Eastern Montana Commute

I went to Lewistown, again, yesterday for another Quickbooks workshop with Waterman. He's the closest thing I have to a co-worker, only HIS office is 150 miles from mine. Tricky.

I took off from home about 6 a.m., in the dark. Driving in Eastern Montana that early in the morning is quite peaceful; the only outfits on the road are the occasional semi-truck or pickup and horsetrailer, headed to the neighbors.  To give you an idea of the traffic, between my house and Grass Range, approximately 120 miles, I met 12 outfits and passed one slow moving car.  The driver of the car looked to be a grandma headed to Billings for a doctor's appointment. I think she left Jordan closer to 5:30 and probably stopped in Winnett for breakfast. Toast, egg-over-easy and coffee. (I have no idea, really, but that's probably pretty close! Toast, eggs and coffee are very economical...)

Driving through the Breaks, near Mosby, the sun had just come up and the country had that soft, sleepy morning look. The shadows were blue and the hills were gold and pink; I love that time. Anyway, just ahead of me on the road, I saw some prairie going across the highway. It looked like prairie grass, all tan-gold and brown. Only prairie grass doesn't have antlers.

Three bull elk were loping across the highway, on their way to the cedars to sleep the day away.  Elk have a peculiar way of moving; they look like they are gliding, a little, and it looks like slow motion, but they can cover a lot of country very quickly. These three crossed the highway that way, and started up the hill on the other side. I pulled the car to a stop and amazingly, they pulled up and stopped too, broadside to the car. We looked at each other for a couple minutes, then the lead bull breathed out a frosty breath and turned, and they glided into the trees.

I'm glad I didn't have my camera, because I would've been trying to get the shot and missed the whole thing. But I'll have that picture in my head forever.

The rest of the day was spent in front of a computer screen, in a square office, crunching numbers incorrectly. (This accounting business would be much easier if I actually had a head for numbers...) Lisa Waterman, Mike and I had lunch at the Bon-Ton and I can report that they have excellent hamburgers and the small ice cream cones are pretty much a meal in themselves. Highly recommend it for a complete soda shop experience in Central Montana!

I didn't hit any deer, on the way home, but there's an owl flapping around near the Brown ranch with fewer tail feathers and a belly-ache.