Chief Rolling Mountain Thunder

Here's a great little film on Chief Rolling Mountain Thunder, find half an hour, grab a coffee and take it in. We came across his Thunder Mountain Monument on our second big road trip in the States, back in 2006. Jakki was 6 months pregnant with Texas and we flew in to Vegas to see her Mom. Her Dad then met us there from LA and we drove up to Montana with him. It went from over 100 degrees in Vegas to snowing in Yellowstone, in the space of 2 days. We were happy to see the temperature rising as we approached Montana!

It was quite a big trip. Starting in Vegas, we went up to Salt Lake City, Utah and then through Idaho to Montana, where we stayed for about a week. Then we headed back to Vegas, via Idaho, Oregon (a little bit), Nevada and into California, LA then Vegas. We came across lots of amazing stuff on the way and some breathtaking scenery... and scary driving up in the mountains! We drove about 4000 miles in the 3 weeks, i think.

Anyway, Thunder Mountain Monument was a real highlight. We nearly missed it driving out of Winnemucca, Nevada. It just sits off the main road near the town of Imlay, so we pulled off and explored. It was cool and a little spooky! We didn't know anything about it at the time, but soon found out afterwards and discovered that great little film of him (real name Frank Van Zant) and his family's story. We came across so many places on that trip and accumulated more junk in the car with each town we stopped in! We're suckers for all this kind of thing. Even back in LA we were treated to Trappers Lodge, thanks to Jakki's friend (and amazing and highly collectable artist) Patrick Lee. His Drawing skills are stunning! We always enjoy hanging out with Patrick and Frank. We also went to find Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, but when we did it was closed.. never mind. There's a fantastic film of her that I've mentioned before, again on the fantastic folkstreams.net, go check out more of the films and discover something new! Then it was time for us to head back to Vegas, checking out the Desert Christ Park on the way. My god it was hot out there. We also foolishly, nearly ran out of gas (and water) in the desert!.. not very well prepared and not advisable... especially when one of you is 6 months pregnant... lousy father-to-be! Then we made it back to Vegas just in time to watch England's World Cup Matches!.. and get a 3D scan of our baby, incredible!
Anyway, I only meant to write a quick thing about the film of Rolling Mountain Thunder... so I'm off. That was our journey and i hope we can do it again sometime with the full set of the four of us.

Thunder Mountain Monument, Imlay, Nevada

Car as part on wall!!

The creepy figure under the tree, you could never quite see a face in the shade

Trappers Lodge, Pierce College CA (Patrick and Jakki)

These guys were about 9ft tall

Desert Christ Park, Yucca Valley, CA

An overheated expectant mother!

Me, Zuma Beach. Wanting to hear some Neil Young!