Pictures

"What the Hay"

We were one of 4,500 other votes during the What the Hay contest on Sunday (9/13).  Now your thinking what on earth is this, I thankfully had a news paper to look at prior to my exposure that gave pictures of previous years winners.  But literally its a contest to see who can make the best design out of hay bales.  We saw giant wedding bells, and a 60 foot long Chew Choo, made to advertise the Charlie Russell train.  There were some pretty creative ones and quite a few political ones.  Lots were discounting Obama's abilities as president, definitely publicly slandering the health care policies he's trying to pass.  A creative way to voice ones opinion I must say.  All in all I enjoyed my driving around and voting for the best hale bale experience.  I certainly would never have seen anything like it in Oregon.  

Charlie Russell Chew Choo

      
The day of the Chokecherry festival my boyfriend's mother was in charge of running the Charlie Russell Chew Choo.  Its stated as the premier dinner train in Montana, traveling 56 miles roundtrip through ranchlands, valleys and mountains of big sky country.  The train crosses three trestles, all seeming to be 100 or so feet in the air and looked like at any minute they may crumble beneath us.  The tracks originated in 1912, which may explain my concerns.  Yet, I had such a great time working the train I didn't even get much time to look out the windows except when we were stopped at various points along the way.  We began taking drink orders around 3pm and said our goodbyes around 8pm.  There was a train robbery on the way back, where guys on horse back came riding alongside shooting blanks at the train.  Some ladies came on board with bright red lip stick, kissing all the bald men on their foreheads, and the robbers jumped aboard taking fake money that every passenger was given.  It was quite exciting.  Certainly an experience that I would recommend to anyone traveling through Montana, interested in reliving the wild west.  

Montana

This was my third trip to Montana.  There's always a bit of anxiety for me around visiting because we are visiting my boyfriend's family, the people who may be my future in-laws....someday.   This year his mother really encouraged us to visit during the chokecherry festival; a weekend festival where they close main street and have 200 plus vendors with all kinds of items for sale. The festival kicked off with the Kiwanis club making pancakes and scrambled eggs with chokecherry jam.  The day ended with a chokecherry stomp at the fair grounds, there was a live band, dancing, food and beverages.  I of course made Jay dance with me, which he loved.....

I have come to realize that small communities around the nation have berry festivals, not to mention beer, wine, cheese, religious, and cultural festivals.  Where I'm from there's a blackberry festival and the town I currently live in holds a cranberry festival.  Festivals are a joyous way to socialized with community members and support local crafts or small businesses, among other reasons.  I can't forget all the great food festivals have to offer. 

Anyways, as much as I look for differences between Montana and Oregon there certainly are similarities too.         

Airports

My boyfriend and I recently returned from a trip to Lewistown, MT where we visited his parents. Along the way we spent some time in four different airports, San Francisco, Denver, Billings, and Seattle.  I certainly have spent my fare share of time in airports but now that I have this blog to do I tried to look at my surroundings a bit more.  

Traveling

Still waiting to board our last flight to Billings, where we arrive at 6:30 pm.  We will still have a two hour drive to Lewistown, MT after beginning our journey at 5 am that morning.  Even with the hour loss we were still traveling a total of 16 hours.  It seems to me that the cheaper one wants to travel the more time they spent doing it.  We were only in the air about 4 hours so, most of that was either waiting for a flight or driving to and from the airport.  I was beat by the time we made it to the house.  

Our flight from Eugene, OR to San Francisco, CA was our first flight of the trip.  The plane circled the tarmac for 30 minutes before landing due to fog delays.  We were concerned because if out flight out of San Fran to Denver was delayed than we would most likely miss the Denver to Billings connection since we only had 50 minutes in between those two.  It certainly puts a lot of pressure and stress on travelers who are already uptight wanting to make their connections or waiting for a flight thats been overbooked, hoping that a seat is available.  I met a girl who had 22 more hours of traveling since she was heading to India for business. We also sat next to a couple that was coming back from Italy and their final flight arrived at midnight after traveling a full day.  

We flew United over and Alaska/Horizon back.  I remember when breakfast, lunch, and dinner were offered no questions asked.  Now a free soda and the option of purchasing candy is available.  The Horizon flights gave us pretzels and complimentary beer, a step up from United.  It amazes me how much has changed in the last 10 years, from the new security measures we are subjected to, to the prices we pay for flights, and the lack of direct flights available.  I know my blood pressure rises as soon as I get my boarding pass in hand and start heading through the numerous security steps.  Thankfully both Eugene and Billings airports are smaller so the staff are not quite so rude and pushy.  

 So what is the traveling community?  Does it include the many employees from the flight attendants to the bartenders as well as the thousands, millions of daily travelers.  Who else could be incorporated within the term of traveling community.  What about those people who are anxiously waiting for their friends, partners, sons/daughters, family members or business associates to make it home safely.  I'm not really sure, but since I did have the opportunity to spend some time in four different airports I thought about my situation and compared it to those around me and wondered where they were going, how long it would take them, how much they paid, or if they used frequent flier miles.  I questioned if they were eager to arrive or nervous about their trip.  

Outside Lands Cont....

One can't go to a three day festival without purchasing organic produce while there.... or can they.  I was pretty impressed to see the farmers market centrally located, with people around it every time I walked by.  I must admit I didn't purchase anything but the idea is fabulous.  I have become more informed about eating within a 100 miles or less of where one lives and I encourage the idea.  I'm not ready to go full steam ahead with the idea but there are farmers markets where I live and I purchase most of my produce from them.  I have also become a gardener, which has been so exciting to watch fresh veggies grow right in front of my very own eyes. 

This is the solar stage, which wasn't that big, but the sound was great.  If you go to www.sfoutsidelands.com there is some info on the amount of power this stage had running through it.  The mind power and physical strength that went into building each of these stages is amazing and I am really happy that they designed a stage specifically to run off of solar power.  It gets the idea that much further out there for the public to see and be informed about.   

Of course we can't leave out the beer suppliers, this year Heineken was the sole distributor for the three day festival, which I must say was disappointing to have three choices.  Heineken, Heineken light, or New Caste.  One would think that with all the micro brews around this festival that lends itself to being outside the box would encourage more local breweries.  I'm sure Heineken paid a pricey fee to be the only distributor for some 80,000 people.  

This windmill is a great feature for the festival not only is it appealing to look at, it also has a purpose by assisting in various lights and sounds in the festival grounds.  I am such a believer in wind power, especially since I live on the Oregon Coast and most summer days feel like I'm going to be blown over this is an area that I am passionate about and am eager to watch, learn and hopefully utilize wind power sooner than later. 

Since I'm still figuring out the kinks of blogging these first few will be a bit messy. 

This is a picture of Cage the Elephant one of the many bands we had a chance to see.  They put on a fabulous show all seemed pretty young so I was quite impressed with their musical talent. 

Outside Lands Festival

Once my first week of class had ended I headed down to San Francisco where I planned to watch and experience three full days of live music in Golden Gate Park at the 2nd annual Outside Lands Festival.  My boyfriend and I went last year and had such a blast we couldn't pass up this years, especially since his favorite band was the first night headliner *Pearl Jam*.  I took some pictures of this festival in order to share on my blog and discuss some of the activities that happened.  

This is a picture of the main stage.  The largest by far of five stages.  The festival itself was inside the Equestrian Stadium, which encompasses Speedway Meadow and Polo Field.  This area is roughly 15 blocks, so walking from stage to stage did not give one much time in between.  The main feature for this festival and certainly a reason I returned is its awareness of energy efficiency.  There were refillable water stations, beer cups were corn based, a solar powered stage and we were given three options for where to throw our used items; compost, recycle or landfill.  

Over due

So this is week four and I am finally doing my first blog.  I'm still not sure what I think of this blogging stuff, but the wave of the future is passing me by in little old Bandon, OR.  So since this is an assignment I figure its a must.