Busco's Joy......Spelunker by day, Country Line Dancer by night

Saturday, September 15, 2012

After another peaceful, restful night, it was time to start another day's worth of adventures.  Today's agenda would include the usual morning Yoga, breakfast and trail riding, lunch and then a wonderful trip to the on site cave.  The evening would wind up the day with dinner and then, a Gal's Night Out in the wild and crazy town of Wolf Creek.  I had to make sure I ate well at all 3 of my meals so that my energy level would stay up for such an action packed day. Not difficult to do when you have an amazing kitchen staff preparing fabulous meals for you all day.

This lifestyle was certainly something I could get use to.  Waking up early, walking to a beautiful location as the sun rises to do an hour of yoga, returning for a nourishing breakfast and then spending a few hours on horseback looking at Mother Nature's incredible creations is pretty much a perfect life.  Being able to do this all in the presence of 15 or so amazing women, who all had their own stories to tell, their full lives waiting back home for them, their hearts open to what they would discover about themselves and others on this trip was far greater of an experience than even I could have dreamt it would be.  Everyday of this trip was making me feel so much better and thankful for my life that I have been given.  And that includes all the ugliness that my life has had in it, the sorrow, the hard learned lessons and the setbacks, but most of all, for all the blessings I have had and continue to have every single day.  I had told Anne early in the trip that I was no longer looking inward anymore.  I have spent years looking inside of me to see what needed fixing and changing, but I am done doing that.  I finally realized that when all you are ever doing is looking inward, you forget to ever look up and see all that is right in front of you.  You start to get sucked into yourself and after a while, you forget how to LIVE your life, but are only looking back on what could  have, should have, would have been.  That is such a downer.  I am over that.  I want to experience and be present for everything my life has to offer and not miss a drop of it.  And this is why, every time Anne asked how I was doing, I could still not really answer with a word, just a huge, crow's feet inducing SMILE. 

Okay, now back to my adventures. 

 

This morning I was given a horse to ride by the name of Lucy.  She was a sweet gal, even though around the Ranch she was known as a Plug.  I found out that meant she liked to take her time and would never dream of giving me a hard time.  Well, she may have been a "plug" but she was perfect for me and she had some pep in her step after all.  It was a gorgeous morning once again and we headed out and up.  The view were amazing. (shocking, I know)

 

 

 

Along the way, we past Tag's "art gallery", a little garden of his sculptures.  It was really just to cute seeing all these little creations hanging out together.  I just loved them, he is so talented.

 

 

 

 

After we returned and had lunch.  It was time to go Spelunking.  At the ranch, there is a cave known as the Blacktail Cave.  It has been the site of many archaeological digs and has had amazing artifacts found inside.  The remains of a Saber Tooth Tiger, a Musk Ox and Buffalo just to name a few.  Plus the walls have pictographs from the ancient Indians inside.  An alter was also discovered that had a buffalo skull at it's base.  This was clearly a place of great importance at one time and I felt honored to be able to go inside and be a part of it.  There are lights for 5 miles inside of the cave that Tag had put in, we did not go 5 miles into the cave, but we did turn all the lights off and sat in complete and total darkness for a good bit.  It was the most peaceful and serene feeling and a time of un-natural clarity for me.  This coming from a person who is totally and completely terrified of the dark.  It was an experience I will never forget for as long as I live.  My flash was not working on my camera, so I have no pictures of the inside of the cave, but I do have this one of me cheesing it up before I went inside.  If you look closely, you can see one of the pictographs to the right of me, on the inside of the cave.

 

 

On our way back to the ranch, we asked Dan to take us to the Sun Wheel so that we could see it.  A sun wheel was made by the Indians to mark the seasons and used to mark both the rising and the setting of the sun on the summer solstice.  Although we were not up high, looking down on the wheel, it was clear where it was and many of the stones are still in alignment.  The cave, the sun wheel, and the Buffalo Woman's grave, are all aligned in a straight line if you were to view them from above.  AMAZING how the Indians were able to do all of this.

 

Not sure if you can see it, but there is a little chipmunk sitting on one of the stones above. 

 

Me standing on the perimeter of the Sun Wheel.  I wish I could have taken an aerial view somehow to show you the wheel.

 

Dan also stopped and asked us if we had ever heard of Fan Wheat before.  None of us in the truck with him had, so he got out, picked some and let us taste it.  It is the seed head to a plant known as Fan Wheat.  They taste a lot like poppy seeds but have a bit of a kick to them.  I really liked them and could totally see them on top of a muffin or baked in bread.

 



The plant has a red flower on it in the summer and then the little seed heads above are left behind.  When you open them up, you get the "wheat". 

 

Our day was coming to an end, and it was time to get some dinner and then get cleaned up for our Gal's Night Out.  It was Tag's 83rd birthday but we had given him his cake the night before, so his wife Sandy was taking us out for a "girls only" night out on the town.  I am sure Tag would have much preferred to come with us instead of being left behind, but........

 

We had no idea what we were in store for.  We had all driven through the bustling town of Wolf Creek when we came to the Ranch, so we were perfectly aware of all the places there were to go hang out at on a Saturday night.  There are none.  But, our clever hostess Sandy, she knows this man who just happens to own a little bar down a long dirt road that just happens to also have Karaoke.  WHO KNEW!!!!!    With a farewell and a kiss goodbye to Tag, we all piled into a few cars and headed on down the road to Wolf Creek.  Next thing we knew, a bar with a neon sign saying OPEN, appeared out of nowhere.  We had arrived at the 7R's.  I can't tell you much about what went on inside because that would be breaking "girl code".  But let's just say, we chased every local person out of that place, except the employees.  There was an adorable older couple there, guessing in their 70's, that could dance like no other couple I have ever seen.  They were so adorable and I was lucky enough that the sweet gentleman of that couple, took me for a spin on the dance floor.  He and his partner were two stepping and doing all kinds of other wonderful dances and I told him I was not good at dancing with a partner, I am strictly a one man show.  But he promised me he could lead me and I would be just fine.  And you know what, he was right!!!!  I can't remember what he called the dance we were doing, but he said, all I had to was remember to rock, rock, step, and I would be fine.  Next thing I knew, we were doing spins and all kinds of wonderful dance moves.  I had so much fun and was so thankful I didn't turn him down.  They stayed until about 9:30 and then they went home.  We had the joint to ourselves from then on.

 

 

It only seemed fitting that the beer I would drink would be called Moose Drool.  Where else but in the West would you find a beer like that?  And, it is brewed right in Missoula.

 

 

And don't forget that the best cure for a hangover after drinking Moose Drool, is a good hearty breakfast complete with Local Ranch Eggs that you pick up at the exact bar that made you hungover in the first place!!!!  Gotta love a bar that looks after the well being of their customers like that.

 

 

And no Karaoke bar is worth it's weight in gold, unless you have accompanying guitar players.  The owner of the 7R's is on the left.  I think he was really, really happy to see 4 car loads of women pull up to his establishment that night.  After he listened to us sang for 3 hours, I am not so sure he was so happy though. 

One thing I have always wanted to do was dance on top of a bar, like in the movie Coyote Ugly.  Well, something about this place just made me and my friend Carolyn want to get on the bar and dance.  So.........we did.  We did ask permission first because Sandy is friends with the owner and we didn't want to get her in trouble.  Our sweet little owner said he just didn't want us to fall off and hurt ourselves, but we were more than welcome to dance on the bar.

These pictures aren't so good because we were in constant motion and the person that took the photos had been constantly drinking since arriving at the 7 R's.  But, you get the idea at least.

 

 

Carolyn and I had so much fun.  We danced to Alan Jackson's song Itty Bitty.  Yeah, we looked pretty stupid, of that I am sure, but hey, we can check that one off of our bucket list and move on now!!!

 

It was getting late and we had a big ride the next morning, our final day.  So we gathered our things, told our lovely servers goodbye and headed back for the Ranch.  But on the way out, we noticed that the 7R's was already planning for the Holiday season.  So for all of you locals in Montana, don't forget to call early to make your Christmas Celebration plans at the 7R's Bar.  Yall come back now ya hear?