Dead Animals & a Montana Airport

September 2012

I arrived at the Great Falls airport in the evening to pick Shelby up. She flew out from Kentucky for our two week road trip. Upon entering the airport, I didn't see a soul anywhere. No other people waiting, airport employees, nothing! I sat in the waiting area for close to thirty minutes before one other person showed up. The lady who arrived commented, "This is the strangest, quietest airport I've ever seen!". I quickly agreed, and admitted that I had begun to wonder if I had accidentally ended up in an abandoned airport!

Also, note the animal heads on the wall in the picture above. I grew up in the south--the roadkill capitol of the nation. Why don't we have animal heads on our airport walls? We should contact our congressmen!

While I waited for Shelby's plane to arrive, I wandered around looking at all the dead animals on display. I've been to many airports in my lifetime and seen lots of things; fancy shops at Heathrow, a pretty fountain sculpture in Detroit, shiny marble floors in DeGaulle, but never dead animals. The mountain lion between the escalators was a nice touch, I must admit. It looked like he was ready to pounce!

I hid behind a display case when Shelby arrived in order to surprise her. She didn't expect me to get there for a few more hours. My idea would have worked had I not been hiding behind a glass display case...not my most shining intellectual moment.

I gave Shelby the grand tour of my summer home. Sisters are great. They tell you exactly what they think. Shelby's initial reaction to my housing situation was, "Oh wow, Holly! How on earth did you live in this all summer? I would have turned around and left the first day!".  Sisters. Life's most honest and loving critics. :)

We ate breakfast at the cafe on the last day of the season, September 20th. Shelby was very impressed with the food and I enjoyed being waited on rather than the other way around. :)

~Shelby and Park Cafe's amazingly scrumptious French toast~