My journalism journey part 8

My journalism journey Part 8

During my years in Montana, I went to many interesting places. Some involved stories to cover, some were just "exploring" on my own or with my friend Roxane, who came out to Montana to visit, or we'd meet somewhere out West and vacation together.

One of the first trips was to a National Guard camp to see our local National Guard unit in action. The idea was to spend the whole day with the Guard unit, eating with them, riding around with them in tanks or Jeeps or Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) and even spending the night. But I was the first woman to be on one of these camp trips, and the Guard didn't know what to do with me overnight. Obviously (to them) I couldn't stay with the unit. Heavens, one woman couldn't be alone with all these men! (I was 5-5, 250-plus pounds ... I certainly didn't consider myself attractive ... I found my fat was armor enough to repel any guy.)

So I was put up in a hotel. And considering it was 90-plus degrees in Boise, Idaho, I was probably fortunate. It was a great place to stay; I enjoyed myself there. I just didn't get the entire National Guard experience.

But the rest of the weekend was a real eye-opener. I was flown to Boise, and then taken by helicopter to the Guard site, then by Jeep to the camp. As we were going there, the driver noticed something slithering across the road. So he got out, shot the snake, and we continued on. We'd see more of those along the way.

At the camp, I was directed to the Anaconda guys while lunch was prepared. We had spaghetti with meat sauce. I interviewed Anaconda Guardsmen while we waited. One of the Anaconda guys was cooking, so I talked to him a little bit too.

After lunch, I was assigned to ride along in an APC with some of the Anaconda guys. It was a hot and bumpy ride but I got to get the feel of what the guys went through on training. Later, I got to go in a tank and if I remember, I had my photo taken in the tank (I don't know if I still have it).

As we were waiting for the helicopter to take us back, the Guard public relations person suddenly took out her gun and shot at the ground. "Rattlesnake," she said. "It's dead now."

I had dinner with the PR woman and some of the newspaper folk who weren't staying overnight, then was taken to my hotel room for the night. That was the end of the tour. Back on the airplane to Butte, then home to Anaconda.

There were trips with the Anaconda Sportsmen's Club, too. They often transplanted various wildlife species, with the help of the Montana Department of Fish and Wildlife, from one range to another. The first such exercise was moving bighorn sheep from Lost Creek State Park to a range that didn't have a bighorn population.

The Sportsmen chased the bighorn down the mountain, herding them into a chute. There, the men put bandanas around the sheep's heads to calm them so they couldn't see what was happening. Wildlife biologists sedated the sheep, and eventually herded them onto a truck. It was fascinating. I couldn't imagine a bandana would calm a big animal like that. That was the closest I got to the bighorn sheep. I also saw similar operations with elk.

My friend Roxane, who was my roommate in college and after college, went on a few trips with me, too. I had taken an archaeology class at Western Montana College. It was supposed to be a Saturday class, but the professor only had us meet a couple Saturdays in class and then a couple of times in the field. We were allowed to pick up actual artifacts in the field because these were sites that already had been excavated.

The last class was a weekend trip, and it happened to be a weekend when Roxane was visiting me. We went to Livingston, and along the way stopped at several spots. The professor said Roxane could come with the class. The group stayed overnight at Chico Hot Springs, an old resort built over a hot springs, with a top-rated restaurant. It also happened to be my birthday weekend.

Along the way, we stopped at several archaeological sites, where the professor explained what was found there and how things were found, and what was the significance of the site. We stopped for lunch at a picnic spot. Most of the members of the group were school teachers from Butte and they were a lot of fun. The big movie at the time was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." So they decided to make eyeball soup. They had tomato soup and plastic eyeballs and served it up for our archaeology professor. He had a good laugh on that one.

Later, at the hotel, we had a great dinner at the restaurant, and the professor offered to give a choice of grading: We could have a test back in the classroom, or we could answer one question over after-dinner drinks and dessert. Well, of course, we all took the second choice.

On the way back, we made a stop at a buffalo jump site. Roxane and several of the teachers decided to walk to the top of the site. One of the other teachers and I stayed back. The other teacher had binoculars and was watching them up on the mountain. "Hey, they just dropped their pants and mooned us," she said. Sure enough, they did.

There are many others, and I'm sure I will remember more.

I love it. You are a very good writer. Maybe you can turn that into a book?