Thoroughly thawed

The trip to see my brother in  Bakersfield, Calif., a couple weeks ago was great. Got thoroughly thawed out in 88-delightful degree weather. Actually the 88 was only on one day, the others were something like 78, 80 and 79 degrees. They got the job done, too.  Even got a bit of a sun tan, which is fast fading. But July will be here soon.

 Managed to get through Denver without missing a connecting flight due to weather. The previous two times I’d missed connecting flights due to storms and had long waits.

We were an hour late leaving  Denver for Bakersfield but got out just as a storm was beginning. That made for more bumps than our chuckholed streets until we got to cruising altitude.

 Returning to Polson it was on time and the smoothest approaches I’d ever experienced to Denver and Missoula.

 Talk about crowded skies, though. As my brother and I walked his dog around the neighborhood one late afternoon, we counted 30 jet contrails going in all directions in the skies above Bakersfield. Looked like a game of aeronautical tic-tac-toe.

 Gasoline is cheaper in Polson. Despite hundreds of oil wells and several refineries in Bakersfield, unleaded gas was selling at $2.35 a gallon at most stations.  Here it’s hovering around the $2 mark.

 While the trip was fun, it always feels good to get back. There’s still nowhere I’d rather live than in Polson, Montana.

 And speaking of Polson, our city has had three bridges across the Pend ‘d Oreille (Flathead) River. First was the infamous two approach bridge built in 1910. The second was built in 1927 and it was replaced by the present bridge in 1966.

 That Y-shaped double approach on the Polson side of the 1910 bridge came about following a brouhaha over the street – B Street (now US 93) or C Street (now 3rd Avenue) –to which the bridge would connect. After several days of arguing in which several arrests were made, a compromise was reached and the bridge connected with both B and C Streets. The condition of the first bridge and too many collisions at the Y led to the decision to build the second bridge in ’27.

 Does anyone recognize the young lady on horseback in the photo below? I’m guessing it would be toward the latter years of the 1910  bridge. Her hairdo and apparel appear to be more 1920s-vintage than earlier. Thanks to Gil Mangels of Miracle of America Museum for loaning the picture.