Last week we checked a "we really need to stop there sometime" item off our lists and - as always - discovered there was much more to explore than what originally piqued our interest. After all, what's a road trip without a little adventure along the way?
Our inner photographers had long been curious about the Evelyn Cameron Gallery. There's quite the story behind the woman and her photos. In her time, her behavior was considered outrageous and maybe even a bit scandalous. What more could we want than spiced up images of the Old West?
So, off the interstate we went into Terry, Mont. We'd stopped off the exit plenty of times in the past to fuel up and grab snacks, but never taken the mile-or-so jaunt into town to see the gallery. It was way past time.
Have we mentioned we have "Oh, my - shiny!" syndrome? It's that eternal curiosity where something grabs our attention and diverts us from the direction we were headed. This time, it stopped us at the Historic Kempton Hotel. But before we could enter, we spotted a sign for an antique shop at one end of the hotel.
Coincidentally, the entrance to the antique shop was through the Kempton's lobby, where some friendly locals were hanging around shooting the breeze. As it turned out, not only is there an antique shop and a book store - with a reported 10,000 volumes - in the Kempton, we also learned some of the old-fashioned wall radiators in the rooms are fed by a boiler from an old steam locomotive. Wow!
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Conversation and a tour of the Kempton led to Prairie Unique, which lives up to its name. Along with a unique variety of Montana-made items and gifts, the shop offers a whole roomful of remote-control toys that will make even big boys' eyes light up like Christmas morning. We got the grand tour, along with a sample of huckleberry taffy and suggestions for all sorts of sights to see in the area. Dinosaurs at Makoshika, anyone?
A little way down the block was the Prairie County Museum and adjacent Evelyn Cameron Gallery. We started with the museum, housed in the historic State Bank of Terry building, complete with the old tellers' cages. We could have stayed a lot longer than we did browsing all sorts of displays and old panoramic photos of the Terry Montana Cow Boy Band that played for President Calvin Coolidge and at the grand opening of Yellowstone National Park.
But the works of Evelyn Cameron were calling our names. Cameron got up close and personal with her subjects, showing people where and how they lived, and also took photos from great distances that bring home how isolated people were on the prairies. The photographs were incredible, but what made the visit even better was the narrative given by one of the museum board members, who brought the scenes to life.
By that point, time was rearing its ugly head and we needed to get back on schedule. We couldn't resist a quick stop into Wood-N-Woven - who can pass a storefront where people are weaving on old-fashioned wooden looms? - on the way back to the rig, and then a stop at the Hog n Jog Country Cafe (formerly the Dizzy Diner) for a chocolate shake so thick it hadn't melted by the time we went through Forsyth more than an hour later. Mmmmmm!
Yes, we got where we had to go, but we added in a little fun along the way. And discovered yet another place we'll come back to, because there's so much more to see!
