Now that the Dakota and Montana part of the tour has ended, it was fun to spend a night with old neighbors in Cinnabar Basin where my parents ranched for 23 years and where I attended high school in Gardiner on the border of Yellowstone Park. The basin now mostly owned by a Bill Gates billionaire has changed from what it was in the late '50s when I was there as a kid struggling to get up at the crack of dawn, feed the bucket calves and help dad milk 11 cows before driving 7 miles down a mountain road to the highway where I caught a school bus into Gardiner. Once you climb up to the Basin, the straight stretch of road is often drifted shut with snow after a good storm followed by wind. The house pictured was built in 1969 after the old house burned January 24, 1969. I planted the spruce tree that towers over the house in this picture. Bruin power shows in this mascot standing at the entrance of Gardiner High School slated to be one of the most modern Class C schools in Montana. The old school burned down in the 1970s and the federal government threw in some change helping the district to rebuild this ultra classy modern school that is now over 20 years old. I stopped by the school and gave them a copy of Bridge Over the Valley. The English teacher promised to read it and put it in the library.
Homeward bound in anticipation of the tour through Washington state.
No comments:
Post a Comment