Travelin' in the North Country

Northern Plains-October 3

by Lenny Hughes

We're a few miles out of Fargo. Isn't that cause for celebration?

It's been a long week.

Tacoma View

Gillette View

John and Lew overlooking the vista

Tacoma, Washington, was fine...as you can see from my hotel window, I had a nice view of Mt. Rainier and the Bus (contrasted with the view from my room in Gillette), and I found John and Lew overlooking the vista with awe and anticipation for the Big Show that night. Of course, that went great.

Montana Mountains

Montana View

Montana Dust Devils

We took off for the great north, and a golf resort in Montana called Fairmont. The scenery along the way was extraordinary, with pine trees tall as skyscrapers, chiseled mountains, clear-rushing streams, little tornadoes called "dirt devils," and that full moon, recovering from the eclipse we saw in Washington.

Montana Logs

Tacoma Eclipse

Lew & John at Cracker Barrel

Best of all, of course, was our stop at the Misoula Cracker Barrel where we checked out the toys (John got an electric violin that plays "Dixie" and other gems). And we took off with a load of comfort food for the rest of the trip.

Trailer Chaos

Trailer Order

I spent my time in Fairmont transforming the Trailer into order out of chaos. Frank washed off the owl that slammed into the Bus the night before. James was off with friends back in Washington, and the rest of the crew played golf.

Montana Dragonfly

Mounted Goat

I ran across a huge dragonfly in the parking lot, and the resort featured dead animal parts in the lobby, including a hapless goat that found himself mounted on the wall.

John & Lew - Wyoming Tourists

On Wednesday, we headed off to Gillette, Wyoming. That night, Lew, John, Ben and I got a funky cab to Pokey's, a questionable barbeque bar. John and Lew took shots of the place as we approached. Pokey's promise exceeded its performance.

High point of Gillette was an appearance of my nephew Bill Ancell, who drove all the way from Bozeman to see the show. Great seeing him, and reminiscing about his meeting Lew when he was in elementary school and we were at Springbrook High.

The show was as questionable as Pokey's. Hard to overcome Yahoos in the crowd, who wanted to join the performance uninvited. But, hey, we sold a lot of Merch.

Bismarck View

We sold even more the next night in Bismarck, and the crowd in that place was fantastic. We'd driven overnight from Gillette, so there's not much to report about that trip.

Weird thing about being in the wild country, is that I had no phone coverage, and sometimes, I couldn't even send e-mails. With a lot of traveling and other down-time, I taught myself how to write a spreadsheet-an amazing device I wish I'd figured out a long time ago.

Dakota Sunflowers

The trip across North Dakota was restful. Though I got to see Maryland clobbered by Michigan. Odd country...very flat land, with miles of sunflower fields-and popcorn plantations.

At 3:15, central time, we just pulled into Fargo, so I'm going back to work.

Home Sunday to the hurricane. Hope you all back East are ok.

-Lenny