Home, Home on the Range

We had a wonderful evening and overnight stay at the Canyon Ferry Mansion in Townsend. Sandy and Steve Rose were very generous and fantastic hosts as well. Not only did they give us lovely rooms to stay in, but they let us use their house as if it was our own. Sandy also baked us some brownies after the meal and Steve helped us out with our motor home water supply. He even donated a hose. This is the generosity from strangers to strangers when we all try to live and work in the heart. Steve owns his own construction business called Rose Carpentry. In his spare time he is preparing an old wooden church to be moved to a new foundation for their Bed and Breakfast business which also administers to weddings and other receptions. I am sure with these two businesses, they are both incredibly busy, yet they had time for us, 11 ‘invaders’ from all over the globe. We really want to offer them our gratitude once more for such kindness and self-giving.

When Damon and I left the Mansion in the car this morning, it was not to go running. We had to travel 30 miles to Helena, the nearest major city which is also the Capital of Montana. It is the only place in the next few days that we would be able to get all the supplies we need to feed 11 or 12 hungry runners. When there are not too many big supermarkets or restaurants to choose from, we have to prepare all our meals out of our motor home.

After shopping, we ran on highway 12 towards the town of Harlowton, where we were to end for the day. But we still did not know where we were going to stay for the night. Some of the women who had already run were going there earlier to scout out some accommodations for the night.

Maria and Sevati, by luck or by Grace, chanced upon a woman at a local gas station who made some calls for them with no definite results. One prospect was a place called the Winnecook Ranch, about 9 miles away where they may have been some rooms available. Waiting for the ranch manager to call back, the two intrepid harmony heroes drove out to the ranch to see if they could talk to someone in person. There they met Brian, the manager, who just returned from the fields and was about to call the women with a definite ‘yes’.

The rest of the team made it there in time to cook dinner or swim in the Musselshell River nearby.

We eventually all had the pleasure and honor of meeting Brian and Julie Power and their lovely children, John, Melanie and Laura, the 10 month old charming baby. We also happily met Ned and Georgia Solomon who work on the ranch as well. Ned even gave us a yodelling lesson.

The ranch is owned by the Church of the Latter Day Saints and all the workers are of the Mormon faith. Even though our runners come from a diverse background of differing faiths, we all felt quite comfortable and welcome with our new Mormon friends.

As a World Harmony Runner, the harmony that we try to cultivate inside ourselves comes in part by sincerely respecting and even trying to understand the varying approaches to any major issues, including religion. We have met so many people of completely differing faiths, yet we always feel the similarities in each person when they live in the heart and try to live their beliefs with sincerity and self-giving.

We are very grateful to these hard working and self-giving people at the Winnecook Ranch who embraced our team as family. The ranch has 50,000 acres of land mostly for the grazing of cows and horses. The grasses were quite green and high this year due to good rainfalls and cooler weather so far. Our new friends, who work hard to manage this huge place of about 100 square miles, were quite happy to have us here.

After dinner they took us on a tour of the tack room where the saddles for their horses are kept. Brian displayed his expert skills at ‘cracking the whip’ which is an incredibly loud noise to attract the attention of the cows in the field. The very tip of the whip, when cracked properly, travels faster than the speed of sound for a split second and makes the noise of a gunshot.

Brian also showed us the traditional and very practical cowboy art of the lasso and taught some of us how to attempt it. Being ‘city slickers’, most of us had not much success at the whip or the lasso. But there were a few good results with the whip by Atulya, Damon and Pathik. Our ‘Latvian cowboy’ Kapsars, succeeded in lassoing me on his second try. I hope he unties me soon so I can run tomorrow.

So until tomorrow, which has just arrived, being after midnight, we will sleep in harmony with nature as we make ourselves at home, home on the range(or ranch).

Gratefully,

Arpan and Team Harmony

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