Montana

Montana. To me the name conjures up images of horses, Cowboys, and snow covered mountains. I didn't see any Cowboys yet, but I did see a lot of cows, horses, and mountains. The little hills and peaks I've seen in Eastern Montana reminded me of the Appalachians, but with flat spaces in between.

Before I get too far ahead of myself let me explain this trip. At the beginning of this year I set out to finish visiting the 48 connected US states. I took one of those Facebook quizzes and discovered I was only 12 states away from visiting all the states. (Hawaii is going to be my last one, because its so expensive.) I was never really interested in this before, but this Facebook quiz frustrated me with all the states I hadn't seen. My friend Keri also inspired me a lot too, she's been trying to get them all as well, that's where I got the idea to take a selfie at the state sign.  It seems kind of impressive, after all, we are a pretty big country so seeing all fifty states seems pretty cool. 

I landed in Billings and rented a car. Billings looks bumpy. This is the best way I can describe it. Bumpy. All these mounds pretending to be mountains, rolling hills.  I drove to the North Dakota boarder, took a selfie at the sign and drove back to Miles City. This is where I spent my first night. There were a lot of interesting things around me. The landscape, for one, is pretty amazing. There are cows (Yes I've seen cows before) and large rock formations everywhere. The cows wander around the rocks and the rocks look like the ones in old Disney cartoons of the old west. Just piles of odd shaped rock. They are huge and sometimes far off in the distance, the cows, and what appear to occasionally be Buffalo, dot the green and brown countryside. There are fences and grate in the ground at the entrances of the highways, this must be to keep the cows out.

There are dozens of scattered little cities and villages. I drove around one because I was going to stop at the state park and take pictures. It looked like it had a major economic down turn. I walked the streets a little. I didn't feel terribly unsafe, but it was pretty obvious that I did not belong. 

There are dinosaurs and dinosaur museums everywhere. I saw several spots to stop and visit small gift shop type museums. Prairie museums pop up every couple of exits. 

Miles City was loaded with Casinos. There were two on every block and the City Brew Coffee place seemed like an obvious knock off of a Starbucks. This particular coffee house is in many places in Montana. I had a white chocolate mocha and it was very tasty. 

The light shining off the top of the rocks and the large, long stretches of highway gives great viewing of  weather miles away. It was astounding. I drove through a wall of rain, it was incredible knowing it was coming, seeing it ahead of me and driving through to the other side, almost like a tunnel. Billings is loaded with stuff to see, I did not have time to see much, but I did get to visit Pictograph Caves and stop and see some historical points (there are many out here). I stopped in Bozeman to have lunch one day and it was a lovely little city. There are so many lovely little places.