It was nice waking up knowing we wouldn’t be driving hundreds of miles in the RV (or any miles really). This was going to be my last full day with Lana before she flew home and I was a bit sad that I wouldn’t see her for the next week, but I was also excited about phase 2 of the trip for me, which was a low expectation, do it yourself (un-guided) archery elk hunt.
We started the day slow, with breakfast, coffee, and another walk around the neighborhood. We were in the outskirts of Helena, so there wasn’t really much to walk to, see, or do where we were, so after our post-breakfast walk we decided to take a Lyft into town.
We headed to the Last Chance Gulch area of Helena’s downtown. It was Saturday afternoon and there were plenty of other folks who seemed content to walk around, soaking in the smoke tinted sunshine. We started off with some ice cream, and then found the Blackfoot River Brewing Company, where we stopped for a beer.
After sharing a beer (I know, we’re crazy party people, aren’t we) we continued to meander around town, taking in the sites. After eventually leaving Last Chance Gulch we walked up to Fire Tower Park, over to the Cathedral of Saint Helena, and Finally to Temple Emanu-El.
In regards to Temple Emanu-El, the synagogue was built in 1891 but by the 1930s, there wasn’t enough of a Jewish community to keep the building, which was eventually sold to the state, and then later to the Catholic Diocese of Helena. For many years, Helena was the only state capital with no synagogue. For the last few years the Helena Diocese was attempting to sell the building back to the Jewish Community, and in 2022 enough money was raised by the Montana Jewish Project to make the purchase and once again return the Temple Emanu-El building to Jewish hands. And there’s your Helena history lesson for today.
After our nice semi-random walk around downtown Helena, we Lyfted back to the KOA for a relaxing dinner, and you guessed it, another walk near the campground, this one along a surprisingly picturesque irrigation canal behind the KOA’s back fence.
Later in the evening, as I was catching up on my blogging from the RV’s dining room table, I noticed an uninvited visitor poking it’s head out from under the refrigerator. Not being a fan of rodents, it took some ingenuity to figure our how to get rid of Mr. Mouse without having any traps in the RV. And nope, not posting the picture of the successful conclusion to that little project.
Bonus Pictures
