On the Road Again

September 21st, 2012



After wandering around Buffalo Jump State Park, Shelby and I hit the road again and headed towards Virginia City, Montana. The pictures in this post were taken by Shelby since I was driving and neither one of us relished the thought of me careening around the mountains with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a camera.



If you don't already know, Montana is beautiful. And different. And wild. And inspiring. And did I mention different? For example, you will be driving through towering mountain ranges and within just a few minutes will be in the middle of a field so large it looks like a brown ocean.

I grew up in the middle of a cotton field eight miles from town. I consider myself to be a country girl who would shrivel up and die if I ever had to live in a town or city. However, after driving across the entire state of Montana, the farms and ranches we passed gave a whole new meaning to the term, "Raised in the sticks." I never saw a town. I still haven't figured out where these people get their supplies. Air drop, perhaps?

Snow fences

Shelby and I thorougly enjoyed the stretch of road between Great Falls and Virginia City. Part of the day was spent driving along a dirt road for approximately thirty miles. We talked about everything under the sun, listened to Don Williams and George Strait, and randomly burst into song.

At the end of day 1 on our road trip, we spent the night just outside of Virginia City in a KOA camping cabin. Prior to going to bed, Shelby decided to make one more run to the bathroom (100 yards away across the campground). I was already in my warm sleeping bag, so Shelby took the bear spray for protection and I wished her luck. Within seconds, I heard someone pounding on the cabin door. I initially thought, "Oh great! Shelby took the bear spray and now I'm alone and defenseless in this cabin and there is a grizzly bear on the other side!"  I heard Shelby laughing, so I opened the door. She proceeded to tell me that no sooner had she stepped off the porch then she saw something large moving across the campground about thirty feet away. She screamed and raced back only to realize that the grizzly bear was actually a herd of mule deer. I went with her to the bathroom the second time because I did not want her to get trampled by a bunch of mule deer on the first day of our cross-country road trip. We laughed about the incident all the way to the bathroom and back. Such is life when sisters travel together. :)