Dispatches from the Road by Bill Poindexter
Diary of a novice Saloon keeper, and Adventure Cycling Association Polebridge, Montana days, 22 through 26
June 18, 7 AM, 50° rain coming down steady. It’s been this way the last few days usually rains overnight and in the morning and a little less during the day or none. I’m feeling more at home here. About four days ago. Another rainy day. I was working in the bar by myself and it was cold enough for rainy enough to where all the customers stayed inside. It was a busy day. Had a lot of fun, met a young couple, both active army, she works in finance and accounting for the army something to do with counter terrorism, and he is a special forces Green Beret. They live in North Carolina and they’re actually getting ready to move to Brussels. Sebastian and Maddie and it was kind of fun and they came in for lunch and then came back later and after I got off my shift, they bought me a beer. We sat down for a couple hours and just talked about life. It was interesting to hear their perspective as military people on what’s going on in the world they seem to be hopeful about AI whereas I’m more skeptical and one of the things I really appreciate is they were outspoken and very optimistic for the future. And although we did not agree on everything, it was just fun to have a open conversation respectful. We gave each other hugs and they were on their way invited me to stay with them in Brussels when I get overseas so if I like that good people. I’ve been meeting a lot of good people. I thought I’d share some more with you. There’s a Doctor who works here. We call him Dr. Bill I don’t even know his last name but he lives here all year round. He has a active practice well one day a week in whitefish very kind man good soul kind blue eyes think he’s around 68. He comes in most days to get his two burger patties in drinks a couple of the claw drinks. Usually talking about working in his garden. And the other day he came in, and I just got off my shift and I was gonna have a beer and we sat outside together and chatted for quite a bit of time he also likes to talk about health and what we should eat and what we should eat. He’s also like me a open conspiracy theorist. He is very open minded, and very practical about some of the not so good things that are going on in the earth in human bodies from a nutritional standpoint. He’s written five books and it’s going to give me one of them his latest. I don’t have it yet, but I’ll share it when I get it. Will review after I read it. There were also two musicians the other day, Drew and Ben got to watch them on the stage here at the Saloon -
I got a video of them and I’ll post a picture of them and I’ll try to post that video at some point. Just give you a flavor for what it’s like to listen to music at the saloon - last night, Ross Voorhees was playing at the saloon, he’s a really good guy too. I’ve listen to him a few times it’s fun listening to a guy up there, with a guitar, harmonica, bells around ankle, singing is heart out. I’m supposed to go on a bike ride later day with Ross Vorhesses a superb local singer / songwriter , a guy named Tom and the owners of the yoga retreat up here Brooke and Clay, but still having issues with my bicycle. The left crank has fallen off now four times and finally put some Loctite on it the other day, and seems to be holding, but I’m a little leery about heading up to far into the mountains. I’m gonna try to hitch a ride to whitefish when I get my next long day off. And just replace the crank. But in the meantime, I’ll try to make it work up here so I can tell people people asked me. “Hey Bill, are you a bicycle mechanic”, And I just laugh and say only when I need to be and I need to be right now.
Jennifer who is the new general manager has been here about four or five days now and she and I get along really well. She’s got a lot of experiencing managing restaurants and resorts and bars, and it’s nice to have somebody up here from a leader ship standpoint, as we’ve been kind of just flying by the seat of our pants a little bit if the leadership isn’t around. So I’m super excited about that and makes the job definitely more pleasant, and everybody seems to be less on edge, so I’m hoping that that continues to work out and hope it works out for the season. She’s a kind soul think we’re gonna be great friends as well. She has watched me work behind the bar when it was just me and has seen how I interact with people and she likes it a lot. She says people love me and that I’m good at what I do, so it’s nice to have that feedback from somebody who has a lot of experience in the industry. And I still have a lot to learn so I’m excited about learning it from her. Next week I’m gonna be taking a couple of shifts working as a prep cook in the kitchen, as well as a dishwasher. I don’t consider it a step down. I consider to step up because I want to learn the whole way things work in a restaurant so I’m pretty excited plus I really like everybody I work with especially their kitchen staff. They’re awesome. And I don’t mind taking orders from 20 year olds Who have been very kind to me. Also, I have four days on shift in the front of the house doing the bartending so that will be great hoping that the rain will start letting up and it seems like more people are coming up yesterday I had a good shift and, even though it’s kind of a rainy day most of the day, there were a lot of people that came in for lunch and drinks as it was Saturday and I seem to be handling myself well in terms of ordering food, preparing some foods and working behind the bar, making drinks that I’ve never made before And I’m getting faster every day doing it. Meeting A lot of really nice people and people going up into the local lakes, hiking, biking, rafting and then coming back and having more drinks for food. I’ve also made and created two new drinks for children and young adults one is a huckleberry soda, basically huckleberry juice, and soda water, instead of like a Roy Rogers/ Shirley Temple and the other is a huckleberry sun tea. There is also been some other cool things going on so the chef likes the way I illustrate the menu for the specials and one of the other bartenders. Alex has been having me illustrate letters for him. And he’s going to buy me a journal with clear pages versus just using looseleaf paper for my journaling and my illustrating. So I guess you can say I’m getting paid to be in Illustrator up here. I’ll post a picture of what kind of illustrations I do it’s pretty raw pretty basic. But they tell simple stories… But I generally do it when I send postcards to people and have been doing it often on for years. And I’m writing down a lot of potential stories that I plan to write about after this whole experience.
My friend Bill Fordyce is now at the area where he’s going to be a Fire Lookout in Salmon Idaho, that’s gonna be exciting. He should be there the whole summer and up until October I think. He showed me a video of how they get supplies and basically he’s up on a mountain ridge and a lookout tower that has four cables holding it steady and a helicopter will bring in about 1200 pounds of gear and then they have to haul the gear from the base of the tower to the top of the tower and to various storage places but it’s just him for the summer and there is like a cabin somewhere away from the tower that he can go to periodically and they there’s a like a group of them I think-three people that take turns being up in the tower. That’s the way I understand it.
He also told me what the weathers like when he’s up in the fire look out that there’s four cables attached to the lookout tower and when the wind hits about 42 miles an hour, they start to hum and just curious about the what the frequency would be from the Metal cables humming from the wind.
And I can get updates from Facebook from him in messenger and probably text you so I’ll keep you updated. I think you can also find him on Facebook if you’re interested and friend him Bill Fordyce.
Well, the rain doesn’t seem to be letting up… So next week is supposed to start getting really busy so I’m excited about that developing relationships with locals and the people that work at the Mercantile and then people to come up on the weekends as well. When I was here in 2017, I met a few people and one was Jim Mount and Jim was kind enough to let me stay on his property in 2017 and multiple times and also in 2018 when I passed through when I was on the great divide mountain bike route. Jim is getting a hip replacement in Arizona this next week and he and his husband Austin and I had a beer the other night and they offered me one of their bicycles to use if mine wasn’t repairable for the short term so it’s nice to have that support here. So I’m gonna go check out that bicycle today and probably bring it to my cabin at some point. And it was kind of cool yesterday when I was working my shift a young couple came in and the woman said she had worked there before and it was Casey and Spencer who I met in 2017 and the story goes is when I rolled into Polebridge the first time I rode my bike from Missoula to Polebridge and I came into the saloon and ordered a double cheeseburger recommendation from the bar keeper, who was working at that time and sat outside and sat at a table with some hikers, and I told the server that I was on a tight budget and told her about the trip that I was on. That was Casey, and one of the guys that was eating at the table didn’t finish his macaroni and cheese and she asked him if he wanted to box it up and take it with him. He said no just throw it away and not want to waste food-I said wall take it, and they all kind of looked at me and it was great though I had it later on that night in my tent by the river. Fast forward a couple weeks to July 4, 2017 I came back in and Casey and Spencer bought me a cheeseburger and a beer and we had a nice conversation and that was the last time I actually saw them until yesterday. They’re actually one of the reasons why I’m up here because of their kindness. So their parents live somewhere in the area and they invited me to come up to the cabin and possibly even do a some rafting with them if I have the time. And Casey was so kind she gave me two big hugs. I seem to be getting a lot of hugs up here from people ..needed hugs..so good souls for sure. I still haven’t done laundry yet although I do laundry every day when I take a shower rinsing out clothes soaping them up so I guess it’s just as good as having a laundry machine but next time I go into town I’d like to take a load in. that’s one of the things of living in an OffGrid community. A laundry machine takes a lot of power as well as a dryer so I have my clothes hanging up on the edge of my cabin out of the rain.
Well, I guess that’s it for now. Today is Sunday and I think I’m gonna hang out here and do some writing in my journal until the rain lets up a little bit more and I’ll probably head to the Mercantile have a bacon breakfast sandwich and check out that bicycle over at Jim‘s house and as long as my bikes holding up, go for a bike ride some more. Today’s my only off day for the next seven days, so got to take advantage of it
And I’ll leave you with us. So the forest floor right now is lush. Lots of growth coming up lots of wild flowers blooming and everywhere you go. You can smell the flowers and the smell of pine. You smell the pine when it’s wet sad, wet smell of pine and when it’s hot and the suns on it, you can smell the pine then too, it’s always wafting through the air as I roll down the street on my bicycle. We’re up in the mountains. It’s just wonderful to be around nature. Also, it’s great being off grid as well. Don’t know what it is about being off grid but I definitely have less aches and pains than I did when I was in the city, I think that’s from the electromagnetic frequencies… Look it up again for you conspiracy theory doubters. :-)
Peace and love from the road Bill Poindexter
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