June 29, 2015
I’m not sure what has brought on this sense of, well, almost—euphoria; the 20+ degree drop in temperature with the accompanying cool breeze, watching the mammatus clouds and storm moving east across Canyon Ferry Reservoir, surviving yet another unbelievable storm that hit Kairos broadside (does anyone know if there has ever been an RV that toppled over from STRONG winds?), the very welcome rum and coke after said survival, or just the joy of doing what I am doing and being alive?
Did you know that some-no, many-folks prepare for July 4th weekend a week before? I knew that I would have problems with finding a place to park during that weekend, especially since I will be in the Flathead Lake area, but I did not realize that people set up camps for large gatherings of family and friends and spend the week preceding July 4th living the good life. And I also forgot about the existence of jet skis.
Obviously, I am parked on another of the many lakes in Montana. I have spent quite a few nights at Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks sites on reservoirs that cater to fishing. Boating is another of the great pastimes of people in Montana. And if you have 3 young guys on jet skis, you all loop around and around so that you catch the other’s waves and can experience bumps and jumps—or so I have deducted.
I spent 3 nights in Great Falls and was amazed at the growth since I was there last. Of course, that was almost 30 years ago, so I should be well aware of that kind of change. I did not go to the Charles Russell museum and compound. Although I can appreciate the skill and renown of the artist—I have never liked “Western” art; so I passed. Instead I spent one day riding my bike on the trail system that follows the Missouri River. It is on both north and south sides (or east and west if that suits your sense of geography) and goes for miles. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is located on the south side, which I did go to. Not that I have ever been particularly into Lewis and Clark either, but it seems that every place I have been for the last month has some connection to that excursion and the highway historical markers weren’t giving me enough information; so, I spent several hours there. It definitely helped with being overheated from riding 9 miles in 100-degree temperatures to get there, too.
Another thing I did while in Great Falls was to switch phone providers. Loyalty is such an ingrained part of me, but enough is enough. After 6 weeks of basically no phone, I am now on Verizon. That meant I had to buy a new phone and figure out all the setup, etc. But it works! Even here, on the shores of a lake far from any large city, I get phone service! I still have to work out the texting part, though.
Most of the places where I have worked insisted on having two people proof anything that left the office: your email, letters, press interviews, documents. I don’t have that support now and try to look at everything at least 3 times with at least a day between each reading to make sure that I am not stuck on some looping mistake. Well, thanks to friends who have been kind enough to get back to me, I know that my system isn’t fool proof. I have been caught with typos and mis-spellings, but the biggest mistake was writing down the wrong species. One of the first hawks I was ever able to identify was the Northern Harrier, and, not once, but twice, I wrote Harris’s Hawk for species that I had seen. I will lamely claim that I had been reading the Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America page-by-page and had Harris’s on my brain—for the sparrow, not the hawk. Thank you, Joan, for so kindly and tactfully letting me know! Yes, the lovely, hunting, feeding hawk I have seen is the Northern Harrier.
I headed west from Choteau to get closer to the mountains. It is nice to see that some folks from Montana do not just spend their time fishing, jet skiing, and whatever else, but put up signs like this:
And it looks so official!