Hamilton, Montana (Bitterroot Family Camping)
I started to register, then backed out. All the campsites I looked at were pretty well trashed. It was obvious that the type of people that camped there either did not know how to camp respectfully or did not care to. I was worried about another incident like the one at the Cascade Locks KOA where I found a carton of about 6 broken eggs and other garbage in the fire ring. I was also worried about local rowdies coming in. After all this was their free day, who was I to horn in on their fun.
I continued northg tired and hot. I was considering getting a motel because I did not have any hope for anything else. I stopped at an RV park that had a tenting sign up, but quickly realized it would be similar to the KOA in Sula, so I passed it up. About 8 miles south of Hamilton, I stopped at an RV park called Bitterroot Family Camping. Maybe it was the trout pond and grassy area near the entrance or maybe I was just too tired to go on, so I stayed.
The large young woman pointed out my two options while her 18 month old son followed us in diapers. I could barely make out where she was pointing to. She strongly recommended the one on the grassy area by the pond next to the only other tenter. "Those are nice people and she keeps her dogs tied up." I was really tired or I know I would have left right then. That last phrrase did not hit me until I had already handed over my check for $10.40.
It was 6pm and she wanted to close in the next half hour, but she said I could hook my computer up to her phone line at the desk. So I quickly parked the car on the grass and set my computer up on the registration counter. "The Forest Service is here," she said "and there is a lady with them that checks her mail this way." I did not ask why the forest service was staying in a dump like this, but later noticed a row of about 20 nearly identical new fifth wheel trailers and figured that must be them.
The place smelled like feces and she spent most of her time chasing her son and 4 year old daughter with a garden hose outside. Once she came in and told me she almost bought a saturn when she was 16 and lived in california but they moved here and they do not have any saturn dealers in this part of the country. "I wish I was 16 again," she said. I figure thats about the time she had her first child. When her husband (boyfriend?) came in and started grappling with her with his greasy hands and said "I reckon you can fix me some of them there french fried potatoes." I could see how she might have some regrets but thats just me. I see regret in everyone else's life but my own.
I arrange my tent to get the most privacy as two young boys circled the pound about 3 feet away. I noticed a strange but familiar smell. It smelled like rabbits. Behind my little 10 by 10 foot square of grass was a single wide mobile home with at least 30 rabbits in cages. There was nothing between me and them but a 1 foot wide ditch of stagnant water.
The sky was clouding up for a thunderstorm. I sat in my car pondering whether or not to try to ride my bike into town with the weather threatening. Suddenly a doberman ran by all excited. He ran in circles around my car, my tent, the pond and nearby trailers as fast as he could run. Thats when Irealized that when she said "she" keeps her dogs tied up she meant the single wide owner outside the park.
Six large german shepard puppies also came over. This caused the RV park attendant and her husband and their two children and two or three other residents of the park to gather around about 10 feet from my picnic table and talk over old times with the single-wide owner. I had decided to go into town with the car to check out the library but did not want to leave until things settled down.
A woman parked nearby in a beat up Buick circa late 1980s. She had on a tie-died shirt and denim dress and looked to be about my age and very tired. She made about 4 trips from the car to her small trailer to unload groceries. The last being two cases of Keystone Light in cans. Could this be my fate in life also. I began to be nostalgic for the times P and I lived in a Mobile Home Park in Cottage Grove. It was the first place I had lived away from home. The place seemed like an alright place to live at the time. Could I go back to that, I wondered.
The doberman and puppies were apparently recovered after about 15 minutes of the single-wide lady gently repeating the dog owner's mantra, "Rock come here. Rock Come here." Of course Rock was the dog's name, but insert any dog's name in there and any dog owner will sit idly by as their dog rips the flesh off another human being. "Well I called him to come." And everyone cleared away from my 100 square feet. I don't know where I am coming off being critical. I am here for one night paying $10. These people live here night and day.
I made it into town passing through some pouring rain. I asked the librarian if I could use a computer. She literally looked me up and down for more than 10 seconds and asked if I was just passing through or not. When I answered in the affirmative she said I just need to read the rules and then I could use number 3. As I read the rules a young man of high school age or a little older came running in making a b-line for the computers. "Hello, Rick." she said quickly. "There is someone ahead of you." "I see that," he mumbled. The young man playing a scrabble type game on number two aske Rick if he would like to use his computer. Rick said, "no."
I did not really need to use the computer, but I check my email anyway. I was done in 5 minutes but Rick had already started using number 1 which had been vacated by the young woman previously using it. I wandered over to the Scieence Fiction section and the Circulation desk attendant immediately sprung in to action to sheelve three or four books on that row.
The library was a little larger than my old house I would say (about 2000 square feet). A good portion of this was taken up by the information desk and circulation desk on either side of the aisle near the entrance. The information desk was manned by a matronly woman who had been deeply focused on helping another woman review some kind of records. The circulation desk was manned by a man in his mid-50s with white hair and a pot belly who looked like he was having trouble staying awake (me in 15 years or less).
I tried to imagine myself being employed there for 18 hours per week on nights and weekends as the ad in the Missoulan had described when I passed through there two weeks ago. I did not get any kind of premonition of that happening. I moved on. when I passed through Darby ( 10 miles to the south) I noticved their library had a sign asking for volunteers. That would probably be a better way to break in to the business. Until I have a premonition of what to do next though, I am stuck.
I guess I should explain that I have always had premonitions of myself working at whatever job it is before I take a job. I am waiting for the thunderbolt to hit me.
I returned to the and read and worked on my web page to the sound of the single-wide lady cleaning her rabbit cages. At one point a group of 8 kids age from 4 to 10 (boys and girls) came from outside the park (they obviously were not residents) and were playing on the merry-go-round. Their father, whom they all called dad, came to get them. They brought him over to my place to see the rabbits. They all stood and chattered loudly for 5 minutes within 3 feet of me while I typed on my computer. They acted as if I was not even there. Maybe I was not.
My plan as I retired was to head north towards Glacier National Park. There are a couple of KOAs and a lot of other campgrounds near the lakes in that area before you enter the park. Tomorrow I would have to find a place to stay.