Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Back to Helena

We headed off to Helena about 9:00 this morning, handicap application in hand. It was an uneventful 90 minute drive, although we did see one deer and a small herd of antelope. There is a lot of farming in this area, especially hay and potatoes. We saw some people working the potato field.  They are blooming right now.

  

We got to the DMV about 11:40.  Joe found a parking place right in front of the steps, which was no easy feat. We walked in, and five minutes later we walked out with handicap placard in hand.

We went to our Pizza Ranch for lunch. It started raining while we were eating, which was a surprise, but it only lasted about 5 minutes. It was very smoky in Helena so we weren’t sure if the poor visibility was smoke or clouds. The Horse Gulch Fire is still causing a great deal of smoke here in Helena, but it is 92% contained. That is good news.

On our return trip, we spotted a small flock of black-tipped swans flying over the Missouri River.  Just before we got back to I-90, there are horse sculptures on a hillside. We had seen these when we passed them this morning,  but I was ready with the camera this time.  I just kept snapping, so I'm sure there is some overlap.

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“”Bleu Horses,” a herd of 39 life-sized metal sculptures, stands sentinel across a 160-acre parcel of sloping prairie adjacent to Highway 287, which runs between Three Forks and Helena. Dolan installed the sculptures in 2013, just north of mile marker 104. 

Horses are Dolan’s favorite animal to sculpt, and he’s been doing it since the 1960s. He was not commissioned to create the herd of horses; he just wanted to. In September, “Bleu Horses” turned 10 years old, and Dolan considers them his gift to the people of Montana.

“You can really hit people’s hearts with those horses,” Dolan said. “Everybody has a story of the first time they’ve seen them — thinking that they’re real horses. And it doesn’t disappoint them when they find out they aren’t real.”

Many of the horses are rigged with gears and pulley systems so their necks or torsos move in the wind. Their manes and tails are made from thick black rope, unwound so they flick about as if swatting flies. Muzzles shaped with expandable steel seem to ask for a caress, while ears stand straight, appearing to take in all that moves around them.  Blink a few times and you might miss the pull-off and thin trail leading up the hill where the horses reside.

“We didn’t want to put up a sign, partially because I want people to think they’re real horses,” Dolan said. “As soon as you mark them as art, then you lose something.”

Dean Folkvord, who owns the land where “Bleu Horses” stands, describes Dolan as a remarkable guy. “We really appreciate what he’s done,” Folkvord said. “He’s the kind of guy who is not necessarily interested in making the most money every day. He is more interested in doing something unusual or something special.”

Folkvord and Dolan made a handshake agreement a decade ago to place the horses on Folkvord’s land. At the time, he and his wife Hope owned Wheat Montana. After selling the business and the surrounding land, they kept the 160-acre parcel so the horses would continue to have a place to reside. 

“It’s not farmable land, really. It’s never grown a crop,” Folkvord said. “There are no fences, so you can’t run livestock, and there is no water.”

This horse display is right before the intersection with I-90. Right after we got on I-90 is the turn-off to the Missouri Headwaters State Park so we took a little side trip to check that out. We had been to the Mississippi River Headwaters in Minnesota a few years ago.  This was much different.  In Minnesota, it was just a small pond, we even walked across part of it.  Here, because the Missouri and Madison Rivers have already joined, it is a powerful river at what they call the "headwaters," where the Galatin River joins in.

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“Missouri Headwaters State Park is just outside of Three Forks downtown and only 35 minutes outside of Bozeman. The convergence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers is the start of the longest river in North America, the Missouri River.  Considered an essential part of the geography of the western U.S.”

This is part of the Lewis and Clark history, of which we have seen a lot.

We did see a flock of geese on an island between the rivers. And some people were floating around on rafts just past the bridge.

We drove over the bridge of the Galatin River, then back to the lookout of the confluence of the Missouri and Madison Rivers with the Galatin. We didn’t pull into the state park but there were about 200 kids and at least 8 school buses there. 

We stopped at the lookout and walked over to the confluence.

  Notice I am now sporting a brace on my right knee.

You can see the two rivers coming together here

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We crossed the Galatin River again right after we got back on the freeway.  Here, it looks like a braided river in Alaska.

We got back to the campground just after 3:00, having completed our mission to Helena. We have not had good internet at this campground, and apparently they did not get the new fiber optics done today so it was just more of the same. We tried to watch the Diamondbacks game but could not get a good feed.  Also, we have not heard anything from the RV dealership about the new A/C. So tomorrow's plans are definitely up in the air. 

Back at the Fort, here's Dixie enjoying a small waffle cone from Hendels.

And on the Florida front, Andrew had a good day at fish camp.

NEWS FLASH.  Joe magically was able to figure out how to get the baseball game on his Notebook, so from the 4th inning on, I got to watch the game.  And we won!

That's it for today.  We will see what tomorrow brings.