Limp in, Leap out

That's the slogan for the town of Hot Springs, Montana. We were driving between Bigfork and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (our last stop before getting to Mercer Island) and we were just too curious not to see what was happening in Hot Springs. As if following a yonder star, we landed in the parking lot of the Symes Hotel. We paid our fee and soon enough we were all 3 soaking in the hot mineral water, getting used to smelling like rotten eggs and taking the cure as it were.
The whole town was like the set of a David Lynch film and I was a little worried that the Symes was a stand-in for the Hotel California "You can check-out anytime you like, But you can never leave!" First it was the ethereal and weather-wearied man riding a horse through the middle of town, pulling a mule, another horse and two dogs tied to ropes/leashes. No one else was in sight. Then we encountered

• an emotionless woman who took our money for our day pass to the hot springs pool,
• an ex-pat New Yorker woman hanging out by the pool, who told us she kept moving from places where other people ended up,
• two locals (a middle-aged woman and a 20-something guy talking about getting to Alaska to work the deadliest catch) soaking in the pool with us,
• the 30-something rock-climber looking guy in the lobby writing in his journal,
• the future soccer moms with their toddler children in tow,
  
• and the hipster with dreadlocks walking across the parking lot as we were leaving.

I found the above photo on someone else's blog. Sounds like he had a really bad time there. Look at photos 11, 12 and 13. We actually felt really good when we got out of the water, but kinda glad we left before the sun went down.

We'll spend the morning checking out Coeur d'Alene and then off to our new island home.