Home again

Some cow friends in downtown Golden City, Missouri

Just as in the feeling of peeling off layers at the beginning of my trip. I come home naked- half forgetting who I am. Where does the lady that lives here put things?  I've forgotten my grievances with this neighbor or that co-worker. What's better; they have forgotten their grievances with me. 

It is an altered state I am in.The dizziness from a long drive, and the forgetting. Forgetting how I fit in or how I don't.

Cement Cadillac by Claes Van Oldenburg at University of Chicago

I had an amazing time in the Heartland and the rustbelt. It's not what you think. I loved everyone I met in Missouri, Kansas, Detroit, my artist friends in Chicago, Wolf Point. I loved playing the jukeboxes and eating burgers and playing pool with the kids in Oakley, Kansas at the beginning of a tornadic storm system. It was amazing to watch it form out in the green fields and follow it across the state. And scary as hell to be caught up in it. 

Dust from a truck while observing the beginning of tornado weather in the fields of Kansas

Fresh Mexican food truck elguapogrill.com in Detroit at Eastern Market

I loved visiting with my friends and relatives in Detroit especially Oma, my first boss

Irene, AKA Oma has been working at Miller Brothers an iconic creamery/grocery store since 1955

Attending a Conceptual Performance; The Chicago Correspondance School Dinner with my artist friends at the famous Berghoff's, the oldest restaurant in Chicago.

My favorite lunch spot in Jasper, Missouri. I had a butterscotch malt and a barbecue rib sandwich

 Abandoned pharmacy in Wolf Point, Montana


I had Mother's Day Lunch at my favorite restaurant, Corky's Diner in Golden City, Missouri with this gentleman stranger who had just lost his wife last year. We were both grateful for the company.

And of course traveling with Chance. He was the best. Here he is putting on the dog in Chicago. 

Was the first shower ever to be installed in my 110 year old house while I was gone- actually put in? You'll have to wait for my next post!

Garage saling in the boonies of Montana and a great antiques lead

Sadly departing the wild beauty of Glacier National Park but determined to drop in on some garage sales since it was Saturday morning. I chanced in on a doozy.

                The Bitteroot Mountains is the backdrop for a country girl chic pop-up antique shop

                             Clever idea for  cheap unused antique enamel bedpans at the sale

 There were several women selling only vintage, set up like an antiques fair. I got some really cute items and I got a great lead, "The Farm Chicks", they all said in unison.

                      Fun simple and effective display greets everyone just inside the front door

The Farm Chicks is an amazing 'farm to antiques hunter' antique show held every year at the Spokane Washington fairgrounds. They take over three large connected agricultural buildings. It is well organized, and the displays were worth the $8 admission..

                                    Amazing what people can do in a couple days for a show

                                    Why schlep? This dealer just brought her cute trailer inside

     I went away with that Coke sign from the 1930's. If I'd had a trailer I'd taken the wonderful Arts          and Crafts era cabinet below

Running from Grizzly bears makes a killer workout...

I should have known when I heard it was called Avalanche trail; it didn't sound too inviting. In fact, it was a scary, dark wood with a raging creek . There was evidence of an avalanche as hundreds of trees were down. It was well kept up though and there were lots of folks hiking it. I was blissfully painting at this incredible lake, of course, named Avalanche Lake when the ranger said I had to go because there was a grizzly bear there. I got out of there as fast as I could! I felt like Little Red Riding Hood with my dog about to be devoured.

Grizzly bear making a kill just across this tiny tiny lake while this photo was being taken

This is my unfinished painting of the falls at Avalanche Lake because I had to flee for my life, but maybe it's better this way.

Getting frightened by bears was worth this view of McDonald Lake
I did learn that these bears don't fish so staying in the Lake was the safest place for Chance. 

Just as in Missouri, when folks blithely talk of tornadoes, people at Glacier National Park imbue an indifference to grizzly bears. No one said anything about grizzly bears when I paid my $10 to get in.

There were bear signs on the trail and the trail's name was called Avalanche Trail. So I guess I was warned, or at least I knew enough to be nervous to hike the trail. The black bear running around  in the parking lot near the trail didn't help, nor did the grizzly taking down a fawn and the moose that was in the vicinity.

There was also a black bear hanging around the wonderful 1914 era Lake McDonald Lodge  where I was staying. So a very expensive can of bear mace was with me at all times because Chance, being a dog, is a big target.

I did learn that these bears don't fish so staying in the Lake was the safest place for Chance. That was the only place he wanted to be so it all worked out. Worth running from bears to stay in the Lodge

The Northern Plains- on the Hi-Line

I've just spent the last four days driving and driving all on Highway 2. I've done Highway One. Why not Highway Two? The open plains, soothing and free feeling. A sea of green punctuated by a grain elevator here and there. A two lane abandoned highway in which, again, I made better time than on the interstate.

                                         

                                  
Highway 2 is called the Hi-Line because it is so high up latitudinally not elevation-wise. It skirts the Canadian border. Many places fly both US and Canada flags. The only difference between northern plains towns and southern is the lack of majestic Victorian courthouses. This area, because of the snow, still has outpost vibes. Many small towns were formerly forts such as  Fort Peck and Fort Belknap. They get vicious winters and if you want to feel what the US was like at the turn of the century in remote areas these plains still haven't lost it's connection to that time.

 The northern plains, just as simple, beautiful and remote as the southern plains. The people here can have deep Canadian accents and lots of Indigenous Americans live here too. They live in horrible prefab homes which they treat appropriately horribly.



There is still a disconnect on the Reservation. A street named Indian St. still exists in Wolf Point. Wolf Point is a tiny town on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line and on an Indian Reservation; rundown, un-gentrified, and half abandoned as was the southern Missouri towns I explored and of course, I fell in love. 

Nothing really great happened in Wolf Point. There is a marker out of town about how small pox killed the whole tribe of Aboisinne, the little girl's tribe. I don't think it was a bunch of little girls. It was a band associated with the Flathead tribe. The wolves massacred some settlers at some point and the wolves were all killed. There is a creek there. It must have been nice for the wolves until settlers moved in.

                               Abandoned barn on the prairie at Wolf Point

I happened on a great neighborhood bar in Wolf Point, it made my day.  Dad's Bar and Grill is third generation run. The grandson, Marcus, was my bartender and chef who made my excellent dinner.

                                                   Mid-Century Modern bar back inside Dad's
                                     

  The burger was grilled and so good. Why don't people grill burgers? They taste so much better. As usual, with a small town local bar, my drinks were bought. I've had this experience in very few bars, but the majority of them were bars on the plains.  I'm like a butterfly that floats in and they buy me drinks so I will stay to be thoroughly examined. Most folks I meet in these bars have never been to California.

From the Plains to the Rustbelt

A cool bar in Bloomington, Indiana and a great market in Detroit.

I cut from the Plains into southern Indiana to see my aunt Ann. She chain smokes at 87. She walks completely upright, is an artist, and is smart as a whip. Her restaurant choices? Not so good.

When she was young she looked like Grace Kelly. She married my Uncle JC, a lifelong Marine. He was gone a lot.

My Aunt Ann with my cousin Johnny

She felt going to Wee Willies would be better than going into downtown Bloomington (a University town) to experience the best in dining out. I ordered a previously frozen potpie and a side of hush puppies which was the mild highlight.

 My mom lived here from 13 years old on. I don't ever remember coming downtown except once.  It is the typical downtown square with a beautiful Victorian courthouse in the center. In this case, made lovingly with local limestone with hand carved features.We went to see Santa downtown when I was seven. I had a warm, wool coat on and we were waiting in the hot basement of a store. Santa beckoned me up to his lap where I promptly threw up. I don't remember if I got my request in or not.

Majestic courthouse in the downtown Bloomington, Indiana square

I went downtown without my aunt later in the evening and chanced in on the The Irish Lion  an 1882 era pub. A proper pint of Guinness and a time travel of ornate tin ceilings, stained glass and a famous bar back with hand carved lion faces made by Brunswick, the pool table company. There are only three other known examples and one is in Paso Robles somewhere. Besides the historical interest is the bar's appearance in the opening credits of Cheers. Many of you may remember this photo if you were a fan of the show. The bar is relatively unchanged. This photo is circa 1910 when this bar back was put in.

                                 1910 era view of the bar used in Cheers

View from bar today looking relatively in the same direction

                                       




Detroit-
is a factory wasteland. The roads from California to south of Detroit are fine. Not the case in Detroit and vicinity. The Interstate is all chewed up. The industrial funk belies the neat tree strewn bucolic neighborhoods and now the new young artists who have taken over the downtown area, much of it abandoned ,are reviving it in it's own tentative hipster way.

Every Saturday-
Eastern Market in downtown Detroit is three large "sheds"; a behemoth. Flowers, produce and my mecca for great popcorn. There is Detroit Grown which has flavors such as dark chocolate, caramel or dill pickle. But what I'm really here for is Michigan red unpopped popcorn. It pops tender,(no chance of taking out my crown work), crispy, and pops reliably. When it pops, it pops white with a red husk. I bought twenty pounds- everything she had- to bring home. Only open on Saturdays- it is mobbed with vendors and customers.

One of the large 'sheds' with the market's mainstay of flowers

I grew up here and I've come to see a very special person in my life, Irene Szchlachtowicz, aka Oma.
I worked for Oma in 1969-71. I was fourteen. It was my first real job. Miller Brothers Creamery is an icon in my hometown of Mount Clemens. It first began as a dairy that delivered milk in 1920's.  No one grows up in my town without having had a "Blue Moon" ice cream cone, served only in the summer, it is a rite of passage.

First Miller Brothers Dairy delivery wagon 1925

There were 6 shops that served ice cream cones, shakes and banana splits along with groceries. Dipping cones was grueling work in the summer; there would be lines out the door. Oma managed 6 Miller Bros. stores and then bought one and still works every day there. She started in 1955.

With Oma

My mother's day gift

Lamar, Missouri,

Not on GPS and no one has gotten the memo. 


Except the Super 8 Motel. They created Lamar Heights to make the hotel GPS-able. it's a very nice one and conveniently across the street from the graveyard where my family is buried. Chance loves to run around there and mark the graves.

Many of the towns in the Plains have Victorian era courthouses with a downtown square and half the businesses empty. They are the most picturesque 'Meet Me in Saint Louis' town squares, except after George Bailey decided to instead- have a life. 

Wyatt Earp's uncle's family all lived in Lamar. They are all buried there. Wyatt's first law job was in Lamar as a constable. He met and married his first wife here, Urilla Sutherland. She died suddenly of typhoid fever in Lamar while pregnant with Wyatt's first child. Her grave is hidden, out of Milford, Mo. Wyatt is weirdly enough, buried in South San Francisco.

President Truman was also born here. My mom grew up in that house. It was owned by the Earp family when my great, great grandparents lived there. It's a museum now and one of my goals was to bring back a candy dish that lived there with my family.  It was my only actual family inheritance from my mom's side. 

Saying goodbye to my only family heirloom

                                

There are no restaurants, except at the gas station, Tractors. It has been said to be the best BBQ south of Kansas City and has a full bar. Their Margaritas are great but not as good as the chipped Bbq brisket dinner. I ate it like a starving orphan. Then pie.

                                    Tractors -best BBQ in town and gas is $2.05 a gallon

There is not one iota of gentrification in this completely 1800's era  semi-abandoned town as are all the towns, seemingly, on the plains. Besides the grand Victorian courthouse,  a thirty's Deco movie theater, the Plaza, is the crown jewel of the square. It, fortunately, was lovingly restored by the nice family that runs it today. My mom would have seen her first movies there. Our Gang, Fantasia. but Shirley Temple was her idol. She would have watched every Shirley Temple movie in that theater when it was brand new.

The other place my mom hung out as a kid was at the roller rink. It's a great bar now named the Gallows. It still has the beautiful oak floors.   The owner, Boyce is a very hip Missourian with a two beaded, braided mustache about one foot long. He lived in California too. The beads bobble when he talks. He loves hanging at his bar,  performs in his own bands there and drives everyone home in his bus so they don't get DUI's. He doesn't drink much. He's the coolest guy in town. Everyone else farms and eats. You can get good pulled pork sandwiches there.

                                  Boyce admiring my inheritance
.

Lost in Paradox found in Oz

Swirling  through the narrow switchbacks and sinuous curves of Utah and Colorado, finally-- frightening, snowy, icy, Rocky Mountains. The clouds seem to come right at you. 

Luckily it was a beautiful day when I crossed the Rockies at Monarch Pass

Then dropping down, down deep into the straight, vacant plains. It doesn't matter where. You look from where you came and there is nothing but the curvature of the earth between you and those mountains. 

The electricity hangs in the quiet air on the plains.Your heart feels as though it could travel easily through the atmosphere. Psychics might do well here, there is some type of negative charge and sparks seemingly in the periphery of one's vision. The only thing that dissipated it was the unending rain.

                                         Clouds gathering for a storm, Oakley Kansas

I took Hwy 6 out of Nevada. It is freeing because it's easy to drive 100 miles an hour for hours across the state. No one and nothing is out there and the roads are excellent because no one uses them. From there I headed to Moab right off the interstate. Moab is too touristy this time of year except for Desert Bistro restaurant. It is overrun in May with people. The best thing I did was catch Hwy 46 just south and drive east on that road. It was pouring rain and I got turned around at Paradox.  It is remote and small and I had to ask for directions at the post office. I almost ran out of gas and slowed down for several cows in the road. A sure sign of real vacating.

                                               Only cows to direct me at Paradox, Utah

                                                                  Naturita, Utah

     Easy to see the motivation for Oz - the dark clouds swirled around the emerald rays of sunlight.                     Oakley, Kansas