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Day
1: The End is the Beginning is the End...
From San Francisco to Fallon, Nevada. There's gold in them thar hills! |
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Day
2: The 600 Mile Long Drive By.
Fallon Nevada to Green River Utah. Giant sand dunes, lonely phones,
snow above the desert, and this curious fellow... |
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Day
3: Maybe It *IS* Better on Top
How Alex began to conquer his fear of heights. From Green River to
SLC via Moab. |
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Day
4: Can I Get in on the Pool?
And you'd thought I would've given up by now? Silly people. SLCUT
to Jackson Hole, WY. |
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Days
5 and 6: Why T. Roosevelt Was a Genius
Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. You haven't lived until
you've been here. |
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Day
7: Montana is More Than Just Big Sky
Yellowstone to Glacier MT 500 miles of open road and nothing to slow
me down. And at the end... |
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Day
8: Has He Lost His Head?
I AM the Iron Man. 759 miles. Glacier to Gilette, WY via Bear Paw
and Little Big Horn NP's. |
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Day
9: Expect the Unexpected
The aliens have left the tower. Seth Bullock rules The Wind Cave wasn't.
And MORE bison! |
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Day
10: First the Tax Cuts, then Iraq, Now My Vacation?
How the long arm of Mr. Placeholder reached all the way into my vacation. |
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Day
11: Why Frat Boys Should Never Become President.
Or... If you don't know you're history, you're doomed to repeat it. |
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Day
12: They Built It, and I Came, But...
I couldn't get in! Scary how quickly things change once you cross
the mighty Mississippi... |
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Day
13: Dante Would Be Proud.
Or... Why driving through Northern Indiana is a mind numbing, soul
sucking experience. |
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Peru
2002
Why Pisco Sours, Incan ruins, postcards, and a man named Carlos make
for one unforgettable adventure. |
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Day Seven:
Why Montana Is More Than Just A Big Sky
Distance:
519 Miles By Car
Itinerary:
Yellowstone, WY --> Big Sky, MT --> Helena, MT --> Augusta,
MT --> Blackfeet Indian Reservation, MT --> Glacier Park, MT
--> Kalispell, MT
Today's KQ: 4
So.. my second night of camping, and let me say this. Thank you Christian
- your tent rocks! Thunder, lightning strikes so close the thunder
hit together with the lightning, and a torrential downpour. But did
I get wet? I think not! Amazing.
As the sun rose, I climbed out of my wet tent around 6 to discover...
bison in the camp! They were everywhere. Insanity. Why I didn't think
to take a picture is beyond me. If there's a next time, I swear I'll
make it up to you.
I headed out of camp and out of the Park. As I mentioned yesterday
the Park is massive, and by the time I was out of it it was well after
9. I was heading North for Glacier National Park, located up in the
northwestern corner of Montana right on the Canadian border. There
were several options on how to get there, but I decided to take the
Western exit in order to pass through Big Sky on the way up. It added
some extra time to the trip, but I've always wanted to ski Big Sky
(and plan to one day), so checking it out first in the summer seemed
like a great idea. What I didn't realize, however, was that it would
take me through a remote corner of Yellowstone. Short version is,
if I ever come back to Yellowstone, this'll be where I come. Its completely
cut off from the rest of the park, so there's not a tourist to be
found - just you, the bears, and the bison! |
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About a half an hour
later I was in Big Sky. Its beautiful as well, and I will be back
there one day for sure. The interesting story, however, has to do
with my breakfast.
Or rather, a conversation I sat next to while eating my breakfast
(another amazing one - what a streak!) The place was a little cafe
just outside of Big Sky, and when I got there, there were two guys
sitting out on the deck drinking coffee. It was a beautiful spot,
so I sat down the the table next to them. Of course, the deck only
had two tables, but still.
After ordering my food, two friends of theirs arrived to join them
for breakfast. And let me tell you - these guys were real, live Montana
cowboys. Hats, boots, big ass belt buckles, mustaches. The full deal.
And at first, they were talking cattle. Driving this herd here, driving
that one there. Places to get hay by the ton - the "good stuff,
you know". The price of commodities futures. And that's where
it got interesting.
It never really occurred to me before, but farmers and ranchers -
they both need to have a full understanding of how the commodities
markets work. Sure, in the past it didn't work that way. But today...
So as they talked, I discovered these guys didn't just trade cattle,
and it wasn't just commodities. One of them had started trading currency
too! Now, for those of you who don't know, the currency markets are
ridiculously complicated and risky - but this guy had it down cold.
For the next five minutes or so, he proceeded to give them a college
level lecture on how the whole thing works, and on the kinds of money
he's made and lost doing it. It was pretty amazing.
And then, it got even more weird. Suddenly, one of them remembered
he had to tell the other that he had read one of his letters in USA
Today. It seems that this same guy who had been trading commodities
had recently written a letter to the editor of the paper, and it had
been published. And what was it on, you ask? Donald Rumsfeld, Bush,
and the whole Iraqi prison abuse scandal. Knowing that Montana is
definitely one of those always was, always will be Red Republican
states, I figured I knew what was coming.
Wrong!
Seems the guy thinks the whole thing is a disaster, and in his letter,
had said he felt Rumsfeld should be fired. And one at a time, they
all agreed with him. For the next 20 minutes or so (while I was eating
these incredible pancakes with vanilla custard and strawberries on
top) they had a conversation that would have been at home in any of
the coffee shops in SF. Iraq is a mess. Rumsfeld knew and is lying.
Cheney knew and is lying. They all gotta go.
Maybe there is hope for this country yet, huh? :)
Eventually, one of them had to leave, and they traded info on hay
again and said goodbye. My head swimming from the whole thing, I climbed
back into my car and headed north towards Glacier. |
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Now, for those
of you who don't know, check a map. Montana is HUGE. I had over
450 miles between me and my destination, and as with every other
day so far, it was ALL going to be on back roads. I had always wanted
to see Montana, and this was my chance! After about an hours drive,
I hit the only real city on my route to the north - Helena. It's
Montana's capitol, but you'd never know it by looking at it. It's
tiny! And even there, mobile phone reception is crap. I checked
my messages, and tried calling as many of you as I could, but after
about 15 minutes I was back out of range and headed into the middle
of nowhere again.
And for the rest of the day I was driving. But you know what? It
was amazing. I went through mountains, plains, meadows, rolling
hills, and more. I passed through more small towns than I could
count, and in every one the people were friendly beyond compare.
In a place called Augusta I stopped for gas (remember the old skool
gas pumps with the dials that went around to let you know how much
your gas cost?), and in the middle of pumping it, the owner of the
station came running out to apologize for not getting it for me!
In another town, I stopped for lunch (at a place with a big plastic
dinosaur in front of it!) and the waitress sat down to talk for
me while I was waiting so I wouldn't have to sit there alone. Crazy.
It really made me think - you hear politicians say all the time
how "Americans are good, decent people", and from what
I can tell (excluding perhaps the 3 or 4 biggest cities and certain
parts of the South - haha) it really is true.
By the end of the day, I was closing in on Glacier, and it looked
like I'd hit the park just in time for sunset. And that's when,
for the first time on this entire trip, Mother Nature decided not
to cooperate. Up until now, the weather had been so perfect I had
almost forgotten it could be bad. Wait - maybe that's two years
of living in Cali. Either way, every day had been sun and blue skies.
But today, its wasn't going to be. First the clouds rolled in, and
as I closed in on the Rockies, so did the fog. In fact, it wasn't
until I was literally at the gates to the Park that I could even
tell there were mountains there.
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But I'd come that
far just to spend a few hours in the park, so no, I wasn't going to
let that stop me. I drove into the Park, and well, this is where I'm
out of words. You see, Christian and Jim had told me that this place
was insanely beautiful. And obviously, I believed them - I added close
to 500 miles to my trip to make it up here. But even having heard
what they told me, even having seen some pictures online, well, nothing
prepared me for what I saw. Huge, towering mountains and glaciers.
Two massive lakes. A road literally carved into the side of the mountain.
Waterfalls everywhere you look. And at higher elevations, snow everywhere,
sometimes in drifts up to 18 feet high.
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I really don't know
how to stress this enough. I'll try it this way. If you have a "things
to do before I die", add this to it. If you don't, start one
right now. I've been lots of places in this world, and I've seen lots
of things. And of it all, out of everything, I can only think of one
other place that might compare to this - Machu Pichu in Peru. In fact,
if I had to make your list for you, I'd put these two on it at numbers
one and two. You see where I'm going with this?
Now, I did take pictures, and along the way, Mother Nature did even
decide to cooperate for a few brief moments. And just a few of them
are attached to this email. But trust me, they can't do this place
justice. It was just simply totally overwhelming. I was literally
smiling and laughing the entire way. Worth driving 500 miles to get
to? Without a doubt.
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And the best part
is, I set up my route so I get to do it again tomorrow morning. WOOHOO!!!
Here's hoping Ma Nature decides to cooperate, eh?
Off to sleep - til next time!
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