Smoked out

September 4, 2021

It was another chilly day when we got up this morning. I sure do appreciate having a good furnace!

We did our usual morning stuff until a little after 9 and then drove into downtown Butte to shop at the farmer's market. It was a small one - only a block long but we hoped to find some fresh local produce.

It had the usual nad crafted items along with some vendors selling fruit and veggies. We were able to buy some reasonably priced pears from one seller and a full bag full of different vegetables from the Hmong farmers. Don also bought a couple of bags of steak kebobs that were being sold by a local meat processor.

Since it still was a too chilly to bike, we decided to also stop by Walmart and do more shopping. I had smelled a whiff of smoke when we were at the farmer's market, but didn't think too much about it. But when we left Walmart and took off our masks, we got a face full of smoke.

Oh no! This wasn't good since it wasn't even noon yet. As we drove back to camp we saw that the mountains surrounding Butte were fully obscured by haze.

We decided to eat lunch and then check the air quality. I tried to find the air quality index for Butte on-line, but it said that the area was good. Don said we just needed to do the "nose-quality index"!

As the afternoon wore on, the smoke got thicker and settled into the campground to the point that we could barely see the trailers across the drive from us. We finally gave up the biking for today as it was just too unhealthy to ride.

By 4 pm, the wind picked up and moved the smoke out so we decided to practice some dancing on our dance floor. Of course, we immediately drew the attention of our neighbors.

One woman stopped to video us! Probably posted it on Facebook. We're kind of used to that as we're more confident in our dancing. Last year during the lockdown, we would bike to a nearby park where there was a historic covered pavilion.

It had a marble floor that our suede bottomed dance shoes could move on. We brought music and speakers with us, and danced as much as we wanted. I can't tell you how many times we had people stop to video us!

We danced for about an hour, then had dinner. Don was going to try to grill a pizza. We brought a great tasting almond crust pizza mix with us and we'll put some slices of the Chinese eggplant on it that we just bought this morning, along with other goodies. Usually we do this in our oven at home, so doing it on the grill will be interesting. (it turned out but the bottom of the crust got a little charred)

We hope to bike tomorrow!

I liked the front of this restored building in Butte. Many of them are boarded up and vacant.

We stopped by the farmer's market this morning. Not a bad little market with some okay prices on produce. The health department was giving Covid shots and I did see one person taking advantage of this service. Notice the sign asking people to put their masks on. Unfortunately we were about the only ones wearing masks. No vendors wore masks and just a handle of patrons did as well.

This 3/4 story building is an example of one of Butte's ornate historic structures that are boarded up and withering away. Notice the sign in the middle between the second and third floor - it says exer-dance". Hmmmm we wondered if this used to be a dance place or just a fitness club??

The winds finally blew the smoke away by late afternoon so we decided to practice some dancing on our floor. A tad tight at 8x12 ft. but we manage!

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