Blogs from Montana, United States, North America - page 3

I'm sitting here in the shade at a concrete picnic table in a Kiwanis-operated free campground on the outskirts of Lewistown, which is the geographical center of Montana. The air is warm and dry, with a nice, cool breeze blowing across me. Behind me sits Empedocles, the Wonder Odyssey, in which Sally is lying down with her friend Shinzen, trying to get rid of a headache. To my left, just across a gravel drive, there's a hole in the ground about three inches in diameter. Every now and then a prairie dog peeks out at me. His name is Paul. He lives here, and he's wondering just what the hell it is I think I'm doing, driving over his home. We spent the night at Lewistown's historic Calvert Hotel, which specializes in fancy decor, failing to ... read more

July 16th 2026 According to the computer in the campground office, this is the 2183rd day of our Montana property hunt. That's almost six years we’ve been here, if my math is correct, though some people are certain that the aliens have messed with the timeline, and that it may be much longer than that. We're having to search farther and further afield, still looking for that perfect place to land. This morning we're heading north to look at a ranch in Fairbanks. Then later in the afternoon we've got a showing in Santa Fe. So another day with lots of driving. I hope we can find gas. The driving is slow going these days, even though the speed limits are now anything we want them to be. What with the quasi-civil war that’s been sputtering ... read more

Hey all. We had a nice afternoon and evening here at the Big Timber KOA. Pleasant temps. A constant breeze. The white noise background of cottonwood leaves blustering about in said breeze. The nearby and regular passings of freight trains. The distant hum of the motorway. All that. Sally cooked hot dogs on her twig stove. We had salad and chips and dogs, quintessential camping food. We eventually settled in for the night. With time to catch our breath on this cold Saturday morning, it seems wise to stop and assess the various rational™, logical™, think-infested "reasons" we have for even doing this Montana wild hack in the first place. As I said at the beginning, while part of this quest feels like answering a call, our minds have also searched for and gathered together some ... read more

Things were going well. Then they got hard. Now they're okay, and looking up. Unless they're not. We left our campground in Medora and drove south into the badlands. It was two hours before our realtor appointment, but we knew it would be difficult to find the place, and wanted to see the area. We drove into the badlands. They were beautiful. We drove over cattle guards and amongst the cattle. We drove past oil derricks. We drove on paved roads, gravel roads, dirt roads, and what turned out to be a private drive. We never did find the house, but realized that there was no way we'd be interested in it. It was just too far out from too small of a town. So we high-tailed it back into town, to get enough cell service ... read more

We spent a few days recently visiting Glacier National Park and we were left speechless. We have visited many national parks but from a scenic perspective, this one has to be near the top. From the visitor centers to the McDonald Lodge to the Road-to-the-Sun drive, the views will leave you speechless. Just a note, if you are timid in the least and don’t like narrow winding roads with minimal clearance, you might want to leave the driving to the free shuttle bus or reserve a space in the red bus line that takes you through the park in a 1930’s vintage bus.... read more