IT'S SHOWTIME!! THEATER IN BIGFORK

June 9

Today I am taking the owner of the log house where I am staying, Mike Stoker, to the airport. He's flying back to California and then he'll drive back out with his wife. So I've got the place to myself -- PARTY TIME!! Just kidding.

After I dropped Mike off, I decided today I would see Swan Lake, and hike the Sprunger-Whitney Nature Trail. It is a two-mile loop that wanders through "old-growth forest" on an old Indian trail that later was the old Swan Highway. The first to walk these woods were the Pend d’Oreille and Bitterroot Salish people, who trod the trail for thousands of years before Lewis and Clark arrived.

The trail is marked with many interpretive signs and plant identification tags to learn about old-growth ecology. Friends of the Wild Swan helped establish and build the trail, which is named for Elmer Sprunger and Jack Whitney. Both men were longtime residents and conservationists from the Swan Valley.

Okay....enough of the history lesson. It's fairly easy terain and goes down the somewhat steep hillside onto a flat meadow. There is heavy plant growth.....and apparently there are a lot of bears out there as well. I'm walking along the trail, and I keep seeing bear scat (poop). I know my horse friends can tell the difference between fresh manure and old manure -- and a lot of this scat looked quite fresh. I mean, it is on the trail in many places.

I'm carrying my little green backpack with my "bear bell" attached, but all of a sudden it didn't sound loud enough. So now I'm actually shaking the bag to make it ring really loud. This week alone, 2 people have been attached by bears, one in Glacier National Park and one in Yellowstone -- and now I am nervous. I get to the bottom of the switchback trail (which is fairly steep), and I said, "you know, all I'm seeing are a bunch of trees and plants -- nothing I'm overly interested in. And I bet I can get the same exercise if I turn around now and walk back up the hill". So I'm off -- walking rapidly back to my truck.

Maybe I'm chicken, but at least I wasn't "fillet minion" for the bears.

Next stop -- Seeley Lake. This is another town on this very long road. Swan Lake and Seeley Lake are nestled in between the Mission Mountains and the Swan Mountains. And there are a lot of little lakes -- and some very large mountains. Here is a picture of Swan Peak -- not sure how high it is, but it was a beautiful sight.

It seems that the areas I like the best are always the ones that are more remote. I was told that they do keep the road open in the winter (only road going through the area), but you have to like winter sports. They apparently do a lot of snowmobiling in Seeley Lake in the winter. But there are lots of trees and mountain vistas -- the kind of place I like. Unfortunately, it is still about 80 miles to Missoula, and it is about 75 miles to Bigfork. And it would be another 40 miles to see Jane and Jack.

I did see a couple of houses for sale in my price range, and will my handy dandy GPS system, I keyed in the addresses and found them. This one is a bit different, but just my size. I was told this was called a gambel roof, and it's built this way for several reasons. First, it gives you more room that just a slanted roof (and I know this is true from my log home, where we add shed dormers to give space). The second is that the snow rolls right off the room, and there is no fear of it piling up and causing the roof to cave in. There was no one there, and it was obvious they are tearing out the old carpeting and putting in new, and several other projects were under way to fix it up. 2BR/1BA, with 2.5 acres and a creek, and listed for $229,900.

NOW.....for the reason I started this post with "It's Showtime". Tonight I went to the Bigfork Playhouse to see "Singing in the Rain". Yes, there is theater here in Bigfork. I would have to believe these young, aspiring actors and actresses come from other parts of the country to work in this theater. They actually had good singing voices, and some could dance.

Unfortunately for the star who played the Gene Kelly role -- Gene has nothing to worry about -- it was hard to measure up. The actor could sing, but dancing was just not his forte. The actual song and dance of "Singing in the Rain" is a masterpiece of Kelly's dance style and ability to use props in his dancing. I think only a very good professional actor could have matched up. And since the movie has been very popular and around forever, most people would have seen Kelly.

Although the 3 younger people (who were somehow associated with the playhouse) sitting next to me probably never saw the movie. The one guy was doing belly laughs to jokes that really were not that funny. But he was enjoying himself.

Both supporting actors did a great job. Donald O'Connor played Gene's best friend, Cosmo Brown, and if you have seen the movie, you know what a great job he did on the "Make 'em Laugh" song and dance (and quite a dance it was). The actor who did this part was a very good singer, and a much better dancer than anyone in the cast. And he did a great job.

And then there was "Lina Lamont" -- the silent screen star who has a voice from hell. She squeaks, has terrible diction, and can't carry a tune. One of her famous lines was "What's wrong with the way I talk? What's the big idea? Am I dumb or something?" The "am I dumb or something" is said a lot during the movie. The actress playing this part was very funny, and she even had a song, which was not in the movie.

But you want to know the best part? IT WAS OPENING NIGHT AND THEY HAD CHAMPAGNE AND FOOD AFTER THE SHOW -- FOR FREE. So I got to have several glasses of my favorite beverage (I really love champagne), and some turkey, ham, and cheese as well. Quite a deal for just $18.

Next Tuesday I am going to see "The Wiz". Then I will be all "cultured" out.