May 6, 2016 by Rae

Cody, WY, to Haven

I debated this last leg of my trip over and over again, crunching all the variables. In a best case scenario, with no delays, minimal stops, and an easy border crossing, home is a mere eight hours or so from Cody. Leave early and I could get to the border before it closed at 6:00 pm and be home with daylight to spare. A very long day, but not a hard one. But if there was a delay, like construction or a particularly nasty secondary inspection, I could be miss the 6:00 pm border closing time.

I also had to decide which route to take. My options were Cody to Billings to Glasgow to Opheim to home or Cody to Billings to Miles City to Scobey to home.

Last night, I decided I would get up early today and attempt to make a run for the border. This made the second route, crossing at Scobey, the better choice because Scobey has a reasonably priced motel while Opheim doesn’t have any lodging. By choosing this route, I wouldn’t have to double back very far from the border if I got there at closing time.

That settled, I went to bed looking forward to another good night of sleep. I’ve been on quite a streak since Camp Verde. Well, I probably got two hours of fragmented sleep all night! Guess I was just too eager to be home… 🙁 I gave up on sleep around 6:15 am and spent a final half hour enjoying good internet before getting up to dress and finish packing the truck. I’d done the hard work last night, so I didn’t have much to do. By the time Vicki got up around 7:00 to double check that I had everything and hug the stuffing out of me, I was ready to go.

What a great week we had! It’s not easy living in such close quarters with someone, but she makes it very easy. Thanks again, Vicki!

I left the campground around 7:30 and went to a gas station for fuel and coffee since the more obvious coffee choices (McDonald’s and Starbucks) were in the wrong direction. The coffee I got was absolutely fine. Vicki and I did pizza again last night, so I had my leftovers to munch on today and didn’t need any breakfast — or lunch. 🙂

And so, I pushed northeast to Billings, then got on the Interstate, eager to reach Miles City as that would be the start of familiar territory. The miles passed uneventfully and sometimes I even caught a clear station on the radio. It was good driving weather, a little overcast, so the truck was comfortable.

In this direction, Miles City was the end of civilisation as I would start to push on into a few tiny towns with dozens of miles of open prairie between them. I made a pit stop in Circle and then turned onto highway 13 to Scobey just before Wolf Point when…

I hit the wall. Well, the wall was a train. A train several miles long that was not budging and would not budge for hours, blocking the way north.

There was quite a lineup forming, but I also saw people turning some distance before the crossing onto a gravel road. I explored this road with my GPS and saw that it led to a railroad crossing about 10KM away where I could take highway 2 and come back to highway 13. Most of that 20KM detour was on gravel and it took me almost 30 minutes, but it was completely worth it!

Right there at the corner of 2 and 13 is the first sign telling me that my journey across the US is almost over: “Canada – 62 miles.”

I pulled over in Scobey to fill the gas tank one last time and then pushed on for my final 14 miles in the US, dreading the border crossing. Many of you know I was spoiling for a fight. The number of times I get pulled over for secondary inspection is unacceptable considering the fact that I have never made a false declaration or otherwise given CBSA any concrete reason to red flag me. I was fully ready to file a complaint after having my truck emptied for the umpteenth time for absolutely no reason.

Needless to say, I was not ready for an official who remembered me and started with, “Hey, welcome home! Your truck made it!”

Ah, life in a small town… Cross at the same place often enough and things get easier…

I still had to give a very thorough declaration, but I was not physically searched. This was fine and I am pleased that I had my first truly easy crossing in a very long time. It infuriates me that so many resources are wasted on me when I know RVers who come back with contraband or who flat out lie in their declarations and barely get boarded. But, anyway, I was cleared quickly today. WOOHOO!

It was then a very potholey final hour to home. Work crews were out in full force patching and so the roads will be smooth again very soon.

In the final stretch from Willow Bunch, it was wonderful to get to that rise where I see the hamlet spread out before me and then drive down into it. Home!!! 🙂

I wish I could say that all was well at Haven, but that was not the case. 🙁 One of my neighbours went on a bender over the winter and broke into everyone’s homes looking for booze, cigarettes, and valuables. Charles did a check of my place and thought everything was okay, but he didn’t see that an attempt was made to pry my front door open. There is considerable damage, but the deadbolt held and still works. I would need a new door frame and door, but I doubt that’s going to happen. I called the RCMP’s non-emergency number and left a message. When the constable in charge of this case gets back to me, I will be pressing charges. My insurance status is a little dodgy right now and even if it weren’t, moving Miranda to a repair place to get a new door isn’t an option. I will probably try to hammer the door back into shape and then apply some black spray paint to the scratched areas. I’ll have pictures tomorrow for those who want to give me suggestions on how to deal with the issue. 😉

Even though I’m annoyed by this, it really isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things and my buildings were secure so I’m not as upset as some of you may thing I am. I quickly detarped, hooked up power, started the fridge, and connected the internet. The latter was so easy thanks to my new booster setup! Everything so far is good except that Miranda is not level (Charles will help me deal with that once and for all tomorrow) and that the hydrant where I get water hasn’t been turned on yet so I can’t test my water system. Spring has sprung early, so there is a chance I can get the hydrant turned on next week instead of waiting till the middle of the month.

I then hauled in a few boxes before calling C&C to let them know I’d landed, and was invited for supper! Oh, bless these lovely people!

I made my bed (two toppers and a heated mattress pad sound like heaven right now!) and put together some things so I could have a shower there. I then headed over to catch up (including giving their dog Brutus lots of hugs and kisses — it’s so lovely to be missed!). I opened all my mail and had nothing urgent, just a tax form for when I get around to filing my return and a small cheque that is hopefully still good.

We had a lovely late dinner (with good avocado in the salad!), I enjoyed a shower (Caroline had wondered why I’d brought my suitcase, LOL), and then I headed home in a rapidly chilling evening.

It’s very smokey because Alberta is on fire, but otherwise, conditions are excellent for May, even too much so. The area is desperate for rain and there is worry of fires starting here… Even so, I’m the wrong person to ask to do a rain dance!

That’s all I have the energy for tonight! I’m going into town in the morning to get some groceries (I did a shop at Walmart in Cody yesterday, but need meat and veg) and then I’ll keep unpacking until Charles comes to help me with my leveling issue.

HOME! 😀

May 6, 2016 by Rae

The Homesteader Museum, Powell, Wyoming

After visiting the internment camp, Vicki and I continued into the town of Powell to visit the Homesteader Museum, which has free admission. A good chunk of it was closed because they had just opened for the season, but there was plenty to explore, and the price was right!

We both loved the lilac bushes outside. They are my favourite flower.

The main part of the museum is this big room with lots of treasures in it!

We were greeted by a museum worker who gave us a very good introduction to the history and geography of the area, including how this was basically a desert until irrigation made the land arable. Then, Vicki and I started poking around the exhibits. There were tons of interesting things and I only took a few pictures.

I had a very similar typewriter back in the day.

I was fascinated by the adding machines on display.

Here’s an older one.

And this is a full-on calculator!

This was the play table. I had fun playing with the typewriter.

This is the smallest typewriter I’ve ever seen!

A 1940s homesteader’s two-room cabin.

This cabin is 30 years older than the log one!

It had a closet!

Read the last paragraph on this one. Vicki and I had a chuckle.

The wallpaper was lovely.

Vicki had never been in a caboose before.

We loved this intricately carved clock…

And umbrella stand and chair and…

bench.

One of the exhibits they are working on is a blacksmith’s shop, so there will be lots more to see as the season moves on!

May 5, 2016 by Rae

The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center – WWII Japanese American Confinement Site

Vicki’s and my plan for today was not going to be much fun, but it was necessary. We visited the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, which was a Japanese American confinement site or concentration camp, depending on who you speak to, during WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. More than 130,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two thirds of whom were American citizens, were uprooted and displaced away from the coasts. The northernmost camp was at Heart Mountain, near Powell, Wyoming.

The centre is privately run and really well laid out, giving a full portrait of the injustices and racism the Japanese Americans faced that culminated in their internment. I had a lot of prior knowledge and Vicki almost none and we both felt that the material was at our level. I alternated between anger and grief as I moved through the exhibits and then went above the centre to do the walking trail and tour the ruins of the hospital complex.

The internees spent three years in the camp, which sounds like so little time, but their lives were destroyed. Even release from the camp did not bring freedom because there was still such a strong anti-Japanese sentiment. The younger folks did better than the elders since they were sheltered from the harsh realities of camp. They were able to be children while the adults fought against boredom and scarcity. There were many suicides before and after release.

Some internees tried to return home after the war, but found there was no home to go back to. With just $25 and a ticket to anywhere in the US, they were released back into a world that did not want them. Wyoming’s governor went on record to say that he did not want the Japanese to stay in Wyoming. The stigma of internship has remained through the generations, with these American citizens passing on to their children that they were somehow inferior to the Caucasians. Most of the adults interred in the camps chose to pretend those three years did not happen.

What the United States did to the Japanese during World War II is not unique. Canada did the same thing, a little known fact that the lady at the centre said she had only just very recently found out. What distresses me is that the current climate in the United States feels very ripe for this sort of thing to happen again. Please, please, please go visit Heart Mountain if you are in the Yellowstone region or the Manzanar National Historic site in California.

: The guard tower and the hospital smoke stack.

: The building is modeled after the tar paper covered barracks.

: “How can you teach democracy in a concentration camp?”

: It is hard to define this type of camp. It is not strictly speaking an internment camp. Despite the connotations of the Nazi death camps, “concentration camp” is probably the most accurate.

: There was no privacy in the camps, even in the toilets.

: One of the stalls in the bathroom was modified to give us an idea of what it’s like to pee next to several strangers.

: Very effective use of mirrors.

: The displaced were not well informed as to what type of clothing they needed. Those from southern California were ill prepared for the harsh Wyoming winters.

: The menus were very spare and not suited to the Japanese palate.

: The camp had a recreation department.

: And two cinemas.

: And a newspaper.

: And schools that started off woefully inadequate, but eventually were on par with others in the state.

: The high school had everything you’d expect in a school of that era, including a gymnasium and classrooms for home economics and woodworking.

: Children played sports and were on teams.

: It took nine white teachers complaining for the food situation to improve. I would like to know more about these heroes.

: It angers me that these young men were drafted and sent to die in a war for a country that had turned its back on them.

: I was surprised that kids could leave the camp to go to college if they found a college that would accept them.

: Don’t count on your Constitution to protect you from something like this happening again. Your country is on the verge of electing a leader who would happily make this sort of nightmare a reality.

: When folks left the camp, they had nothing and found it difficult to start over.

: Many were not welcome back in their hometowns.

: There was a white woman interned at Heart Mountain, the wife of a Japanese man she did not want to abandon.

: I’d like to look up the documentary about Estelle Ishigo.

: Seabrook Farms, a vegetable processing operation, recruited the Japanese after they left the camps, so many went to the plant in New Jersey.

: Empty barracks to the right, furnished barracks to the left.

: These took less than hour to build with green wood, which would shrink and leave up to half-inch gaps in the walls, letting in dust, wind, and cold.

: There was no privacy even with the walls..

: Folks made furniture from scraps of wood, crates, and other bits around the camp.

: The barracks eventually got a modicum of insulation.

: There could be seven or more members of a family in one of these rooms.

: Curtains offered an illusion of privacy.

: Clothesline by the stove.

: Heart Mountain in the distance.

: The smoke stack is the most visible landmark for miles around.

: The Japanese who died in the camp were cremated. When folks were released, they took their loved ones with them. This urn was found some years ago and no living relatives could be found. The centre asked a Buddhist elder if it was okay to display the headstone (with the urn interned under it) and were told yes.

: Benches around the guard tower.

: Above the centre, there is a 1,000 foot walk that gives a summary of what you learn in the centre.

: There was a budget of 45 cents per day to feed the inmates, but only 32 cents was spent. Where did that 13 cents go?!

: There were Boy and Girl Scout troops in the park.

: This was the swimming hole, built after a child drowned in the canal. It sounds like not all the Caucasians involved in the camp were monsters.

: You can just see the edge of the swimming hole.

: This shocked me: internees could vote absentee ballots in their hometown elections!

: The camp was the third largest city in Wyoming at the time!

: Memorial to boys from the camp who died in the war.

: The following pictures are the remains of the hospital complex.

: Not sure what this is!

: There was lots of broken glass all around.

: The smokestack is 18″ off plumb.

: The internees found the landscape alien and bleak. It looks like home to me…

This post was fact checked by Vicki. Thank you!

May 4, 2016 by Rae

Lunch at The Irma

The ladies at the Cody visitors’ centre told me that I really should “do lunch at The Irma,” the restaurant attached to Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel. I checked the menu online and found prices very reasonable, so I decided to do that today. I had to stop at an optometrist’s first to have a screw replaced in my sunglasses (free service), so by the time I got to The Irma, it was almost 2:00.

I started by ordering a beer since I haven’t had one since Moab. The Irma offered a number of beers brewed at the nearby (60 miles away) Red Lodge Brewery in Montana. I went for the very “grapefruity” Bent Nail IPA, which was delicious!

The restaurant was updated in the ’70s to meet health codes, but would have fit in 100 years ago.

The ceiling is an exact reproduction of the original:

I had a fantastic patty melt with “Irma fries,” which are cubed and sautéd red potatoes with seasoning. Much better than frozen fries! At $9.99, this meal was priced right around what I’ve paid for a patty melt in many locations, but the potatoes really elevated the dish. Excellent food at a fair price. Rather unexpected for such a touristy location.

I went upstairs to check out the hotel:

This is the original bar, which was a gift from Queen Victoria:

And here’s a random shot of the pest who has insisted on cuddling with me all week:

May 3, 2016 by Rae

Center of the West, Cody, WY

I’ve had no trouble filling the last three days in Cody.

Sunday was a bit of a down day for me. Vicki left for work around 7:00 and I got up very shortly thereafter. I got started on some work due Monday and didn’t go out until the afternoon, walking up and down Sheridan Avenue (main street) to get a sense of Cody’s tiny downtown.

Cody is, of course, named after William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the man who brought the Wild West to the world. It is my favourite kind of tourist town, similar to Dawson, as it is a robust community that exists outside of its tourism draw. There’s lots to do, plenty of good food, and the locals are very friendly.

Monday and Tuesday were eaten up by my visits to the massive Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This centre is actually five separate and unique museums. The centre is so large that your admission ticket ($19 for an adult) is valid for two consecutive days.

I started with a visit of the Draper Natural History Museum, all about the geography, ecosystems, flora, and fauna of the Yellowstone region. I liked how it was laid out, starting at the top of a mountain at about 6,000 ft, and then gently guiding you down to lower elevations. I especially liked the video on how to deal with a bear encounter and the giant mosaic map of the region.

Next, I went to the Buffalo Bill Museum. This was my favourite of the five! I really didn’t know much about either the man or the actor and this was a very comprehensive exhibit, full of artifacts from his life and shows. My favourite part was that there was actual video of one of his 1910 shows! This was so amazing to watch (especially the bit where we could hear him speak!) that I came back the next day and watched the video again! The video showed among other things, the popular “attack of the Deadwood stagecoach” portion of the show… with the actual stagecoach right behind me, restored to brilliant yellow! I saw a lot of myself in Buffalo Bill and I’m glad that I got to know him here.

Then, it was time to break for an early lunch. There was a coffee and sandwich bar at the museum that I decided to check out since I would otherwise have to walk back to town (not a long distance, maybe half a mile, but I didn’t want to spend the time). I was pleasantly surprised to find gourmet coffee and custom made sandwiches at a reasonable price and enjoyed my lunch so much I had the same thing (with different sandwich fillings) the next day!

I finished my day at the Plains Indian Museum. I kind of went quickly through this one, planning to do a second circle of it the next day since I was getting a bit tired. Lots of beautiful beadwork on exhibit and I liked learning about how the coming of the horse didn’t so much change local culture, but rather enhanced existing practice.

Before heading home, I stopped at the centre’s gift shop, where I picked up a pair of moose stud earrings. The cashier said that they were the most Canadian thing she’s ever seen, LOL.

By the time I got back to the campground, it was close to 2:00. I worked a bit until Vicki came home and then we did the grown up thing and went out to do laundry. We were supposed to have leftover soup from Sunday for dinner, but by the time we got done with laundry we were beat and instead decided to try the restaurant attached to the business where she works since she gets a hefty discount. The discount was enough that I went ahead and had the steak and prawns!

Tuesday was very similar to Monday. I got up and did some work, then headed out late morning to the museum. The man at the ticket counter recognised me (!) and thanked me for coming back.

I started with the Whitney Western Art Museum which had not appealed to me for some odd reason. No idea why since it was filled with sculpture and paintings of my favourite landscapes. I might not have been born in the West, but I always knew I would live there on the open plains. This museum had an audio guide, so I spent a lot more time than I thought I would.

Next, I went to the Cody Firearms Museum, of which I had about zero interest, but which gun nuts could easily spend a day or two in! So many firearms, from the mid 1400s all the way to today, and by all the major manufacturers. I tried my hand at “shooting a pistol” (no ammo in it) and did like the older weapons with a lot of carvings that made them works of art, but really didn’t spend much time.

Coming out of the firearms museum, I noticed a gallery along the walls of the mezzanine holding the administration offices, so I went up to check it out. I was perplexed to find a painting depicting a scene from Vancouver Island!

It was a bit early for my final exhibit, so I went back to the Buffalo Bill Museum to rewatch all the videos of him and then did a final circuit of the Plains Indian Museum.

Finally, I attended the raptor demonstration outside, where I saw a great horned owl, a peregrine falcon, and a red tailed hawk. This was an informal talk where the raptors sit on their handler’s hand and do not fly or perform tricks. It was very informative and I liked seeing the birds up close.

I’ve traveled all over this continent and have been to all manner of attractions. Cody’s Buffalo Bill Center of the West ranks right up there for me with Montréal’s Biodôme, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., and the City Museum in St. Louis — a destination unto itself.

I’m not sure what I will do Wednesday. I have work to do in the morning and there’s not really anything more for me to see in town (the lovely gals at the vistors’ centre all pointed me to things outside of town), so I’ll probably just pop into the Irma Hotel and then walk around off the main drag. Vicki and I do have plans for Thursday a short distance from Cody!