Saturday May 27, 2000 - Missoula

We then walked a few blocks into town to see A Carousel For Missoula! We listened to an interesting story about the building of the hand-carved carousel and then climbed on a horse for a ride, which is thrilling because of its speed and the quality of its band organ. You also get to compete for the brass ring, which gets you a free ride if you grab the brass ring as you pass by on your mount. Actually we all got a second ride free.

We then drove out to the Missoula Smokejumper and Aerial Fire Depot, which was interesting. Missoula has the nation's largest training base for smokejumpers who parachute into remote areas of national forests to fight wildfires. The Center features exhibits from the advent of the smokejumper in 1939 to the present day. They gave us a guided tour of the parachute loft and training facilities. Each smokejumper packs his or her own chute.