My trip to Montana: The Beginning.

Right now it's one in the morning, so I'm just going to write a little bit, and continue tomorrow. Without question, going to Montana was one of the greatest things I have ever done. Before I left, I thought to myself, "Am I totally crazy?" The answer, of course, is yes; however, I think it's in a good way, and the craziness definitely has awesome results.

I left on Tuesday afternoon, July 12, and took a very long flight path to Bozeman, MT, through Reagan and Salt Lake. Delta is a bit stingy with its frequent flyer rewards these days. With 25,000 miles, you are no longer allowed to pick nearly whatever flight you want -- you have to have 50,000 miles to do that. So I was stuck with three hour layovers and a tour of the country. No matter!! I was going to MONTANA! (and plus, during one of my layovers, I had a taco from a place called Maui Taco which was the most ingenious creation ever: it was a taco WITH STEAK FRIES IN IT. It's true. It was so incredibly awesome that I had to write a little poem about it. And ode, one might say. An Ode to Maui Taco. Here it is:
O brave Maui Chefs
Putting steak fries in your tacos
Such genius is rare.)

I arrived in Bozeman at 11:30 PM Mountain Time, and checked into the Belgrade Super 8. The Super 8 is indeed pretty darn super, by the way! Free breakfast and internet! Nice employees! Very clean room!

My first glimpse of the mountains of Montana was the following morning outside of the Super 8:



I also had a lot of glimpses of a tire company, the "Pony Express" espresso joint, and a highway. The sun was blazingly hot and I worried about the temperature at the ranch. I consoled myself with thoughts of my boots, my wonderful wonderful boots:


Made for walkin'!!

Tack Van Cleve, one of the members of the Lazy K Bar's founding family, picked me up from the Super 8. We then swung by the Bozeman Airport to pick up Denis and Dahlia Klepac , two of the nicest people ever (more on the Klepacs soon!). The Klepacs had been coming to the ranch every summer for about five years; they had actually met at a ranch in Wyoming. The ride alongside the railway was beautiful - meadows and mountains interspersed with small communities; I commented upon our family legend that my great great grandfather on my father's side was killed for his paycheck while working on the Montana railroad. The rest of the family never made it out west to avenge his death, but perhaps the time was now ripe...

We stopped in Livingston to pick up beer, and then made it to the Lazy K! I had nothing to fear about the temperature -- the ranch was about 40 minutes from downtown Big Timber, up in the mountains. The weather was spectacular - low 80s for most days, and even down to the 50s at night!

I stayed in a little cabin called Moonshine. After eating ranch burgers at the campsite (three! mountain air does it for me), quietly getting to know some of the other ranch guests, and feeling the cool rain greet us as we sat around a campfire, I retired to Moonshine to observe the rain from my deck:




And later, the moon came out:



Here's another view of my cabin, from down the hill a bit. The fast white cat is the property of a wrangler named Lena.



I slept well, and awoke at 6:30 the following morning. I did sit ups and push ups and some yoga, and was early for the 7:30 breakfast. And what an amazing breakfast! You can get pretty much anything you want. For me, that meant french toast on most days, with coffee and cream and sometimes fruit and ALWAYS eggs.

More to follow, with photos of the gorgeous land and mountains and the magnificent horses. Now: to bed.