MONTANA, the beautiful!

Pulling out of the Hampton Inn in Buffalo, WY went off without a hitch.  That’s always a relief when you’re driving a big truck, pulling a long trailer.  Wyoming is a pretty state, not many trees tho, wide open rolling terrain. Judy and Jimmy have 40 acres, I don’t think there is a single tree on their property, I could be wrong.  They can see for miles and miles…  I think what amazed me the most in our travels out west was how different and uniquely beautiful each state is. They all have their ‘ugly’ spots too.  There was a ‘hood’ just east of Gillette, WY that was rows and rows of rolling hills with mobile homes pack in on the hillside. It looked odd after miles of nothingness. There were many photos I didn’t capture, I’ll blame my seatbelt for not allowing me to move fast enough to grab my camera(s).

Ok, now on to the next state, Montana.  It is absolutely breath taking.  Pictures just do not do it justice. You must drive through it on Hwy 90 to experience it.  I found myself just oohing and ahhing at every turn.  I was beginning to wonder if the elevation was making me giddy.  Something like 5900 ft above sea level (I’ll verify that, later).

There were creeks (‘Forks’) that wound around the mountain ranges and along the highway.  I kept seeing Clark Fork over and over again, never tiring of seeing where it would pop up next.  The water just sparkled.  Often I wondered why I was so giddy about MT. John Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High…” played in my head, often.

Locating truck stops were a little easier, they even had some funny names for filling stations here, too- ‘Whoa ‘n Go’ was a personal fave.  The ‘Pump Stop’ had coffee, booze and gas, what more could folks need?  We pulled off to gas up near a forest fire in the making.  It was eery, scary and mesmerizing to watch.  It started small (imagine that) and with the wind as whipping as it was, spread like, well wild fire.  There was one helicopter going to a nearby lake, scooping up water and dumping it on the fire.  He was fighting a losing battle.

Our Montana-Monday drive was my favorite for a few reasons.  The obvious, it’s freaking gorgeous!  It was also the last long day of driving.  All morning we were watching the GPS to see what time we’d arrive at our destination.  Kirk advised us NOT to come into our community at night.  The roads in our new ‘neighborhood’ are gravel, narrow, winding, dark and most importantly they drop off without any railings to protect you.  About lunchtime, Lance became OK with the idea of not rolling in that night.  We were so  close, yet so far.