Crazy Mountain Ranch

The past four days I haven't been home but freezing my butt off in Montana.  Actually the first and fourth days were spent in airports.  My hubby won a trip for two to the Marlboro Ranch (Crazy Mountain Ranch) which is an hour from Bozeman, Montana.  Go figure that his long-time bad habit of smoking would pay off in such a great way.  When he got the exciting news in a Fedex box, our first thought was that it was a scam.  I told him that when you call the number provided and they ask for money, it's a scam and hang up!  That never happened.  It was the real deal, an all expense paid trip for two courtesy of Marlboro.  It paid off entering their many contests.

By the time we arrived in Bozeman on Sunday, it was in the evening.  We were greeted by some of the ranch staff who ushered the group of us who arrived from Salt Lake City to a bus.  We missed out on the beautiful Montana scenery on the hour long trip from the airport to the ranch because it was dark.  After we arrived, one of their guest service reps took us to get fitted for bibs to be ready for the activities we signed up for.  Right afterwards, she took us to our room.  The room was decorated in a western theme with no TV or cell service.  It had a claw tub in the bathroom and two single beds.  We decided that we wanted our own beds (can you tell we have been married almost 30 years, lol).  On each bed was a bunch of gifts for the contest winner and guest.  WOW, we got lots of winter wear, backpack, camera, and a few smaller items.  We were blown away by all the freebies and how well we were treated so far.  After changing putting on our new snow boots and parka, we headed out to get dinner.

We were surprised to see that the ranch, which is a working ranch, was laid out like a small western town.  Our room was in the bank.  We headed to the saloon, which was where the dining hall was located.  We sat with other couples from different parts of the country.  Like us, they thought it was a scam too.  We all agreed that making the phone call to verify the trip was the best thing we did.  We ate, mixed and mingled, and then went back to our room and get a good nights sleep.  We had events planned for the next day.  Those will be on my next couple posts along with tons of pictures.  Meanwhile, here is a video I did of us walking from our room to the saloon.  It will give you an idea of what the place looked like.