Run 086 - Around Amend Park Neighborhood

July 22, 2023

I spent the past 3 days on a camping trip and hadn’t thought about this morning’s usual run until Shelley texted me about it last night.  We’ve been running the Southside recently and she said she’d like to see the big liftoff of hot air balloons at 6am from Amend park which is right in the area we’ve been running so I texted back that I’d make up a map and meet her behind Newman School at 5:50am.

The planning map:

We got on our way, ran down Stone, crossed South Billings Blvd. and went around the Holiday gas station on a newer street.  It exited us onto King Ave. next to the out-of-business Popeye’s.  

This place was started by our former congressman Denny Rehberg (R) who made a big deal when running for office about bringing “high paying jobs” to Montana.  While in office he didn’t do that but after he was out he started this place as an example of the “high paying jobs” he was bringing to Montana.  The place folded after the pandemic and I think I remember a piece in one of the local news sources with him whining about not finding enough workers and that’s why it was closing.  Maybe all those workers had found other “high paying jobs” elsewhere.

We continued on and saw lots of cars parked at Amend Park but only one balloon was inflated.  A bunch of cars were leaving and guy told Shelley that the event had been canceled.  The was a slight breeze in the air but not much to notice.  I guess all these people got up early nothing.  At least we have a run to do.

We continued on our way…I found money…

Some views along the way.

We ran all the streets in the neighborhood west of Amend ark.  This is a really nice enclave with smaller houses but all are well-kept and there’s a nice little park in the middle.

We got back on Laurel Road and ran this little out-and-back with a motel on one side of the street, houses on the other, and round-a-bout at the end.

A nice collection of birdhouses.

Looking into the Department of Transportation yard on Foote Ave.

We got onto Simpson and could they had just one balloon inflated.

We finished up by adding a short piece on King (South Billings Blved to the Popeyes and back) that I’d missed on the map and then back to where we parked our cars behind Newman school.  We were glad to be done because it started getting warmer out.  It supposed to be about 100 degrees today.

The official results: