On to Montana - Dillon and Yellowstone

Montana
Almost the minute you cross the border you see it is different.  Big Sky Country it really is!  It’s an optical illusion – the sky cannot be any bigger in Montana than Indiana – they are both on the same planet – but having spent more time than I ever wanted to in Indiana, the sky sure looks bigger here.  Your eye sweeps across the plains to the far mountains on all sides and the feeling of its immensity takes your breath away like a gust of wind.

Dillon, Montana

A lovely little western town.  I was struck by the number of attractive young men about – attractive in that just-got-off-my-horse kind of way.  Yes, Western Montana University is there, but the subtle cowboy imprint is there as well.  (Girls, Montana, think about it)

We didn’t go anyplace much in Dillon.  We were tired out from Craters, I guess.  But we didn’t have to leave the RV park to find something interesting.  It was a nice RV park – Southside RV Park.  In chatting with the owners we found out that their son had taken over one of the buildings in the park and made his own WWII museum out of it.  Really?  It was free of charge and open every evening.  Each night after work, the son would go straight to the museum and stay there until after dark waiting for someone to come visit his museum.  We thought this a bit odd – perhaps the boy was not quite right.  But we felt that we should go and  show some appreciation for his efforts – a charitable kind thing on our part.

WERE WE EVER WRONG!!  We walked in and our mouths dropped open.   The small space was jam-packed with as fine a World War II collection as I have seen in large museums, but  compressed into this small space.  And it was all done perfectly.

And the “boy” was as sharp a young man as you would ever want to meet.

Derek Gore has only been collecting for four years.  That he has managed to put all this together in four years is an accomplishment in and of itself, but to do it all so well is incredible.  He is knowledgeable about everything he has and knows how to properly clean things up without ruining their value and has a real talent for display.  He wants to get these artifacts out of attics and garages and protect  and display them for people to see.  You have seen the TV show “Pickers”?  They have been to the museum and, I am sure, were blown away as we were.  They now “pick” for him.  Any WWI, WWII, Korea or Vietnam collectible items they find, they donate to Derek.

In addition to the museum, Derek does re-enactments and takes  his impressive collection of machine guns out for demonstration – which must be rather exciting.  He has a website where things are further detailed.  http://goresmilitarymuseum.webs.com/

Derek also serves as a member of the Dillon city council, so apparently has some political interests as well.  Remember his name!

Yellowstone

We turned off the freeway at Livingston and drove along the Yellowstone River.  We are in the movie “A River Runs Through It”.  Where is Brad Pitt?  Suddenly I want to fish, learn how to cast … get some waders.

Gardiner

We loved Gardiner at first sight.  It’s the small city at the original north entrance to the park and it is nothing like the popular and hideous west entrance with its IMAX and 50 T-shirt shacks.  I can’t wait to live here!

We stayed at an RV park in town.  It was wonderful – low on amenities and high on scenery.  Perfect.  We were thrilled with our luck – we had a site facing the Yellowstone River mere feet away.

We could hardly set up the motorhome for watching the river.  We watched it and listened to it for a month and never tired of it.  We watched it turn from a roiling fast river into a true white-water river as the snow melted.  Mostly, it was just us and the elk and antelope on the other side, but now and then the river was decorated with colorful rafts, kayaks, a paddle-board once or twice and other odd things that people thought would float.

Sometimes the rafters were hunched against the cold in their wet suits, ice bits stinging their eyes.  Later in the month they were smiling and excited in the warm sun, waving to us – “We’ll be back for dinner!”

Our first views of the park were in the snow.  We were so glad!

We’re finally in Yellowstone and we can’t wait to explore!