Author: Rosie

This is a beautiful scenic road, off the main highway nicely meandering for 16 miles through gigantic ancient forests.  The light filters down dimly to the forest floor which is covered in red leaf litter, the peace, quiet and tranquility was amazing.  We seemed to be the only ones there, the forest itself is silent, the trees stand patiently as they have for thousands of years, it was quite a moving place.

We carried on drinking and chatting, Lloyd had over 58 guns up at his place, he BBQd sides of pig that he prepared himself from his farm, the bears are feeding for winter, they smell the pigs and come for them, I have shot 6 bears already this season, OK…..he wanted The Operator to come up to his place and shoot some of his more rarer guns, then they would prepare a pig and he would show us how a real American BBQd followed by a hunting session, Rosie was welcome to sit on the porch and sample his home brew and pat his mule while the men did men things….

There were 117 saloons in its heyday….half a dozen of them still stand in the town, one is called the Bucket of Blood, it was the roughest bawdiest of all the saloons and every morning when the floors were mopped the bucket would be full of bloody water from the previous night fights…hence the name.  That place was pumping!  It was packed full of people in country and western gear, a band was just starting and everyone was stomping their feet, the first song they played….you are not going to believe it…was….dum da da dum da da dum da da dum Bon aaan zaaa.  True, the crowd went wild, it certainly put a smile on Rosie’s face.

The silence was deep and intense, the air was crisp, Rosie closed her eyes and almost had a zen like moment…then The Operator started tapping her on the shoulder..off in the bushes the most beautiful Blue Jay had landed, its back and wings were the colour of the lake, it came closer  and closer and just watched.  So much for not feeding the animals in the park, this critter new what a sandwich was…it didn’t know that Rosie don’t share her food…no matter how cute you are.   Another rustle alerted the Operator to a little grey squirrel, which came and sat by us, it too was looking for scraps.  This quite excited the Operator as the park handout the ranger gave us said there bears and bobcats in the vicinity as well…he was feeling pretty hopeful of a big animal sighting.

Sharlene our waitress said they were messy wee critters to eat and came back to the table with plastic man bibs….Rosie looked around to see if this was just a ‘take the piss out of the tourist’ joke…but men were sitting at the bar sucking the juice out of the Craws head and talking politics ….wearing man bibs, we tied them on, and waited.