Inked

Aug. 19-28, 2013 Jim & Mary's RV Park, Missoula, MT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RV LIFE:
I got my first and only tattoo when I was 52 years old. Scott has wanted to get one for the past 4 years and probably before that, but never voiced it.
Being on the road, it's difficult to find a tattoo artist by word of mouth. I do depend a lot on "Yelp" reviews.
While strolling through the busy, but still quaint town of Missoula, we came upon a tattoo parlor, Bound by Glory. We have had some false alarms with Scott's decision whether to get a tattoo or not. He keeps 2nd guessing. I gave up on encouraging him. A tattoo is a permanent piece of art or disfigurement, so let Scott decide when and if ever he'll get a tattoo.

Scott had a general idea of what he wanted. Some kind of Celtic knot and a dog paw print.
This is to represent our love of Irish Setters, especially his "heart dog", Ryley who passed in 2011.


We passed another tattoo parlor while driving. We opted out of stopping at Every Mother's Nightmare tattoo parlor. We naively decided on Bound by Glory  tattoo parlor simply on looks and speaking with the artist.
He just recently opened this store after moving from Austin, TX.

 This is not the way to choose where and who will be sticking you thousands of times with a needle, but...

I had a good feeling about this place.

This parlor was beautiful!

I got my tattoo at Electric Tattoo in Bradley Beach, NJ while still living in NJ. I was still working at the time and one of my co-workers was covered in tattoos. He was a really nice guy so I asked where his artwork was done. I figured with that many tattoos, the guy must be good, clean and safe.



We walked in about 12:30pm and discussed possible designs. Once we FINALLY decided on a design, we put down a $20. deposit to hold our appointment later that day. Now the question is, WHERE will the tattoo be inked? Scott wanted on his shoulder/upper arm area where many old timers got their tats. Yeah, I'm cool, I said tats! He felt he could easily cover it up if needed. What? Cover it up? Huh? I wanted it on the inside or outside of his forearm. Inside would be the compromise. It's noticeable, but not always seen. I dropped Scott off, leaving the final decision up to him. Well, after all, it IS his body. I was hoping for the inside forearm, but figured he'd play it safe and do the shoulder.

Inside forearm $200.00 approx. 4" x 4" 1.5 hours

BUSINESS REVIEW:
Bound by Glory (Facebook page) - Missoula, MT
Our rating 5 out of 5
See above review. Since we don't have much experience our rating doesn't really mean too much.

We're still enjoying this RV park. Mostly quiet with just a couple of noisy "neighbors", meaning, there is a train that goes by within site of the park, but doesn't really bother us. There is also some distant highway noise, but also doesn't really bother us. And once in a while there is a baby crying. Yep, that bothers us. We have some nearby neighbors (not right next to us) that are in a travel trailer. They remind me of the scene in Mary Poppins when she arrives at the house and starts pulling things out of her bag.

Mary has one carpet bag and she pulls out all kinds of things. How DO they all fit in there??? That's what I wonder about this family in the travel trailer. They were here when we arrived. Their trailer is in good condition, their site is kept clean. But throughout the day I see so many different people. I'm so confused. Ends up there are 3 children, a baby, a toddler, and a 10? year old. The kids seem to be well behaved. I saw the 10 year old boy walking their dog, then feeding the dog, then laying in the grass reading. The baby screams/cries a few times a day. It's really not that annoying. I'm just not used to kids.
So the airstream (no slides) is about 25' long and there are 3 kids, 1 20 something girl, and 2 adults, plus a chocolate lab! All in this trailer. If they can handle those close quarters, fine. I'm amazed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RV MOD:
Extra light and outside switch for closet.
A while ago, Scott put in an outside switch for our light in the closet. We no longer have to fumble around and feel where the toggle switch is on the light in the dark closet.

See the white switch on the top right?

It's now super easy to turn on and off the closet light. But, there is only one light in the center of the long closet. With clothes hanging up, this does not reach to the drawers on my side of the closet. I'm been using a dedicated flashlight for the task.

Whenever I need a t-shirt from my drawers, I could just blindly pick one out, but sometimes I'm more in the mood for this shirt which means leaves me alone. (Thank you for the shirt Carolyn)

Or maybe I accidentally pull this t-shirt out for meeting a potential adopter of a Setter. Tsk, tsk. That wouldn't do!
The solution? A 2nd light over the drawers on my side of the closet.

Let there be light!

Now there is no excuse for wearing the wrong t-shirt. If you see me wearing the above shirt, say hello to me at your own risk. You have been forewarned!

My, my. I thought Scott & I were somewhat conservative. After all, we are old retired folk. So don't judge us by this blog post only. Getting tattoos and an "R" rated t-shirt. We're a nice quiet couple...really we are!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOOD:
Since we ate a large & late breakfast. I was done for the day. No dinner...only dessert!

I went to the Big Dipper and had a double scoop cone of chocolate and white mint chip. The Chocolate was good, but the white white chocolate mint is wonderful! I will be stopping there the day before we leave and taking a pint home!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RESTAURANT REVIEW:
Uptown Diner - Missoula, MT
Our rating 2.5 out of 5
Can only rate on breakfast.
Very cute decor with lots of memorabilia and turquoise all over.
Waitress very friendly, attentive and efficient. Our breakfast took quite a bit longer to arrive than expected.
Omelet: Fillings of jack cheese, mushrooms, sausage. Delicious fillings, but the omelet itself was very dry. I didn't finish.
Pan Fried Potatoes: Slices of potatoes fried with an "old bay" seasoning on top. Pretty good at first, but after a while, they seemed just like overcooked potatoes.
Pancakes: Very average, to maybe below average. These were also dry.
Huge portions, but I did not bother to take any home because it wasn't good enough.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SIGHTS:
Garnet Ghost Town -
Our rating 4.5 out of 5
$3.00 per person. ("Free", We used our Nat'l Parks Interagency Annual Pass $80.)
Very dog friendly! The dogs were allowed everywhere including in the visitor center and all the buildings. So nice to sightsee together instead of one of us having to wait outside and take turns touring.
This is another old mining town, like Bodie, CA. Between the ebbing of the Gold Rush and a devastating fire, the town of Garnet was deserted. This is now BLM land and the gov't is also adhering to arrested decay to preserve this town in it's "natural" state.
"The BLM manages Garnet in a state of “arrested decay.”  This simply means that we are attempting to freeze the buildings in time in order to retain an authentic ghost town atmosphere.  We do not bring in buildings from other places to fill the town, and we make every attempt to retain every board in each building.  In that way, when you visit Garnet you can touch the authentic historic fabric that makes the old town an authentic ghost town. "
Bodie, CA Ghost town has many more buildings still standing and a lot of mining equipment to view, but Garnet is still well worth the trip.

Ringer washing machine. I'm NOT old enough to remember these.

Of course being a retired Postal worker, I needed a photo of the Post Office

Wallpaper

 In one building, they had a table set up with items displayed. Next to each item was a flip card. You were to guess what the items were. Do you know what this is on the right? At first I thought it was a large lampshade, but if you look closely, there are tiny wheels on the bottom.


It's a baby walker! I remember them! I think a safer version is probably still used today.

Kitchen

Salon or Parlor or Sitting room

Hotel room

Maid's quarters. 

What was nicer about Garnet than Bodie, is we were able to go INTO a lot of buildings. We were able to go up and view all THREE stories of the hotel. What a treat! Really interesting.
There is a visitors center for cold drinks and info and touristy stuff. There are bathrooms and water fountains. There's even a dog bowl of water for the dogs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PETS:
Both dogs enjoyed going into the old buildings of Garnet. Lyla especially liked the ice house which had a floor of saw dust and was at least 15 degrees cooler.
Devin found his own way to cool off.

Someone dumped their ice from a cooler. Devin snatched it up and carried it around for a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHERE WE'RE GOING:
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2013 Jennifer's Driveway Boondock, Bozeman, MT
Sept. 2-5, 2013 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone, WY (Tentative)
Sept. 6-15, 2013 Horseshoe Bend Campground NFS, Lovell, WY (Tentative)
Sept. 16-30, 2013 Wheels West RV Park, Custer, SD

south for the Winter of 2013/214