Make It Montana: The Ramada Thunderbird

Our last hours of east coast summer were spent on the beach in York, Maine, with John, Shea and their little ones, Maxine and Evelyn.

Lazing on the beach at 2:15, I marveled at how crazy it seemed that we could be in Bozeman eight hours later, a trip that included a bus ride to Boston, a flight to Minneapolis, and then a last leg on to Bozeman.

Maybe I jinxed us with my marveling; our first flight was late, causing us to miss our connection and arrive deep in the night in Minneapolis, where we crashed at the Ramada.

And not just any Ramada, the 1960's massive Ramada Thunderbird Convention center, complete with totem pole, fake fire pit in the restaurant, and the GeoChron.

The marvelous 'digital' Geo Chron

Vintage is usually a selling point, but in this case, really?

Until 2006, the Ramada was graced with these two enormous statues, which I think the P.C. police finally absconded with, but the Hall of Tribes remains.

http://thebigstuffproject.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

Even though I was exhausted, I couldn't help but revel in the soon-to-be-demolished glory of the place. Someone somewhere, executed their grand vision writ large. The fact that the hotel is steps away from the Mall of America somehow makes the whole thing complete.

After a brief sleep, we woke up and headed to the airport, arriving home in time to share a late breakfast with Joanna and Balboa, who had come to visit us in Montana and ended up house-sitting our menagerie until our return.