It’s been seven weeks since the accident. The body shop finally told me the repairs were finished, and I could come pick up our car. The catch: the body shop is in Helena, over 200 miles away. That’s the only place within 500 miles which does body work on Teslas, and it means driving over three hours each way just to get the car. Sigh.
I suppose I should be grateful it’s only been seven weeks, instead of the three months they originally quoted me. Pepper and I figured as long as we have to drive out to Helena and back, we might as well make a day of it and see a few things in town. Neither of us have been to Helena– other than a quick pass-through a few months ago– so we looked for some interesting places.
There’s the governor’s mansion, which looks like it could double as a haunted house on a dark moonlit night.
We stopped by the state capitol as well. This is what the hallways of power look like:
The legislature wasn’t in session– they only meet every other year, and even then it’s for the first few months. Our friend Mark is a state senator, and we even saw his office, but he was likely back home in Bigfork enjoying some time with his family.
Here’s the legislative chamber, where the formal work gets done:
It’s not quite as impressive as the U.S. Congress building, but of course our congress is much smaller. I suppose that’s good, at least as far as getting things done.
We also peeked into the Supreme Court chamber:
Continuing our tour of the capital city, we headed over to the aptly-named Cathedral of Saint Helena. It was stunning.
The photo doesn’t really capture how immense the building is. The spires are 230 feet high, with 12-foot crosses atop each. The back of the building looks reminiscent of Hogwarts Castle:
Inside it’s all towering marble and stained glass.
The altar area is massive; there’s probably enough room for a tennis match.
In the main chapel area of the cathedral, it seems like the pews would accommodate everyone who lives in the town of Bigfork.
It was most impressive.
Afterward we visited the still-under-construction Helena Temple, which is far smaller than the cathedral but still cool in its grey granite architecture.
The clouds were rolling in, and soon there was a cold steady rain. We cancelled our visit to the park, and although we went to the huge walking mall, it became a pretty brisk walk– without stops in the various shops– because the weather was growing steadily worse. We’d also planned to walk along a few trails up in the hills above the city, but in the end we decided to call it a day and head back home. Had the weather been better, I think we would’ve enjoyed our time in Helena more.