Well, last night was the meteor shower, and thanks to Mother Nature being a bitch, I missed it. You see, normally, there are never clouds around here because they all get stuck on the west side of the mountains (or that’s what the locals tell me). Last night, however, out of no where, a roaring storm came pouring over the city of Helena, blocking out the sky in all directions. This all happened a mere hours before I was supposed to ascend to the top of McDonald pass and take pictures of shooting stars all night. Needless to say, I did not get any pictures of shooting stars .
I did, however, get some pretty pictures of Helena at Night.
Actually, from way up in the Continental Divide, the city is awfully damn beautiful at night. All cities are, really. I take a great deal of comfort in city lights visible from a distance. There are people out there that say they hate city lights because the light pollution blocks out the stars. I think those people are crazy. The city lights are a different type of star field, just as beautiful.
Also, you are less likely to be eaten by a bear in the city…
After a couple of hours of taking pictures of the city (most of which didn’t turn out too well, DAMN YOU LACK OF TRIPOD!) I headed back to my bed. I don’t know if you’ve ever stood atop a mountain at 2:00 AM before, but it gets chilly, even in August. Also, I had to pee and there was a group of kids there, also waiting for meteors that never showed.
My failed night of picture taking was made up for by a wonderful Sunday Adventure with my Parents. They decided that I need to go on a Montana road trip to the nearby (by Montana standards) Virginia City, which is like Montana’s version of Eureka Springs, AR.
We didn’t actually go anywhere in Virginia City. Instead, we went a little ways farther down the road to a place called Nevada City.
Nevada City is a living history town. There are people wandering around dressed like the 1860s, making bread on a wood stove and spinning wool into yarn the old fashioned way. My mom even learned how to do it!
The city itself is pretty cool and full of some neat old buildings. I have to admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for neat old buildings. It started raining on us again while we were there, so we got to spend quite a bit of time hanging out with the re-enactors and just talking about cool stuff. I got quite a few pictures, too.
After that, we took the long scenic route back to Helena, out past Quake Lake, which itself is a pretty sad story. I took a ton of pictures out the van window as we drove, well, at least until the rocking waves of the mountains (and my late night excursion to McDonald Pass) caught up to me and I began to snore heavily. Still, all in all, it was a pretty beautiful day that ended with a camera full of pictures and KFC original recipe.
I suppose I have nothing to complain about. I am definitely getting out more and getting a ton more use out of my camera.
Now that I’m back to work full time, I’m starting to get my schedule back down to where I need it to be. Then I’ll be able to do more writing.
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p align=”left”>See you soon.