A Tale Of Two Queen Cities, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate Greyhound, or How I pissed my scoliosis right off.

[bigskypanthersguy]

A Tale Of Two Queen Cities.

Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Hate Greyhound.

Or how I really pissed off my scoliosis.

 

I suppose the first question from those who don't know will be this: Why Panthers, and why Montana? Montana's the easy answer...born and raised there, keep meaning to leave but the financials aren't there yet.

 

Professionally, I'm a master-control operator at an NBC affiliate in Helena, MT—MCO is literally a professional tv watcher with some degree of video editing (you merely edit in local commercials to syndicated programming), switching of the control board from server, primary, tape (our station still runs digital tape, yes, and I've found paperwork from 1987 in the op room. It's...something.

 

Considering the SNF show on NBC, I get to experience free football once a week anyway, but there's no greater joy than getting paid to watch your favorite team. Guess who's going to be glued to the screen like a hawk when we play the Eagles?

 

As to why Carolina, I've always been interested in the civil war era, and the resultant lore about ghost hauntings and the usual associations therein. The thing is, Carolinians seem to share much of the same traits as Montanans, in that we're both stubborn, independent, prone to quiet meditation in the woods, and similar activities therein. Ultimately, it's a multitude of reasons---I've always liked the color scheme though I wish the blue was darker, you'll never convince me that defense isn't the most important side of the ball, and the key moment that fully won me over was knocking Dallas out of the playoffs in '96. Oh, how they heard from me on that day...all week long I heard nothing about Dallas this, Superbowl that.

 

Then, of course, Green Bay happened...but let's not think about that.

 

As a master control operator, I am not exactly affluent, and so Greyhounding happened to be the most feasible means of transportation available. Oh, how feasible is a funny word, now. Believe you me, next time I'm saving holiday money and tax return money and flying.  On the subject of convenience, no sooner did I get about an hour and 40 minutes out of Billings MT by way of Bozeman MT did my rear tire disintegrate.  It was a most remarkable explosion, with most of the bottom tire completely gone.  Poor old Ivanova (Babylon 5 fan, and the van is a 97 Caravan who's also fairly stubborn and refuses to die)!

 

Since the bus was about half the cost of flying, it seemed somewhat logical to take a few days off in the midst of my usual days off and try this—I'd been eagerly wanting to do this for over a decade now, even though I started in the early years of the franchise as a fan—but the financial side wasn't as easy to pull off as it was now, or so I thought. And then, well, Kansas happened...about 15 miles out of Topeka Kansas, our bus decided it wasn't going to take traveling an incline anymore and it decided to Byron Bell the whole operation.

 

You have not lived until you've been Red Crossed bags of Cheetos and other junk food to appease people until a replacement bus drives an hour and a half out of Kansas to take you all to the next station—at which point you're all very, very late and currently I'm somewhere around 12 hours behind schedule. I got to see lots and lots of buildings and greenery. Therein lies the sole positive.

 

There will be many posts in this thread, with many pictures.  This is the first segment.  At some point, this may be less stream-of-consciousness but, this is not that point and this is not that day.

The two empty storefronts are from the Helena mall.  Much of the mall there is empty and currently only has JC Penney's, Christopher Banks, an eyeglass place, and a jewelry store.  Rumor is there's asbestos on the property.  Isn't that delightful.

The rest are shots around Helena, largely downtown and at my station, and at the fair grounds.

A couple last bits of information about Helena: apparently the reason it's called the Queen City on our side of the country is that someone decided it was the Queen City of the Rockies.  Actually, it was four someones in 1864, who borrowed the name from a town in Minnesota.  Helena is largely known for being a historic mining town, Montana's capital city, and at one point into the early 70's we apparently had a brothel that as far as I know was the last one we've ever had.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Baker_(madam)

I don't know how I feel about that.  I think I like Charlotte's reason for being the Queen City better.

 

 

[O-Ther]

My first 9 hour drive up to Charlotte for a Fan Fest at the stadium felt like a pilgrimage to Mecca (minus the deadly stampedes), Jerusalem, and Bethlehem all rolled into one. The magic wears off for the locals that see it everyday, but for us out-of-towners it takes our breath away every time we see it. Enjoy your trip and the ass-whippin' the Panthers are gonna put on the Stains Sunday

[Daddy_Uncle]

I would give anything to leave North Carolina and move to a place like Montana. I usedto love being from NC and I still do. There are some gorgeous places here and still some good real down home NC people. But nowdays it seems like its most yankee transplants down here. There are some nice places in NC but most everywhere is way overpopulated to the point where I feel likeI can't breathe. Traffic is horrible and you can't see the stars at night in most places because of the light pollution. It's 3am so I didn't really process your thread very well. Hopefully this makes sense. 

[GRWatcher]

prone to quiet meditation in the woods

I'm not sure that applies to anyone on the Huddle lol. Except maybe SCP with the right tp. You'll probably be in Charlotte by the time you see this, so now is the time to relax, breathe deep, & have a good time. 

[Sapper]

Always enjoyed running commentary threads on game day trips into town.  Looking forward to it.

[Jangler]

Playing the lottery Saturday, movin' to Montana on Monday. 

[Montsta]

Been telling my wife for a while now that we are going to make California salaries and make money from California real estate then sell everything we have and move to Montana. 

Oh Montana how I long for thee. 

[bigskypanthersguy]

My first 9 hour drive up to Charlotte for a Fan Fest at the stadium felt like a pilgrimage to Mecca (minus the deadly stampedes), Jerusalem, and Bethlehem all rolled into one. The magic wears off for the locals that see it everyday, but for us out-of-towners it takes our breath away every time we see it. Enjoy your trip and the ass-whippin' the Panthers are gonna put on the Stains Sunday

I've been giddy since I woke up and realized 1: I didn't miss the reason I came down here after all and 2: that I really was in Charlotte and that this was finally going to happen.  That was the best sleep I've ever had on a bus and it was only like 2 hours...but I hadn't slept in forever and needed it.

And in true somethingorother fashion, my first 5 minutes in the station let me see a Greyhound employee get in a fight with a customer about not touching bags, not opening doors, etc, etc.  Both were at fault...customer was frustrated, stressed, and pissy and the employee had too much of an attitude.

[CLTPanther]

Definitely a lot of transplants in the Charlotte area.. seems more people are from the North than are from here.. I would like to haul all my firearms out to Montana and go trecking through the back country.. enjoy the the kicking of the Taints on Sunday

[CarolinaXblue]

The company I work for headquarters is in Helena. I went through Montana a few times when I toured in a band but haven't been in a long time. It was absolutely stunning. The whole scenery is just amazing. Welcome to Charlotte my friend!

[Seltzer]

Montana is one of the few states I've never been to, and it's somewhere I intend to go before I die.  However, as you know, it's not the easiest (or cheapest) state to get via air travel and I can't imagine I would ever have a business reason to go there for the work I do (factory automation).  

Still, I love the thought of Montana and the Big Sky Country in general.  As much as I love the Carolinas (and I've lived here my whole life), the massive population growth over the last 25 years here, while good in many respects, certainly has changed the places I remember from my youth.

I remember going in the woods as a kid and walking for hours without another soul besides my dog.  Now, where I grew up is dotted my suburban development everywhere.

Seems like Big Sky country is one of the few places left where you can still truly get away from everyone and everything.  Appreciate the pictures.

[nctarheel0619]

I've said it once, and I'll say it again.

 

On the bucket list.  

[PntherPryd]

I'm glad you started the thread.  When I heard you were taking a BUS from MT to BOA it just seemed perfect.  I used to take a bus from Nashville to Wilmington back in the early 90's when the Man decided to be a bitch and take my license away (again) so I have fond? memories of those excursions.   Not sure I would call it a vacation, riding a bus for that many miles, with that many stops, is more of a full-time job.  The fact that you do this, with limited resources, to come watch the Panthers, is amazing.

[goodoleboy]

Too bad its not safe to hitchhike anymore. I made better time than that coast to coast back in the day. Hope the return trip is less eventful. I hope they at least refunded some money.