by Pamela Ashton

Created on: July 30, 2009

The day began with a fresh, brisk breeze blowing steadily from the North. With a good friend and her four children, we drove into the wind, heading home from a family reunion at a resort near Yellowstone Park, through Montana to our homes in North Eastern Idaho. The children had been good travelers for most of the journey. They had been intrigued with Yellowstone's geysers and mud pits. They enjoyed seeing a variety of wildlife from tiny chipmunks to the great bison. Although they were disappointed at not seeing a bear in the wild, they had been satisfied by a visit to the Bear and Wolf Center just outside of Yellowstone's western entrance.

As we had stopped at various viewpoints and piled out of and back into the car, they had been patient, but after the day's entertainment was over they were beginning to become increasing restless as the seemingly endless miles of the homeward journey clicked by. The day was hot and the car stuffy and crowded.

Toward mid-day, we stopped at Deer Lodge in Montana for lunch, and discovered to our delight that it was "free admission day" for all the local museums. We drug the now road weary children, ages 3 to 13, through the old prison, the car museum, and a museum of yesteryear's toys and dolls. It was well into the afternoon by the time we left, and the patience and endurance of the youngsters was just about used up.

As we drove through the waning afternoon hours, a storm began developing on the horizon. In a short time, the clouds were blowing in and thickening. I became fascinated with one billowy white cloud as I stared at it out the passenger window. It reminded me of someone, but I couldn't quite figure out who. Suddenly it came to me, and I blurted out, "Look! It's Papa Smurf!"

Everyone in the car agreed that it was the spitting image of the bearded blue cartoon character. The windshield was spattered with bug smears, and at seventy miles an hour on the freeway, it was next to impossible to get a decent picture out the window; by the time the camera was focused and aimed on target, the cloud had begun to drift and morph. The image of Papa Smurf gave us fodder for conversation for quite a while, and watching the shapes of the clouds entertained the restless children until we reached our destination.

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