A Carousel for Missoula

I read the Missoulian (Missoula, MT) online most days because that’s where the grandson is and I want to make sure he hasn’t made the headlines. It’s a nice little paper. Missoula is a nice little town. A river runs through it, the Clark Fork River (not the one of the movie, that was the Blackfoot which joins the Clark Fork a few miles from Missoula), and there is a lovely park alongside the river through much of the downtown area. There is a carousel in the park, inside a building and open almost year round. It was a gift to the city, story at: http://www.carrousel.com/. A feature story over the past few days tells of the volunteers who come in every year to fix up and repaint the horses; the carousel is closed for a short time while this is done. What fun that must be, to paint carousel horses. There are some beauties, both on the carousel itself, and around the building, there’s a small gift shop and a snack bar, and a playground outside it. You can stroll along the river, and if you go across to the other side and take the Kim Williams trail you can go all the way to the ‘M’ mountain and up it (no, I didn’t). I did spend a nice few hours in the park, and I did ride the carousel. I tried but I couldn’t grab any of the rings - but I rode the carousel, because here’s what I think: you should never be too old to ride a carousel.