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Montana In February, What A Great Time!! - 2/26/2013 6:49:12 PM
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Tortuga Tom
Posts: 15401
Joined: 5/23/2005
From: We Dodge Horse Poop On The Roads
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As many of you know, Maggie won a trip to the Crazy Mountain Ranch ( owned by Philip Morris/Marlboro) by entering an internet contest. Yep, people really do win those things so get busy and enter. I used to bust her butt about wasting her time with this stuff. Never again, she shut me up forever. 
Backstory here: http://forums.locogringo.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1489682&mpage=1&key=Montana�
They said it was an all-expenses paid trip and they were not kidding. Any little detail you could possibly think of was taken care of. They sent new luggage to us a week before the trip. When the airline tickets arrived there was a check included to pay the taxes on the trip. Being a cynic and skeptic I took a pocketful of cash along just in case. I don't like leaving my well-being to chance. It was not needed, I did not spend a dime of it. Awesome.
When making the arrangements they asked us what airport we wanted to fly out of. How nice is that?
We flew out of Allentown early Monday morning. The weather was sketchy and we were delayed for a lengthy de-icing session. Uh-oh. When our documents arrived I noticed a 1 hour layover @ O'Hare with a plane change. I thought at the time that was a bit tight, I've flown thru there before in the winter on ski trips. I was right. We arrived in Chi-Town about 20 min. before our flight to Bozeman was scheduled to leave.  I found out the gate location, another terminal of course, and took off at a dead run with Maggie following as quickly as she could. I got to the gate to find the boarding door closed and nobody at the gate. Oh Xit. I am NOT spending 24 hrs. of this short trip in an airport! I could see the plane was still there and luggage was still being loaded. Probably ours. Went to the next gate and pleaded, begged, cajoled, and finally demanded that she go see if the plane door was closed. She did. It was not. "Where's your wife?" "She'll be here any second if she hasn't had a heart attack on the way!" "Come on, the plane's gotta go." "WAIT, HERE SHE IS!" We just barely got on the plane, probably never should have. The flight attendant says. "You're very lucky to be on this plane." I told him, "Luck had nothing to do with it buddy, I don't take NO for an answer." Stress level 12 out of 10.
The rest of the flight was uneventful and we got a bit of sleep on the way. As we began our descent I started to notice the snow cover seemed a bit thin.
I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
Okay, looking a bit better....
We arrived in Bozeman after landing sideways in a hurricane.  Got off the plane to find an army of ranch staff members waiting for us. They told us they'd take care of the luggage and directed us to a private area upstairs for a catered lunch. Nice. I'm liking this already. Go up to find a nice buffet of sandwiches, snacks, and soft drinks. SOFT DRINKS?? I've been traveling for 10 freaking hours and am totally stressed from that O'Scare debacle. I head back downstairs and ask a local where the hell can I get a real drink in this place. Two beers and a double shot of Jack Black ( straight up, please) later, I'm back upstairs feeling much more relaxed.  Maggie asked where I was so I told her. "Two beers and a double shot? You were only gone 5 minutes." Yep.
After a nice lunch we board the buses (yes plural, there were about 100 people that won this trip) for the 45 minute ride to the ranch. Again, I was checking out the lack of snow cover.
I sure hope this place is at a higher elevation than we are now....
There were staff members on the bus filling us in on everything during the ride. Turns out the ranch is a huge 18000 acres and is at 6000 ft. elevation. Snow sports are all on as scheduled. Cool. Let me at 'em! We arrive to check in....a total breeze. Luggage was never seen until we got to our room.
The place was laid out like an Old West town with buildings on both sides of a single main street. All of the buildings were moved from original old towns and restored with no expense spared. It was incredible.
They all had their original facades and as you entered each building it had its original interior. After passing thru that area the rooms were added on to the rear of the buildings. Very cool and very nice. We were in the bank.
The vault door was originally from the State bank. You passed thru this to get to our room.
The fact that we were in the bank was a funny coincidence since she works in the financial industry.
We arrived in our room to find a bed loaded with swag.
For each of us there was: Winter coat, matching fleece for underneath, gloves, hat, neck gaiter, ear warmer, Stetson hat, thermal undies, thermal socks, Columbia Sub-Zero boots, all in our sizes, and a little wooden coin which turned out to be worth $150 each at the General Store to spend as we wished. Wow. How are we going to get all of this stuff home? I'll figure it out!
Time to go exploring.
The Saloon was the main restaurant and gathering place with a lounge attached next door.
The food was fantastic and plentiful. If anyone went hungry it was their own fault. Multiple choices at every meal from three different stations. Beef, pork, chicken, pasta at every dinner. The brisket and triple-tip was to die for. Maggie liked some of the dishes so much she got the recipes for them.
Not to mention the fully stocked open bar. It sure is strange to not be able to tip at a bar but i got used to it pretty quickly. 
Our first scheduled activity was a Wilderness Tour. That was a bit of a bust, we really didn't see anything special, some steer, a herd of antelope, and an eagle way off in the distance. It did give us a sense of just how big the ranch really is, though.
At a rest stop along the way we did see indisputable evidence of a unicorn!
Maggie wasn't too thrilled with the idea of holding a steer skull so being the loving and understanding husband that I am I just shoved it into her arms knowing she would be frozen in place until I took it from her. Like the expression on her face?
Our next activity was snowmobiling. I was really looking forward to this one since I've been doing it most of my life. It was a blast! After the initial warm up session Maggie decided she would be more comfortable riding on the back of a guides sled. It was some pretty rough terrain and she was glad she did this as she was able to just relax and take it all in.
Happy on the back!
Let's roll!
I did not have to be concerned about the snow cover up there.
We stopped for a break at a cabin in the woods. Nice place, big fire going , drinks, snacks, comfy seats.....
It was a great day. We had an excellent dinner followed by some relaxing games before settling in for the evenings entertainment.
The next days activities were some we were really looking forward to since we had never done them before. First up was dog sledding. This was cool. Way cool, wish it had been much longer. Awesome time!
This video is about 5 minutes long but it is really cool and gives you a good look at the experience. Maggie took it sitting in the sled while I was driving. Those dogs just want to GO! Man, do they love to run.
DOG SLEDDING VIDEO
This was definitely a highlight, I'd recommend it to anyone to try at least once. Very, very cool!
Next up was zip lining. Wow. Six lines, each progressively higher and longer and faster. As high as 150 ft. in the air and up to 55 mph. Pure adrenaline. Sweet. Maggie decided not to do this. Probably wise. There were high winds and driving snow at times. Hairy but freakin' awesome! Obviously not many pics since I had to hang on for my life.
Short video of another guest coming in. She didn't quite make it.
ZIP LINE VIDEO
The longest one was over 2000 ft. As I was doing that one I looked down to my right and saw a pair of bald eagles circling below me. Talk about a cool sight!
Another awesome day!
We went to the General Store to spend our tokens. Another haul of swag ensued. I ended up with a nice Fuji S4500 camera, a couple of Carhartt leather belts and some nice sunglasses. Maggie couldn't find much to her liking so she ended up with a couple of nice mugs and some stuff for the kids. I've been having fun figuring out the camera.
We had more great meals and were entertained by a pretty good live band in the lounge that night. The next day was time to go home which was uneventful and unwanted. When we got to the airport the same crew of staff was there waiting for us. They took care of our bags, already had our boarding passes, and gave us all vouchers for lunch in the airport. They truly did see to every single detail. This was a short but fabulous trip. We really had a great time and would do it again in a second.
Random and assorted pics of the fun and facilities:
I know some of you were looking forward to seeing pics of us in cowboy hats (Badger!). We were so busy having fun that Maggie didn't really get a good one of me. Sorry.
I'm on the left.
Our room:
As many of you would expect, I did not behave and ended up in jail.
The wildlife was no match for me.
More random stuff....
[image]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u177/tommagco/February%202013%20Montana%20and%20CEA%20on%20the%20snow/DSCF0017_zpsc0dff578.jpg/image]
I had hoped to do some fly fishing and eat my catch but that wasn't an option. All that was available was catch and release ice fishing so I did not bother, too many other cool things to do as you can see!
Hope you enjoyed sharing our little trip.
< Message edited by Tortuga Tom -- 2/26/2013 9:33:56 PM >
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RE: . - 2/27/2013 6:07:20 AM
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ChrisandCindy
Posts: 4675
Joined: 12/24/2005
Status: offline
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trip looks like a really good time, thanks for the great pictures.
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RE: Montana In February, What A Great Time!! - 2/27/2013 6:31:06 AM
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uphillklimber
Posts: 5529
Joined: 2/17/2005
From: Bryant Pond, Maine
Status: offline
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What a fun trip!!!
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RE: Montana In February, What A Great Time!! - 2/27/2013 7:21:33 AM
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Toes in the sand
Posts: 172
Joined: 3/8/2007
From: Wernersville, PA
Status: offline
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Nicely done Dear.
Yes, Marlboro gave us each 5 packs of cigarettes in Tom's brand. You can see them on the bed along with the mini flashlights TT forgot to mention. Oh did he mention the FOOD! It was awesome and every night I had my dessert hand delivered from the kitchen. They made a special sugar free dessert just for me every lunch and dinner and all I had to do was ask our server for it. BTW the kids he said I shopped for are our adult son and dil. There wasn't anything I could pick up for the granddaughters there so I shopped in the airport for them.
It was so much fun and to top it off they started a new contest the Monday after we came home. Cross your fingers I want to go back!
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RE: Montana In February, What A Great Time!! - 2/27/2013 7:47:23 AM
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Jamie
Posts: 2548
Joined: 3/10/2005
From: Southern California
Status: offline
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What a cool trip, looks like fun and that ranch looks great - however I'd prefer to go in maybe August, snow and I do not get along real well
Guess I need to find out how to enter sweepstakes again, used to do that, won a camera once but that was it.
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RE: Montana In February, What A Great Time!! - 2/27/2013 10:24:54 AM
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ulle trautvag
Posts: 377
Joined: 3/28/2008
From: Manhattan/nyc
Status: offline
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Triple WOWs! What luck! Loved the dog sledding video and accompanying sound effects.
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RE: Montana In February, What A Great Time!! - 2/27/2013 12:51:11 PM
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SchnauzerDog
Posts: 6351
Status: offline
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Looks like a really fun trip! I'm not one for snow and cold - but I think I'd be willing to do a trip like this one. thanks.
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RE: . - 2/27/2013 9:04:46 PM
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Gem
Posts: 2331
Joined: 2/20/2005
From: ~~Coal Valley, Illinois~~
Status: offline
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You both look great~need to see you again!
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RE: . - 2/28/2013 6:17:47 PM
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GRUMPERS
Posts: 1788
Joined: 8/18/2007
From: Kansas City, the "Heartland"
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I'm so glad you two had such a great time ! I noticed name tags instead of wrist bands. HA ! Really great looking buildings, and accomodations !
All I've got to say is now that you've won, you can quit smoking !
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