June 2014

Milestones Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 2014

When you turn 16 you can get your driver’s license, when you turn 18 you can vote and drink (in the old days) and, if you’re a guy, be drafted (also in the old days). When you turn 21 you can drink now, rent a car, gamble in Vegas, and a number of other things. After that there aren’t any major milestones for many years. Retirement is a big one. I took early retirement from my paying job when I turned 55, others will wait until 65 or later. Not much to look forward to after that (Medicare of course). But I hit one other milestone today that I’ve looked forward to for some time. When you turn 62, you qualify to buy a lifetime pass to all national parks and monuments for the small charge of $10. Living so close to Yellowstone Park, it’s a heck of a deal–especially given a day pass is $25 and a yearly pass is $80. So we packed up the car and headed to Yellowstone yesterday where I purchased my pass and we went for a hike up Rescue Creek under beautiful sunny skies.]]>

Sparse Crowd Livingston, Montana 2014

Not much of a crowd, but then it wasn’t much of a performance either.

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Montana Road Rage Highway 191, Montana 2014

The highways in Montana aren’t all lonely all the time; occasionally you encounter heavy traffic along with the associated road rage.]]>

Like Kansas With Mountains Highway 191, Montana 2014

Over Memorial Day weekend Western Montana was teaming with the usual crowds inaugurating the summer season. We avoided the congestion by heading east to the wide open spaces out on the plains. You don’t have to be from Kansas to appreciate eastern Montana, but it certainly helps; miles and miles of treeless pastures and wheat fields are an acquired taste. I see three distinct advantages to recommend eastern Montana over Kansas though–lower humidity, lack of a roads along every section line, and forested mountain ranges sprinkled around for variety.]]>

Art Park Bozeman, Montana 2014

I’m getting ready for my six summer art shows this year. Since I’m trying out some different sizes and formats of framed images this year, I needed to set up my display panels to see how everything would fit. Since it’s a several day process and it has been raining quite a bit I set them up in the garage. Normally I’d just leave my car parked outside but we’ve got quite a few critters around these days that seem to like to chew on cables, wires etc., so I set up the panels so I could still squeeze my car in between them. I don’t imagine too many people have garage walls decorated this much.]]>

Making the Rounds Lewistown, Montana 2014

As we walked up and down Main Street in Lewistown, we noted this gentleman seemed to making an afternoon of visiting various bars. That he was motivating via crutches brings a whole new meaning to the term bar hopping.]]>

Two To Go Lewistown, Montana 2014

Some Saturday leftovers from a Friday night out in Lewistown.

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Judith Gap Skies Judith Gap, Montana 2014

Judith Gap is a good place to get that Big Sky Country experience.

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