Montana is a Big State

We drove for what seemed like days, but was really just one really long day and a little…Montana is no tiny state. It is a big Western territory with all sorts of varied topography, geology, and character. And some very impressive scenery and fun towns, to boot.


We left our little cabin this morning after a visit by four beautiful loons and got a killer-great breakfast at the Montana Coffee Trading Company in Columbia Falls—truly D-Lish. We had a little biznes to conduct and managed to download what we needed while chowing down—and we forgot some things so poached more internet from a hotel in Kalispell (a little road-trip trick of the trade) before heading south along Flathead Lake. There was a pretty good fire raging somewhere west of Polson and we saw all the fire crew staging areas and lots of backcountry fire equipment out and about—this is a unique high-country concern. I think people who live outside of fire-prone areas fail to appreciate how much fire and fighting fire influences the way of life in the American west. Take a fire-evolved ecosystem, add people and houses, and you’ve got some issues.

At any rate, our travels took us to Missoula (for more biznes and a romp at the bark park for the 4-legged), Butte (for some spectacular landscape and crazy mountain pass driving), Bozeman (for chow and some leg stretchin’), and Billings (for…well, we didn’t stop—it smelled bad), before crossing into Wyoming and landing at our hotel. Note to self: do not stay at the Best Western in Buffalo, Wyoming. The people were nice, the hotel sucked. Our 189 bones (!) got us a dingy motel room next to the ice machine, with a leaky toilet, cigarette-burned bedding, paper thin walls, and no sleep...and internet was out of the question! Yee-hah! We’re just grateful we didn’t get bedbugs. Yuck. Lesson learned: we did some internet searching and are off to a better place at a lower price tonight.


To end on a high note: we picked up a SWEET beer kozy for the start of our collection today…it has bitchin’ flames!