Be warned, as we learned on this trip, if you eat at an A&W, you will then be subjected to hear Ella saying, “A-W” for the next two hours in the car. Just when you think you’ve shaken the “A-W” it will be resurrected when you pass another one on the road.
On our way to Anaconda, we stopped at a ghost town named Garnet. I’m not going to lie, it was a little creepy. But, it was also really neat to see what was once a very thriving town. And the drive to and from it was nail-biting and fun! Four wheel drive rules in the Suburban!
Anaconda is another mining town, but it’s doing alright. We stayed at the Marcus Daly motel. Not exactly swanky, but it did the job of being a decent, clean and quiet place to sleep. The town was large enough that we were able to do important things like get some groceries, stop at CVS and even do our laundry. We drove around all over trying to find a Laundromat and eventually stumbled upon one. Loran met a very chatty local who gave him the low-down on which dryers had good seals, which towns had meth problems and warned him of mountain lions which have been advancing on the town, but the city doesn’t want anyone to know about it…meanwhile, I was getting the girls into bed and watching America’s Funniest Home Videos with Ella. I didn’t even know that show was still on. We patiently waited for the formally paint peeling stinky Chewy to be replaced by a still stinky, but less so, cleaner version.
This entire trip, Ella had been sleeping in her own bed. With the extra pillows we had, I’d make a little nest around Ella to keep her bed bound. The Marcus Daly only gave you two pillow per bed. We pushed one side of her bed up to the wall and figured she’d be fine. Nope. Around 6:30, there was a thud and crying. Ella had slid off the bed, head first. Ouch! She settled down quickly when she got to cuddle with Mommy and Daddy, but then Lily was up and our day was started.
Another warning, the breakfast wraps from McDonalds are quite hot and spicy. Ella won’t eat them. She will, however, make friends with all locals.
Anyway…we’d noticed there was another national park on our journey, so we decided to stop for the sake of getting the national park passport stamped. It is called the Grant-Kohrs Ranch. I figured it would be a dud, but it was free and we’d get our stamp. Turns out, ranching isn’t as boring as I’d once thought. We really enjoyed it and probably would have stayed longer if our kids didn’t want to do petty things like eat and nap. It’s the only ranch in the park system. In fact, Ella could have completed their packet to become a Junior Park Rancher and get a patch and badge, but quite honestly, their packet was hard. So, Ella will just have to keep her ranger status. We got to see cows, horses and chickens. Loran drank cowboy strength-made over the campfire coffee. We toured the house which was pretty sweet, walked through out buildings. Ella got her own cattle brand designed for the “Flying E” ranch and we got to see a chuck wagon. And Amish. There was a group of Amish touring the ranch. Ella liked seeing the girls’ dresses and when they’d walk by her, she’d point out their dresses and announce, “Here come friends!”
So, while I still cling to my city-girl status. More like suburban soccer mom…I can sort of see why my gene pool stems from a bunch of ranchers in South Dakota. The land is mighty enticing and beautiful, there’s a certain peace to being out there. You have to be tough, smart and have some sense about you to be a cowboy or rancher. But, I also enjoy making coffee with the push of a start button. And running water is pretty sweet too. I think I’ll partake in ranching through the national park service.
Montana also has a chain of casinos called Lucky Lil’s. Most of them are inside gas stations. We couldn’t resist getting a picture of Lil with her casino sign in Anaconda. I had to wait quite a while while the sign scrolled through messages like cigarette and alcohol prices…Lillian just kept staring at Loran trying to figure out what kind of excitement was coming next…
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