and Clark named these three rivers after elected U.S. officials of that time--the Secretary of State (Madison), the President (Jefferson) and the Secretary of the Treasury (Gallatin). Together, they form the mighty Missouri. Some more Missouri River trivia--if you floated downstream from here in an innertube, you would reach the Gulf of Mexico in 2.5 months.
We're glad to do our part to protect the beautiful waters we have enjoyed in Montana. We've had our kayak inspected more than once for the invasive mussel species that are a making a mess of some waterways. We noticed this "mussel alert" at the river at the state park. Obviously, Mark misunderstood the type of muscle that the sign was alerting.
Next stop is a ways down a gravel road and out in the middle of the proverbial nowhere. We haven't had many flower pictures on the blog lately, so Denisa wanted to add this nice row of sunflowers along the road. Montana hasn't had rain since June, so the pastures as far as we can see are a crispy golden color.
This road took us to the remote Madison Buffalo Jump State Park.
This is one of the natural cliffs that Native Americans used to bring in an abundant supply of bison meat for the winter. From the parking lot it was a mile-long walk through the golden prairie grass.
On the top of that big hill, we found further evidence of the Native American presence. Denisa is standing behind a circle of stones, once used to anchor the bottom edges of a tipi.
This flat plateau was the perfect setting for a buffalo jump. This involved a carefully orchestrated plan to drive the unsuspecting bison across the plateau top. Then they must be spooked into a frantic run so they gallop off the ledge before they can put the brakes on. Denisa is standing at the ledge where the bison would plunge to their demise.
The tribe's women and the children were at the base of the hill to kill the crippled bison. Then the skinning and butchering and drying begins immediately. Unlike those buffalo jump days, it was certainly a beautifully peaceful place this September morning. We stood on the ledge surveying the Montana landscape around us.
Mark just had to jump here at Madison Buffalo Jump State Park.
A mile away from the state park, we saw this red wagon with an interesting sign. Of course, we had to stop and check it out.
We left $2, and thought these chocolate chip cookies would be just the right snack to get us to our next destination.
Our destination for the day is the city of Bozeman. It's home to Montana State University, so we took a drive-by tour of campus that started at the football stadium. Classes have started this fall, and from the looks of the parking lots it looks like enrollment is good.
Not far from campus was a very interesting museum--the American Computer Museum. Since Mark retired from a career in IT, this sounded like something that would interest him. There was a sign in one of the displays that made him giggle.
While working on his computer science degree a few (ahem) years ago, all his programming was done with key punch cards. He must be really old! He also recognized the TRS-80 computer on display. It brought back memories of high school, when Mark sat down in front of his very first computer, which was in Mr. Oswald's closet in the math classroom.
Mark saw many more early model computers, and he was feeling a little nostalgic from seeing so many old friends in one building. Denisa thought it was a very good museum as well, and it gets great reviews from several of the travel websites we use. Where else could one see the very first Apple computer (including the cassette taped software)-signed and donated by the co-founder of the Apple Company--Steve Wozniak.
When we complain about the cost of a new phone, the computer museum reminds us that it could be worse. It compares the cost of the selectron--developed in 1953 with its limited memory--to the current iPhones with so much more memory.
The iPhone 7 has approximately the equivalent of 8 billion selectron tubes of memory. That would mean an iPhone should cost over 36 trillion dollars.
We recommend this well displayed and narrated museum to anyone stopping by Bozeman. We also recommend a stop at the evening farmer's market at Bogert Park.
We were looking for fresh vegetables, but found something even better. Hiking boots! There is a company headquartered in Bozeman that makes good quality hiking footwear. They get their name from a shortened version of "Outdoor Bozeman"--Oboz. Later, we found that companies like REI and L.L.Bean stock them. We learned that when they make a new prototype shoe it is always made in women's size 7 or men's size 9. Some of those prototypes never make it to market, so what does a company do with them?
Those prototype shoes were stacking up in the office. So they brought boxes of them to today's farmer's market to sell at bargain prices. Denisa found out it was a great day to have size 7 feet! Mark usually buys a 9 1/2, so most of the men's shoes were too little, but Denisa had lots to choose from. We ended up buying three pairs before we left. Those three pair would retail for around $140 each, and we got them for $20 per pair. Hiking shoes are the one thing we have worn out and replaced several times since we started full-timing, so this was a great find for us!
We have enjoyed our week near Ennis Montana, but we're ready to head south down the road to more adventures!
No comments:
Post a Comment