Vacations (3)

Route Through Salmon

Sometimes instead of going clear to Butte, Mt, we turned South at Missoula and traveled through Salmon to Idaho Falls.

I liked going through Missoula. It was a unique city and the road followed the river through town. Somewhere around the old hospital - a building I always looked for, we would turn and go South - if we were going through Salmon, instead of Butte.

Mother Goose Land

One such trip, we stopped at a place called "Mother Goose Land" near Lolo, Mt. My sister and I were so excited! We rarely stopped on our vacations, except to eat and use restrooms, so this was a real treat. I thought it was a great place! There were Nursery Rhymes on large bill-boards and either statues or cut-outs of characters from each rhyme. Near the middle of M.G.Land, there was a playground and my sister and I got to swing and slide. (They may have had a pop machine there also, but I don't really remember.)

Years later, my mom gave her perspective on the place. She had not been impressed, because all we did was walk around, read signs, and play on a small playground. For her, the expense wasn't worth it. (Of course, my sister and I always wanted to go through Salmon in hopes we would stop there again sometime.)

Mosquito Barrage

One time we went through Salmon – and it could have been on the same trip. We were leaving Salmon around sundown, and the shadows were lying across the road. As we wound down through the mountains just south of town, we hit the largest swarm of mosquitoes we had ever encountered! Now swarming mosquitoes aren’t usually a problem when you are in a car, and no, they didn’t get in the car. However, these mosquitoes had been feasting on some kind of animals, because they were bulging with blood. Now just imagine a swarm of bulging bloody mosquitoes all hitting the windshield at about 25 – 35 mph. The windshield was a mess. My dad tried to use the wipers and he may have had washer fluid, but all that happened was the red smeared with the dust already on the windows and it became a muddy, bloody mess. We had to pull over to the side of the road, and creep our way down the mountain for miles. Because of this episode, my parents were really reluctant to ever go through Salmon at dusk again.