crazy mountains

So, Amy has a cousin who has claimed for over a year now that one contracts Bell's Palsy from sleeping on the ground. Specifically, from sleeping on the ground in the mountains.

Her cousin Swears This Is Gospel Truth, and won't hear otherwise.

I know Bell's Palsy doesn't make you crazy, but it is a neurologic condition, so when I came across this sign in Montana, I thought of Jerry Joe, and his infamous Bell's Palsy warnings:

You can probably read the story yourself if you enlarge the photo, but it's rumored that the mountains got their name after a pioneer woman went crazy during a wagon trip out West, and ran away, and they found her in the mountains.

I'll bet she went crazy because her husband insisted for 2,500 long, arduous miles, that one could contract Bell's Palsy from sleeping on the ground in the mountains.

Their conversations probably went like this:

PIONEER MAN:
Did you know you can get Bell's Palsy if you sleep on the ground in the mountains?

PIONEER WOMAN:
[annoyed]
No, you can't.

PIONEER MAN:
Yes, actually you can. It's been scientifically proven.

PIONEER WOMAN:
[even more annoyed]
It's 1848. Nothing's been scientifically proven yet, idiot.

PIONEER MAN:
No, I'm telling you. I saw it on the The Montel Williams Show at our last camp site.

PIONEER WOMAN:
[completely exasperated]
There's no such thing as The Montel Williams Show yet, either.

PIONEER MAN:
[stubbornly]
Fine, but I'm telling you, woman, Bell's Palsy. You can get it just by lying on the cold hard ground, so watch out.

PIONEER WOMAN:
No you cannot, you crazy old pioneer coot, so shut up!

PIONEER MAN:
[simply]
Yes, you can.

PIONEER WOMAN:
[jumps off slowly moving wagon and runs for the hills]

PIONEER MAN:
[mutters under his breath]
Crazy woman.