Anyway, continuing with my Montana adventures...
After Bozeman, we went to Great Falls. Joe and I took this back road through the mountains. It was spectacular.
My friend Steve said that he always disliked driving to Concho (where I live), because - whereas the drive is spectacular - the destination is kind of mediocre. That is the way I felt about Great Falls. It is flat and grassy. The only interesting feature is the Missouri River that winds through the center of town.
We set up our booth at the Montana State Fairpark, and they let us pitch a tent behind the booth. The first few days of the fair were really slow, but the last few days were pretty busy. It was a ten day event. My daughter Sophie came to visit and stayed with us for the duration of this event.
The most interesting thing about Great Falls were the people, and I will talk about some of them briefly:
Ali - He was also in Bozeman with us. A tall, black man, he had an accent, and so I assumed that he was from some Carribean island. Especially since he sells reggae t-shirts, and such.
I finally asked him
, "So where are you from?"
"Senegal," he answered. So we switched to French. He was very surprised to find that I spoke French, and this is how we communicated the rest of the time.
Since his name is "Ali", and since he is probably Muslim, I asked him, "How many wives do you have?"
After a brief hesitation, he held up two fingers.
"Me, too," I answered. Ali found it very odd that an American would live this lifestyle. I really liked Ali and found that I had something in common with him after this.
Brandon - He is a high school student who has taken an avid interest in airbrush art. He owns a local go-kart track, and we spent one evening doing laps. It was great fun. Brandon is a good kid, and he hung around us so much that he became a pleasant fixture.
However, eventually his mother put an end to him hanging around with us. I guess it seemed weird to his mother that a 17 year-old kid was hanging around grown men. We are family men, but still. Maybe she doesn't want him to hang around "artist types", or maybe his mother Googled my name, which would bring up a wealth of personal information. It wouldn't be too hard.
Jessie & Pete - They ran a t-shirt booth called Outlaw Embroidery. Jessie is a great guy with a beard of ZZTop proportions. Pete wears bermuda shorts and a cowboy hat. Since people watching - no, babe watching - is my primary activity at the fairs when things get slow, it was nice to have someone like Pete around, with an eye attuned like mine to aerodynamic beauty.
Tohni - There was actually a tattoo booth at this fair, and Tohni is an apprenticed tattoo artist. She came this close to convincing me to get a tattoo. She is Chippewa Cree and has an innocence about her. Technology is foreign to her, and she is baffled by the cellphone her friends insisted that she buy.
Tohni hung out around us a lot. She went clothes shopping with my daughter Sophie. I never talked to her once about me being a Mormon o a polygamist. Yet she could sense something different about us. She told us repeatedly that she felt like she had known us forever, and that I reminded her of an uncle. She is a great person, and I hope she keeps in touch.
Enrique - Next to our booth, the techno music would pound several times a day, and a short Mexican man with a pony tail would toss spray cans around like Tom Cruise in "Cocktail". He would use his spray cans to whip out space paintings in ten minutes, using crowd-drawing techniques like lighting his paintings on fire. He drew big crowds, but we didn't mind. He got the overspill business.
Enrique was so kind, and he would greet me enthusiastically every time he walked by the booth. It was nice to meet someone so genuine.
The people we met were definitely the highlight of our stay. Camping was alright, not so great. The only shower was half a mile away in the livestock building, and you were lucky if you got in to shower. Because there was only one shower, and all the carnies used it.
So eve though Great Falls is not the prettiest people, I enjoyed being there, because of the people there.
My laptop did crash while I was there. I have yet to fix it.
But tomorrow, I will post about our adventures in Missoula...
.
After Bozeman, we went to Great Falls. Joe and I took this back road through the mountains. It was spectacular.
My friend Steve said that he always disliked driving to Concho (where I live), because - whereas the drive is spectacular - the destination is kind of mediocre. That is the way I felt about Great Falls. It is flat and grassy. The only interesting feature is the Missouri River that winds through the center of town.
We set up our booth at the Montana State Fairpark, and they let us pitch a tent behind the booth. The first few days of the fair were really slow, but the last few days were pretty busy. It was a ten day event. My daughter Sophie came to visit and stayed with us for the duration of this event.
The most interesting thing about Great Falls were the people, and I will talk about some of them briefly:
Ali - He was also in Bozeman with us. A tall, black man, he had an accent, and so I assumed that he was from some Carribean island. Especially since he sells reggae t-shirts, and such.
I finally asked him
, "So where are you from?""Senegal," he answered. So we switched to French. He was very surprised to find that I spoke French, and this is how we communicated the rest of the time.
Since his name is "Ali", and since he is probably Muslim, I asked him, "How many wives do you have?"
After a brief hesitation, he held up two fingers.
"Me, too," I answered. Ali found it very odd that an American would live this lifestyle. I really liked Ali and found that I had something in common with him after this.
Brandon - He is a high school student who has taken an avid interest in airbrush art. He owns a local go-kart track, and we spent one evening doing laps. It was great fun. Brandon is a good kid, and he hung around us so much that he became a pleasant fixture.
However, eventually his mother put an end to him hanging around with us. I guess it seemed weird to his mother that a 17 year-old kid was hanging around grown men. We are family men, but still. Maybe she doesn't want him to hang around "artist types", or maybe his mother Googled my name, which would bring up a wealth of personal information. It wouldn't be too hard.
Jessie & Pete - They ran a t-shirt booth called Outlaw Embroidery. Jessie is a great guy with a beard of ZZTop proportions. Pete wears bermuda shorts and a cowboy hat. Since people watching - no, babe watching - is my primary activity at the fairs when things get slow, it was nice to have someone like Pete around, with an eye attuned like mine to aerodynamic beauty.
Tohni - There was actually a tattoo booth at this fair, and Tohni is an apprenticed tattoo artist. She came this close to convincing me to get a tattoo. She is Chippewa Cree and has an innocence about her. Technology is foreign to her, and she is baffled by the cellphone her friends insisted that she buy.
Tohni hung out around us a lot. She went clothes shopping with my daughter Sophie. I never talked to her once about me being a Mormon o a polygamist. Yet she could sense something different about us. She told us repeatedly that she felt like she had known us forever, and that I reminded her of an uncle. She is a great person, and I hope she keeps in touch.
Enrique - Next to our booth, the techno music would pound several times a day, and a short Mexican man with a pony tail would toss spray cans around like Tom Cruise in "Cocktail". He would use his spray cans to whip out space paintings in ten minutes, using crowd-drawing techniques like lighting his paintings on fire. He drew big crowds, but we didn't mind. He got the overspill business.
Enrique was so kind, and he would greet me enthusiastically every time he walked by the booth. It was nice to meet someone so genuine.
The people we met were definitely the highlight of our stay. Camping was alright, not so great. The only shower was half a mile away in the livestock building, and you were lucky if you got in to shower. Because there was only one shower, and all the carnies used it.
So eve though Great Falls is not the prettiest people, I enjoyed being there, because of the people there.
My laptop did crash while I was there. I have yet to fix it.
But tomorrow, I will post about our adventures in Missoula...
.
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