Another Memory Map: Great Falls, Montana
Here I am again in a place I've explored at length but have no real connection with. I LOVE this phenomenon! Los Angeles has seen me return a couple of times since I left, and the experience of blowing into a random city - Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Missoula, or Tokyo - and knowing just what and where I'd like to drop in for a treat, that is thrilling for me.
Each of these cities sports a few places I regard as (and I'm not literally a believer in magic - just the sensation) magical. I guess were it not so eroded in punch, I would go ahead and say wonderful. In Great Falls, the magic hovers around the airport, where I took some flying lessons and where the Air National Guard base is. It would take a lot to explain why I love it so much - well, I got to soar there.
Another just fantastic place is - of course - Giant Springs. It is the welling up of the clearest, purest water imaginable, with special aquatic plants living there, a peaceful grove of trees whose two-toned leaves shimmer like Lothlorien (seriously!), and a sweeping view of the river with flocks of pelicans skimming just over the surface. I haven't been there yet on this trip. I will get over there today.
The other magical place is a bit more tricky. Also, it has been degraded. I went down to a waterside cafe I remember sitting in when the weather was so blustery: 40 knot winds or something, 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Powerfully cold; that's Great Falls in the winter. Over coffee, I just watched the geese coming down to land in the partially-frozen pond, where people come around all winter to feed them. They flew in a landing pattern; across the wind, downwind, turn and make a final approach. That's exactly what a landing pattern around an airport looks like, although that tends to be more squared-off and predictable.
Then the geese, one after another, about fifty of them, put down their webbed feet, curved their wings for maximal "flaps" (in the wing shape sense), and landed in such an ungainly, yet elegant controlled movement. I loved it.
Sadly, that little cafe is all boarded up and empty. Too bad.
Each of these cities sports a few places I regard as (and I'm not literally a believer in magic - just the sensation) magical. I guess were it not so eroded in punch, I would go ahead and say wonderful. In Great Falls, the magic hovers around the airport, where I took some flying lessons and where the Air National Guard base is. It would take a lot to explain why I love it so much - well, I got to soar there.
Another just fantastic place is - of course - Giant Springs. It is the welling up of the clearest, purest water imaginable, with special aquatic plants living there, a peaceful grove of trees whose two-toned leaves shimmer like Lothlorien (seriously!), and a sweeping view of the river with flocks of pelicans skimming just over the surface. I haven't been there yet on this trip. I will get over there today.
The other magical place is a bit more tricky. Also, it has been degraded. I went down to a waterside cafe I remember sitting in when the weather was so blustery: 40 knot winds or something, 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Powerfully cold; that's Great Falls in the winter. Over coffee, I just watched the geese coming down to land in the partially-frozen pond, where people come around all winter to feed them. They flew in a landing pattern; across the wind, downwind, turn and make a final approach. That's exactly what a landing pattern around an airport looks like, although that tends to be more squared-off and predictable.
Then the geese, one after another, about fifty of them, put down their webbed feet, curved their wings for maximal "flaps" (in the wing shape sense), and landed in such an ungainly, yet elegant controlled movement. I loved it.
Sadly, that little cafe is all boarded up and empty. Too bad.