Bozeman

When we were planning our trip, we sought the advice of good friends, the Valentine sisters, regarding somewhere to stay in Montana. Maggie suggested Bozeman, where she had lived and worked as a Professor at the University of Montana some years ago. Her advice was based on the fact that any university town is likely to offer more in the way of creative vibes and sure enough, Bozeman is an interesting place, growing fast with an upbeat and positive atmosphere.

Perhaps a Sunday morning wasn't the best time to explore. But hey, we had a good potter around and enjoyed peering in shop windows and dropping into the occasional gallery.

The Altitude Gallery was very interesting indeed and we could have easily come away with several pictures for our wall, had it not been for the fact that my luggage has already got a "Heavy" label on it! We especially liked the work of Jane Smithers and found photographs by Dennis Kirkland fascinating.

Just around the corner was a knitting shop. I normally like to highlight the individual shops I visit, because I have googled a placename myself on several occasions and brought up the name of a local store mentioned in a blog somewhere which has fitted the bill exactly. Today, however, I left empty handed and we'll simply move right along, saying no more. I'm hoping to visit The Yarn Shop and Fiber Place tomorrow, where hopefully I'll find some Mountain Colors yarn - a Montana product.

After a great coffee at the Leaf and Bean cafe we hit the road again and pootled to Livingston, site of a railway museum we'd read about. Great place, interesting and set in a fascinating building designed by the same architect as Grand Central Station in New York City, such was the importance of the railway in the early days of Yellowstone.

On the way home, this chap strolled along by the car, fine fellow that he is. We also enjoyed a short stop by this statue of John Shields, a member of the Lewis and Clark team of explorers. What a beautiful setting for a fitting memorial.

 
Supper was an "interesting" pizza at the MacKenzie River Pizza Company which was very good indeed, although we drew the line at mandarin oranges and stuck with pretty conventional toppings!

Yogi was on holiday, however

In some ways, the best wildlife viewing of the day was upon opening the curtains this morning. A moose was browsing along the hedgerow and fortunately I grabbed my camera just as a passing motorist scared it off. Poor thing was quite overcome and darted here and there before disappearing into the brush nearby. But today, we were headed for Yellowstone and another new state for our collection - Wyoming.

The wildlife viewing was good in the National Park too - we saw plenty of bison, deer, elk, a bald eagle and several smaller critters. But it was the landscape which impressed us most, the variety and the immensity of it all.

Of course, we headed for the familiar first, and it showed up right on time. At about 10.45, Old Faithful began to bubble and spit a bit, and then at 10.56 exactly it shot a plume of water into the air, satisfying the hundreds of people sitting in rows waiting for the show. Though it was impressive, it wasn't really the highlight of our day - that was to come later. (We found video podcasts for the park features here)

We made our way to the West Thumb thermal area and loved the colourful pools there. We picnicked in the sulphurous air and chatted to a couple from Boulder, Colorado.

Highlight of the day, without doubt, however, was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. A complete surprise to us, the canyon was not only huge, but gloriously photogenic with the turquoise river contrasting beautifully with the red ochre cliffs and olive green trees. My photographs don't really do it justice - those in my head are the best ones, as always.

We finished our day with a beer and supper at the Montana Ale Works. And very good it was too!

Geography lesson

Today's flights from Chicago to Billings MT, via Denver, were a great opportunity to see the landscape of this vast country.

Leaving Chicago, we could see the mall, IKEA and countless other attractions of nearby Schaumburg.

 

Before long, the landscape opened out into fields,

 

which changed shape and format as we flew West,

 

approaching Denver, the mile-high city, with the Rockies on the horizon.

 

Onward in a smaller plane to Billings, over snow mountains and then

 

finally coming to land on a bluff above the city. You can see the ridge in the photograph and the airport is on the top of it:

 

Montana is quite a contrast to Chicago!

We are now in Bozeman and plan a visit to Yellowstone tomorrow. Yes, Edward, we will take good care of our picnic baskets!!

What a day!

One of us is more interested in railways than knitting,and the history of American railroads is a particular speciality. It happens that the largest railroad museum in the country is just outside Chicago and so we planned to spend some time there today. Just before we left, we looked over the route on the map and I noted the place name "Marengo" (one of the handful of useless historical facts I retain is the name of Napoleon's horse) I also remembered that one knitting shop I identified as worth a visit in the Chicago area was in Marengo - poor Mark!

 

The railroad museum was ho-hum and though the exhibits were stunningly beautiful in a huge-engine kind of way, they were crammed into the tightest of spots, making photographing them difficult. As Mark walked around exploring the place, I sat on a bench and drew a couple as the heat caused the metal to creak and groan - they were almost alive!

We didn't stay long; the fact that some amazing engines were there but we were not able to view them comfortably was frustrating to say the least. It was an interesting morning though and it's always fascinating to drive out of a city and explore the smaller towns out in the countryside.

Sure enough, The Fold was not far away and was a wonderfully welcoming place. Heaps of Blue Moon Fibers which I've only seen online and a completely different selection of yummy yarns I'd not heard of before. I picked up some yarn for my knitting project for next week (wait and see) and a hank of Blue Moon Rio, in Lagoon colourway. I can see that I am going to be tempted by more Blue Moon before long!

Heading back to Chicago later in the afternoon, our hire car, a Jeep of some description, decided to play silly. As Mark was refuelling, I hopped out of the car to speak to him and heard my door click behind me. Yes, the keys were still in the ignition - and the car had locked itself automatically. Oh ********! Fortunately, the chap staffing the petrol station was friendly and after a few false starts we remembered that our UK AA membership means we could use the AAA service. An hour later, rescue appeared in the form of a knight in shining tow truck! The paperwork took longer than the process of unlocking the car, needless to say.

Returning to the hotel to pack for a 5.30am start in the morning, we found the place in darkness. As we walked into the lobby, we were greeted by a young man offering us candles and a lightstick - to enable us to manage their first ever power cut. We were glad the lifts were still working and we didn't need to walk up the stairs to bed - on the 27th floor.

We decided to leave the packing until dawn broke and instead went to bed in darkness, worrying about how we might get our airline tickets, passports, laptop etc out of the safe if the power stayed off.

The lights all came on again just as we fell asleep around an hour later. Phew.

I've finished my book

I found this book incredibly moving and rather unusual. Have any of you read it? What did you think?