Frenchtown excursion

One of the many things we managed to squeeze into yesterday's events was a visit to the Frenchtown "Old West Fall Fest". Frenchtown is about 20 minutes north-west of Missoula, so we hit the road in search of filling my fair-needs. (Surely you already know about my Fall Fair mania? I loooooooves a good rural fair. To all the Ottawans reading, please take up my mantle and visit my favourite for me in a month's time.)



So, we head off to the Old West Fall Fest in the hopes of finding it a worthy replacement to my beloved Ontario fairs.



Did it fit the bill? Hmmm. Not quite.



Don't get me wrong... we had to stop at a railway crossing in the town and watch a giant 50 car train go by and Charley's eyes were as big as saucers and it was the-best-the-that-ever-happened at least in his eyes, so All worth it.


We pull into the Opportunity Ranch and park in a cow field. We get our map and head into the grounds. Hmm, do we go to pumpkin bowling first or dress-your-own-scarecrow? We wander over to the miniature horses to take a peek. Charley declares them the SCARIEST things ever and won't come near. It was rather scary as the main 'petting' horse had a rather scary erection. Chris almost wet himself watching this 8-ish year old girl peer under the horse with wide, wide eyes and then declare "GROSS!".

This was as close as Charley would get, and you can clearly see his wariness.

On closer view, I believe you can see the horse's "overstimulation". Eww, indeed.





Braver children than mine go for a ride.




So, we're done with the titillated miniature horses... ONWARD!


We stroll by the pumpkin bowling:


Steeee-rike!






Fallen soldiers:

Move on to the stick horse rodeo:

Check out some dusty, molting sheep, (and a llama!):

And then hit my personal fave o' the day:

" That's right, friends. NAIL POUNDING! Yep, kiddies! Step right up and get your goggles and hammer! Now pound those nails. That's right... keep going! Pound your personal nail and then move on because there are lots of awaiting pounders right behind you! "

We see this guy, who is either a Jesus wannabe or carrying a frame for one of the 'dress-your-own-scarecrows (equally possible):

And this cool mule:

Do a quick pose:

Run through some dust:

And declare it's time to get outta Dodge. Or Frenchtown, as it was.

I know you're desperately jealous of our outing. Try and control yourselves.



Because Sam did not feature much in the Frenchtown saga, here is a bonus photo essay:

Testing out the chariot:

Heading off on a ride.

Arriving home. Perhaps the helmet wasn't quite tight enough.

Yes, he was just sleeping and not unconscious from constricted airway. I checked.



Montana fun never ends. Stay tuned for the next installment.

The End.