Helena, Herc, Helena

Who remembers the old Hercules cartoon show where Newton, a young centaur, constantly tells Hercules that he sees Herc's girlfriend, Helena?  If you're my age, you probably saw the original version (128 episodes) in the 60s but my children watched it in reruns while growing up.

Why mention this obscure TV history?  Well, we drove to Helena, Montana on October 15th and whenever we refer to this lovely town, we call it 'Helena, Herc, Helena' in honour of the cartoon show.

Our reason for travelling south was the final phase of a downsizing operation.  We had a load of furniture and boxes to take down to our son, Geoff, in Denver.  Some of which he wanted; others he didn't know he wanted.  The most exciting item for his kids was a photo of him with a gold earring.

We spent most of the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend loading up a 14 foot U-Haul truck.  We had hoped to pick it up at a depot in the northwest of Calgary but ended up at a video store in the northeast.  Meg and Mike drove us there but since the store didn't open until noon, we found a local pub and had lunch.  The Black Lion turned out to serve great food and cheap beer.  Meg had spaghetti which she raved about, Glen and Mike had fish and chips, while I had french onion soup and quesadillas (both excellent).  The Black Lion lager was disappointing and I'd not order it again despite the price.

Entertainment Plus sold (and rented) everything from U-Haul trucks to movie DVDs.  They had a wide range of iPhone accessories as well as an interesting hookah pipe display.  We got the keys to the truck and our adventure began when we headed south to Helena.

Our first stop was the visitor centre in Cardston.  The tiny town was first settled in 1887 by a group of Mormons from Utah and named for the first settler, Charles Ora Card.  His house is part of the visitor centre complex although it was closed for the season.  However, the large modern museum at the rear of the railway station was open and had we had more time, it would have been nice to learn more about the area.

We took the scenic route though Lethbridge and are still awed by its famous bridge.  The town began as a whiskey trading post called Fort Hamilton but most referred to it as Fort Whoop-up.  When the drift mines (mining coal seams horizontally) opened, in 1874, a town grew and was named after the president of a mining company, William Lethbridge.  It became a rail hub when Canadian Pacific Railway created its southern Alberta depot there in 1905.  Built in 1909, the High Level Bridge is the longest and highest trestle bridge in North America.

Our next stop was lunch.  We pulled off at a rest area and learned about the Devil's Brigade or the First Special Service Force which fought in World War II.  They were formed in 1942 when a group of 700 Canadian soldiers joined ranks with 1100 US soldiers at a base near Helena, Montana.  In 2013, the unit received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor.

We crossed the border at Sweetgrass, Montana.  I had called the US Customs there and spoke to Officer Davis concerning any paperwork we might need to cross with the truck.  After some hesitation, he said no.  Of course, we learned that Officer Hastings was a little bit more hard-nosed.  He told us we had to have proof Geoff would receive the goods and that he indeed had a green card.  This meant calling Geoff who then emailed Officer Hastings a copy of his green card.  It took some time and we did feel like 'criminals' as we waited for the go-ahead from Office Hastings.

Some of you may remember the last time we did a road trip to Denver (July 2010).  We spent 10 hours driving from Calgary to Billings.  With the truck, we knew this would be an impossible drive so opted to break the trip into 3 days.  So after leaving Sweetgrass, we headed south to Helena.  The trip was uneventful until a storm broiled over the prairies and threatened to blow the truck off the highway.  I was thankful Glen had some experience driving trucks in nasty weather but we had to slow down to be safe.  We rolled into Helena at 5:00pm and discovered our Holiday Inn was next to a restaurant called Buffalo Wild Wings.  Just what we needed -- wings and beer!

Buffalo Wild Wings began in 1982 when founder, James Disbrow, a native of Buffalo, NY, visited Ohio and couldn't find a restaurant serving buffalo wings.  There are now 1000 restaurants across North America.  The one in Helena was very busy with families and sports fans.  We enjoyed a couple of pints of Lewis & Clarke Amber Ale and taste-tested their hot BBQ sauce.  We ordered a small portion to share but what arrived at our table were the biggest wings we'd ever encountered.  They were delicious!  I then had a chicken and Parmesan flatbread while Glen 'built' his own burger.  The prices were cheap and the portions large so we waddled over to our hotel and collapsed into bed.