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A PICTORIAL JOURNAL Saturday, July 21 Our 2nd stop was Troy, Montana, where we camped out in the woods on Lin’s land, where we enjoyed the privacy and quiet of the forest.
We stayed in Troy for three nights, and it was fabulous to wake up in the morning and realize that we didn’t have to pack up and tear down camp. We were initially a bit tentative about the things growing in the woods, because there were a bunch of leaves which looked like twigs of three, tinged with red. But we were assured that there was zero poison ivy/oak in the woods and we haven’t had problems with that. The first morning we were in camp, while the bulk of the troop went to the park in Troy for workshops, David de la Rocha and Vern went to the hardware store, and with Sid’s help put up the SHOWER, pictured at right. It’s not a solar shower, but rather a garden hose hooked up to a propane tank, which provides seemingly limitless amounts of hot water. It even has a double shower head, for bathing a deux. |
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Above: Tiberio & Nancy make lunch in the kitchen, with Tony in the background.
Below: Lunch in Troy. |
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It turned out that the townsfolk in Troy had fond memories of our previous visit, which included a mini-parade through the supermarket. In order not to disappoint them, we re-enacted this event. Kootenai seems to be pronounced “Kootnee” by some natives. |
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The town was fantastic (we did give them a “Fantastico” after the potluck dinner the night we arrived. They turned our day of workshops and performances into a kind of county fair, with food booths, balloons and face-painting. They also joined the parade with incredible animal costumes. |
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The favorite food was, hands down, the huckleberry ice cream, which was totally delicious. Runner-up would probably be the homemade kettle corn, made in enormous vats. It was light and puffy, just slightly salty sweet, and it did not send a “stop eating” signal to your brain, which seemed dangerous. The local restaurant owners were also selling grilled things and corn, and since we didn’t eat dinner until we were back at camp after the show (10:30pm) a lot of Chautauquans grabbed sustenance here. |
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Diane (in pink; I’m the one posting this page) got her face painted by Michelle, who also gave her the scarf as a lovely souvenir of Troy. |
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Somewhat hilariously, the giant animal costumes assemble in front of a picture of a Sandhill crane (red face) on our U-haul trailer. To further confuse you, it says “Mississippi” on the trailer. But we really are in Montana. |
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Haute Trash: The outfits that Robin Worley puts together for the trash fashion show are often held together by duct tape, and sometimes it seems that they’re held together by spit. This was certainly David Rain Ortez’s feeling, as his tire rubber ensemble fell off as soon as he was in front of the crowd. At left, you can see him trying quite desperately to keep his clothes on. We had a nice glimpse of the river in back of the stage. |
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Nine-year-old Ravyn has impressed us all with her stage presence and poise — here she is on tall stilts. But the real amazing performance in Troy wasn’t by one of our own, it was by Alan Lane, playing steel guitar with one arm and a prosthetic he made himself. He had been a logger and a tree came down and pinched his arm off. For daily life he just goes around one-armed, but wears this wooden limb with a built-in pick on the end for playing. |
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The show opens with one number from The Planets (see them below), followed by Faith, pictured at left. We close out the show with Nanda, who never fail to get the audience cheering. |
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Sunday, July 22 We did a run-out to Eureka from Troy. While the bulk of the group took off in busses and trucks, Howard and several others stuck around camp to wash the spandex movie screen we’d borrowed for outdoor shows. It proved to be quite a challenge, but we got the screen as spanking clean as we could—blindingly white in the sun, actually.
A lot of people showed up for the workshops, and avidly enjoyed the various projects. Robyn Albro leads a very creative mask making workshop, below.
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It’s so great to see how captivated the kids are by what we’re doing. Look (at right) at how fixated these guys are at the drumming workshop.
The shows begin with a song from Gavi’s band The Planets, who are not giving out Tourist Information, despite the sign behind them. |
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Monday: Cleaning up and clearing out of Troy. Jerry and Sondra at right show off a beautiful piece of wood that they’ve polished. Notice piles of junk in the background. Below, the rather amazing chair that Jerry made and finished—it’s quite comfortable. Below that is Jerry’s horse. |
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Circle in Troy is above on the right, with Harry holding forth. Immediately to the right are our two favorite groupies, Aggie and Amber. They showed up as soon as we got to Troy, moved in a lived with us and came to all our events. They were great, friendly gals, and we enjoyed having them around. They had us all sign their shirts before we left. |
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On the way from Troy to Browning, we hit major construction. The dirt road below is a major interstate highway. Our reward was the wonderful lake at Logan State Park. That’s Dream standing on Vern’s shoulders. |
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Tuesday: Two very important people: at left, Tove loading the truck, and on the right driver Kevin and his bus. His tie-dye shirt made him the most visible hiker in Glacier National Park. |
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Above left, a tailgate lunch in the parking lot at Glacier. Normal people serve sandwiches or some other portable food. Not Tiberio—he made lentil soup and served it with leftover pasta and rice. The soup splashed a tad in Pom’s car on the drive to the Park. Pom was not so happy with the mess. |
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Bighorn sheep graze in the valley, and at right is one of the shuttle busses that brought us up a few miles from the parking lot and for which we had to wait a long time. However, if you have to wait somewhere, this kind of scenery helps. |
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Above, the Chautauqua troupe in Browning. We’re holding up cartoons of the Browning Runnin’ Indians, drawn by a local artist (who is in the middle of the 2nd row). photo by Michelle Bates |
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photo by Michelle Bates |
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The Show in Browning, Wednesday July 25
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Dr. Happenstance’s Sauntering Cabinet of Prestidigitation: contact juggling from Daniel. photo by Michelle Bates |
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Jasmine, Erin’s daughter and great-granddaughter of a respected Blackfeet tribal member, was a big hit in Browning. photo by Michelle Bates |
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The drum section rehearses before the parade: Harry, Tasche, Ben, Sid. |
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Howard is presenting a seven-minute version of the slide-show “An Convenient Truth” at our shows, and the full-length version at workshops. |
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Spike and Boom-boom. photo by Michelle Bates |
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Browning, the main town on the Blackfeet reservation, can be a tough sell. But we won them over, and we all had a fabulous time. Below, Tasche and Anna light up the gym as cheerleaders in their Haute Trash fashions. |
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Dream and Vern, from Dream Science Circus. photo by Michelle Bates |
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photo by Michelle Bates |
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CHAUTAUQUA TOUR ~ 2007 A PICTORIAL JOURNAL
Email journal—this is a compilation of all the emails that were sent out, both during the tour and after we all got home.
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The institutional kitchen at the boarding school in Browning. Tiberio hated it, and ended up bringing in the volcano burner. |
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The Hutterite Story For complete details, see the email journal (link at top of page). The short version is that Harry, Chen, Tomoki and Daniel M went hunting for Hutterites, found some and came away alive to tell the tale. |
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Hutterites coming. |
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Hutterites going. |
