Tuesday, June 6, 1933: Into Montana

Woke up still in N. Dakota. Had breakfast, cleaned up myself and sat at the window as we passed the state line into Montana at 10:10 A.M. We then started to see mountains for the first time all day. We rode thru deserts & not many towns. We stopped at some small water tank for half an hour and refueled and were off to some town called Bull Mt. A nice quiet town at 8:45 P.M. that evening. Rolling off again through Osbourne Mont. like a flash.
Our next stop was in a nice big town called Billings. There we saw some real cowboys at the station, some of them were talking to us and trying to discourage us about the woods saying it would kill us to work there, but we kidded them right back. When we got started, some of the cowboys gave us a reception and were riding along with the train on their horses and hollering like Indians while we laughed ourselves sick at them.

We were going along pretty fast for a few hours till we came to a Wonderful town  called Livingston which I'll never forget as long as I live. The train stopped for the night. Some of us were given leave until 5 A.M. and then the fun began. We first visited a saloon just like in the movies, bar, gambling tables, the first time I started to realize I was really in the West. I gave the man behind the bar a $5 bill and he gave me change in Silver Dollars.

Then we went to a section of town called B Street and there I saw things I never saw before, which I can't explain in this book.Then we went to the Cafeteria for a bite to eat and I met the sweetest girl in the West. Her name was Marie Grasse. She was very nice and pleasant to talk to. She got stuck on my style, so I walked out with her and learned she was stopping at the Northern Hotel in Livingston. I went up to her suite (2 rooms) and had a very nice time, almost missed my train which left at 5:15.