What The Hay – What An Event!

The Montana Bale Trail – What The Hay event is always held the first Sunday after Labor Day and it is certainly a date worth noting on your future calendars.

This year the weather was picture-perfect. Since I had painted haybales in steady rain Thursday, just a few days ago, I had my doubts about the weather for the day of the event. Clear blue skies, a few fluffy white clouds and a temp around 75 degrees were ordered up for the day though – fall weather at it’s best in central Montana.

The route between Windham, Utica and Hobson, Montana is just shy of 25 miles long, all paved. We started at the Hobson entry point and worked our way west. Our first thought as we turned into Hobson was that someone had manicured every blade of grass, cleaned the streets and put out the welcome mat. Well, you get the picture, things were looking mighty spiffy. I suppose if I had about 5,000 people coming to visit I’d make sure things were looking their best too! All along the route we saw lush farmland and neat and tidy ranch homes.

For the 2010 event, Travelocity sent their gnome and a huge gnome entry was created in front of the Mid-Way Caf-hay. There was also a craft fair at Utica sponsored by the Utica Women’s Club.

Great Falls-based ad HAY-agencies, Wendt and Banik, created 2 beer steins and and gave a Toast to Russell Country. Cheers to you, Wendt and Banik! Your support of this fun event was appreciated.

We took photos, laughed and drove.

Some bales entries became political statements, some were just good belly laughs. The amount of work that goes in to creating the entries is amazing.

The rest of this blog will be devoted to photos of just a few entries – enjoy!

Hey Mr. Koolaid!

Watch NFL on HAY-RTV!