Westward Ho….

I sent out an email right before I left and misspelled the title- the caption I sent was ‘Wetward Ho’. And it was prophetic…. When we left Friday night, it was pouring down rain with high winds and lightening. We drove north 2 hours to Mackinac City and stopped for the night.

The next morning it was still gray and drizzling when we over the Mackinac bridge. Over the next 2 days we drove through the Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana.

On the way, I realized a few things….

Not many people travel across the country on the northern route

There are way more acres of sunflowers in this country than anyone would ever realize

Big rolled bundles of wheat, straw and hay look like roly-poly sheep in the distance

North Dakota is a very harsh place when it’s 98 degrees and the hot winds hit you in the face

Mountains sneak up on you gradually and then pow!- they are all around you


I think we looked a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies as we passed the various states….

We’re now unpacking at our new home, and in closing I thought I’d share this last photo- this is called the Devil’s Slide, and is about 10 miles from our home. This is in the Yellowstone valley north of the town of Gardiner. Once upon a time, this nearly vertical stripe of land was horizontal…. pretty impressive, huh?

Criminals and Police Stops and Bears.... Oh, My!

Remember the Wizard of Oz saying, "Lions and tigers and bears... oh my"?

Well, the news networks have had some interesting items since our decision to move to Montana.  First was the story about about the killer grizzly bear(s) that killed one man and wounded 2 other people in a camp near Yellowstone Park.

Then, today was the notice of escaped human killers on the loose near Yellowstone Park.  They were seen late Sunday in Gardiner, Montana.

Since we are living near Yellowstone Park and the closest town to us is Gardiner AND part of our mailing address, it has been  interesting to say the least.

The police were stopping all vehicles in Gardiner Sunday evening.  The word was out, and Dan spent the night in our new home on his inflatable bed with a loaded gun nearby.... just in case.

And we thought we were moving to a quiet place without drama...... :)

Transition

Moving - Ugh.  Need I say more?

But on to better things..... here's a photo of the view from the back deck of our new home:

And here's a family of elk Dan watched while drinking his morning coffee:

And.....a rainbow over the mountains.  I'm choosing to view this as a good sign. :)