You know how every horror movie starts with a sentence kind of like, “Hey! There’s a ghost town right up ahead. Let’s go see it!” Well, that’s what I said to Jared and Rudy around 9:30 this morning. As I type this in the car, it’s almost 5:00 and we still haven’t reached the freeway to Missoula….
The day started as most days do. We woke up, we brushed our teeth, we ate breakfast, we got coffee, we worked on a crossword puzzle, and we continued on our journey. If I had blinked as we were driving, I may have missed the sign that said, “Garnet Ghost Town”. But I didn’t blink. And, before you know it, we were driving down the tiny road to spend the afternoon with some ghosts in Montana.
As we started driving, we saw a whole bunch of cows, not fenced in, just walking around and hanging out. We did what anybody would do. We stopped the car, got out our instruments, and began to serenade the bovines. One of my friends had challenged us before we hit the road to play music for animals on our journey. I thought this would be a great first opportunity. Well, it turns out cows (at least these ones), we’re not Champagne Sunday fans. We got some video, but it was Rudy behind the camera, so there’s really not much to show. I mean, unless you’ve never seen a cow before! I’m sure we will probably try it again at some point, but we had other things planned and needed to move on.
I don’t need to go into too much detail about the ghost town itself. If you ever get a chance though, you should definitely check it out. It was really fun and pretty informative. Rudy offered another hug to the park ranger who helped us out at the souvenir place and she lit up like a candle. “I really needed that.” she said. I’m telling you, if he keeps this up, we’re going to be going on hug tours from now on!
So, the day was fun and we made sandwiches in the parking lot, sat through a 5 min almost hail-like rain storm and were off! The part that felt like a horror film came at the very end when Jared saw a sign that said, 90➡️. Seems like the right way to go. . . if you like hugging a cliff in the Montana mountains on a one lane, bumpy-ass dirt road where there’s no way in hell we’re going to be the ones to back up it with a trailer on if someone else comes towards us, for almost an hour and a half and driving through thick, backwoods where scenes from “Deliverance” were certainly acted out as a daily practice and Trump’s America reigned supreme with bullet holes in all of the road signs and “Get Out” posters were stapled to trees, where a huge “Build the wall!” greeted us at a turn, graffitied 25 feet high on the side of someone’s garage. . . made us wonder how this person in the middle of absolutely nothing and nowhere was that afraid of someone invading their land. And if someone did, they were going to know right away how that landowner felt. I’m not telling anyone how to feel here in this deposition, I just find it interesting that we are trying to do something in this world to love, include and welcome all people, and there are just still so many who will literally die fighting to keep people out. Even in the middle of Nowhere, Montana.
This part of the journey was so long and scary and we had no signal or GPS or anything to even know if we were going the right way. The signs had stopped showing up (probably on strike until they stopped being shot up) and we were just hoping to make it out. FINALLY!!! A clearing! 90, here we come. And we’re driving, and we’re driving, and we can see the freeway and we’re so close now…road closed. WHAT?!?! We had to turn around and go 11 miles back the opposite direction to find an alternate route to the freeway. We all almost cried when we finally hit the 3 lanes of freedom that got us out of there. Now, who’s idea was the ghost town thing anyway?!? Hahahahaha!
The open mic at Imagine Nation Brewing:
Trying to book gigs as we go, the best way to approach that is by hitting open mic nights in towns we’d like to gig in. That’s what we did at Imagine Nation Brewing. A colorful, all inclusive, kombucha serving, beer and cider brewing, taco truck hosting event space with a sandbox for kids and an outdoor patio packed with people waiting play and listen, we knew we chose the right place. At open mics, Jared and I sometimes come across as a bit of a hassle, needing 2 mics, 2 instrument cables and, most of the time, switching instruments in between songs. We try to be gracious and kind about it though, because we really are there to “audition” and want to make a great impression. Well, I suppose we did because as soon as we were through, we were booked for the return trip home at that venue and for a house concert 2 days later. Thank you Missoula, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you!
Side note here:
Most of you who read this blog are huge fans, intimately connected with us in some way or another and have seen us through a lot, so you can attest to this…we still have to work hard to prove our worth over and over and over again. Our Facebook fan page hasn’t even reached 5,000 followers, so there are still plenty of people who don’t know or care who we are. This is why we still get out here and do what we do. Are there times we wish someone would just sweep us up, give us a tour bus, plop us as an opener for Pink, Mumford and Sons, or Pearl Jam?? You bet your ass there are! But, until then, we’re going to keep proving ourselves to the thousands of people who have no idea yet how much they NEED some CS in their lives, and we are going to keep LOVING doing it!
We took the same routes as you on our trip to Garnet….and felt the same way on way out on the bumpy one lane road. However, we weren’t pulling a trailer!!! We were also glad to see 90!! All the best on your tour!