Big Montana!

​Montana has a bit of something for everyone. They have the wide open prairies to the east, with few people for the introverts. The Missouri River also flows along there and so is a scenic drive. But for the mountain lovers, just continue to the west and you’ll have the edge of the Rocky Mountains running north to south for exploring. The edge of Yellowstone National Park is in the SW corner of the state. For the city lovers, you will have to extend yourself; there are only a few larger spots and they are quite a distance apart.
Ps 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Montana is cowboy country – they have more cows than people here. So I thought this verse really applies to this state. It’s not called the big sky country for nothing! There’s lots of space and nothing-ness in this state –  depending on where you’re driving. I got onto some smaller roads and drove for what seemed like forever without meeting a single person/vehicle. After a few hours I began to wonder if I’d wandered into never-never land and was going to drive off the face of the earth. Then I got more practical and worried that I’d run out of gas. Three hours without a sign of a town. I headed back to the freeway, and was even more perturbed when I saw no one there either! That’s an eerie sensation – especially as I needed to navigate around a lot of rocks lying along the road. Made it seem so desolate. It was really windy as well; my car was being jarred around from gusts, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. You can imagine my relief when I finally saw an exit sign with gas. But as I pulled off the interstate and into the gas station, I groaned. The place was packed with vehicles. “Oh, boy, Steph. There must be a gas war on; wonder how Iong I’m going to be stuck here?” I managed to squeeze into a spare spot, and got out of my car to go talk to someone. All the way into the building people kept staring at me, and I couldn’t figure out why. Once inside, the cashier looked at me. “Did you just come in off that road?” “Yes, I did, why?” He snorted. “You’re either fearless or insane; that road is closed. They’re dynamiting for a controlled avalanche because of a mudslide.” I stared at him. “Oh! That’s why my car was shaking! I just thought it was really windy.” A pause and then a vale of laughter rolled over me. I blushed – and took a lot of ribbing from people over the next hour as the news of my drive through a dynamited avalanche spread to the parking lot. In my ignorance I travelled through the majority of the blasting time; I only had to wait the final hour with everyone else. But at least I didn’t have to worry about getting gas!

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