the wild montana sky

montana
beautiful
i'm not nearly a good enough photographer or my camera is not nearly as high quality as i thought and i did not often enough reach for it
i could not capture what montana is
this is not really a surprise
if you've been to montana, maybe at least you'll be reminded by my ramblings of the beauty you found there
if you've not been to montana, go
i loved it
who wouldn't fall in love with big sky country


as you may well have guessed, i quite enjoyed my time in missoula with my friend eliza. after being in all the time zones in one day on my way to missoula, i was quite confused as to what time my watch should read. this problem was confounded by daylight savings time. but once i arrived at eliza's, it didn't really matter what the clock said, i was having a good time.

sunday, i went to church with eliza. i loved it. if i ever decided not to be methodist anymore (not likely but still fun to entertain thoughts), it could be highly likely that i would become episcopalian. i loved her church. i loved the liturgy. i loved the statement of faith. i love their explanation of their denomination that they left in the pews. i love that they ripped off john wesley's quadrilateral without saying they did so. i also love that one of the activities they were sponsoring was a "sound of music" sing-along at a local theater. so, eliza and i spent the afternoon watching some of the 'house' marathon, eating burritos and drinking nasty fruit pop. (how much do i love that they say pop in montana!) then we went to the sing-along where there were people dressed as nuns, favorite things, etc. imagine rocky horror picture show for churchgoers...

the next two days i devoted to watching the entire first season of 'house' while eliza went to classes.

finally, after i had sufficiently shut my brain down so it could relax during reading week, i decided to explore the downtown area of missoula. i loved it. i found beautiful handmade montana crafts, cool and funky stores including a free trade store where i spent too much money and a store that sold custom made lotions where i let my creativity run wild in finding new combinations of scents for lotion thus spending too much time and money there. but it was fun!

we ate at a lot of good places. i met a lot of cool people. i saw a lot of beautiful things. i heard a lot of political campaigning.

one night, i don't remember which, we went to see the community production of 'cats'. it was awesome. i've always wanted to see 'cats' and aside from my blacklight/sock puppet experience in prague, i didn't think i would ever get the chance. i was quite impressed with the singing and dancing abilities of the theater folk in missoula. the only disappointing part was that grizabella the glamour cat wasn't a fabulous singer and it just so happens that she gets to sing the most famous song from the show. ah well, it was a great experience nonetheless.

on friday, we went to a bison range where the above picture was taken. alas, we saw no bison but we did happen upon an excessively large badger, elk, plenty of deer and a huge, glorious moon. when we got back to missoula we went to an art gallery type event in the downtown that they have every first friday of the month. all the galleries have new exhibitions and the public is welcome and they serve delicious free treats and show fabulous art.

saturday i spent driving from missoula to spokane, taking every scenic route that i had the whim to follow. don't be fooled by the potato reputation of idaho, it looks nothing like a potato and is quite beautiful. it rained for most of my driving but it was still very much worthwhile. i spent a significant amount of time driving around couer d'alene which someone mentioned to me once was the most beautiful place they had seen on earth. i wouldn't go so far but it was very peaceful to be around. finally, after some last ditch efforts to find souvenirs from idaho in the flying j truck stop, i made it to spokane where i stayed at my friend jeff's house for the night. i met jeff at olympic national park when i worked there. sadly, he had to work all that weekend and i didn't get to see him. but i did spend time with his fiancee and their son. it was a little weird because i had never met them but quite a wonderful family. then i got up way too early for my departure.

the only thing i can say about my time in airplanes on my cross-country trips is that i am a little irked with the new caterers at the minneapolis/st. paul airport. they delayed both my connecting flights that i had from there. the first time made me miss my flight in seattle. and a week later i thought they would have worked out the kinks, but they hadn't. it's okay .... gave me time to do the only school work i did over reading week: read 'scenes of clerical life' by george eliot. trust me, i needed time where i had no other options but to read it. it was a little hard to get into.

so, i cannot rave enough about the fabulous time i had in montana. it was soul-filling.

and all the while, i had this chorus in my head:

oh montana, give this child a home
give him the love of a good family
and a woman of his own
give him the fire in his heart
give him the light in his eyes
give him the wild wind for a brother
and the wild montana sky

-john denver with emmylou harris
"wild montana sky"