@El_Oel That was why we went to Montana. We had driven to Seattle for the World Science Fiction Convention and decided to return to Texas by way of Yellowstone and some other interesting road trip stops. Saw some other stuff while we were there, including the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman and a few western themed tourist towns. Had some good food, saw some nice sunsets, even by El Paso standards and we have awesome sunsets.
@PlacidPenguin@Barney
"Re-accommodation into Texas" is an in-demand offering. Not open to just any place.
RI has a coastline, very good seafood, and RISD, and is of considerable interest to us.
Kansas … sigh
The main attractions to Kansas seem to be that it’s between here and Canada, and it’s got a purple-something-@Barney, and a part-time @Pavlov and @MrsPavlov.
But perhaps we’ll take it, just to see if we can make it flatter.
And if you don’t want to take my word for it, here are a couple quotes from John Steinbeck (from Travels with Charley):
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans”
“I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.”
@christinewas I have the opposite feeling for Glacier National Park (which I call "Glacierless National Park). I guess it’s a good place to go if you want to see tangible effects of climate change. I just thought it was depressing.
@SSteve I don’t love Glacier for the glaciers. (More for what they left behind/created.) I agree, though, that the dwindling glaciers are pretty depressing. But it’s the kind of depressing thing I also find important.
We’ve driven all around it but never had time to go into the state. When I was younger it was one of the few ‘dream’ places to move to. That won’t happen any more but I still want to visit, spend time there, fish, prospect, maybe hunt, definitely sightsee. Someday…
@jqubed It wasn’t like that. We drove up to Idaho from Nevada to visit old family friends when I was a kid. We drove across Wyoming another time when going to Minnesnowta. Then we drove from our current environs near shitcago to visit family in North Dakota. So we’ve bracketed Montana but never actually been in it. It is a sad thing. I really want to go there, and to be honest were a winning lottery ticket to fall in our lap, I’d still want to seriously explore the possibility of moving there.
Emphasis on exploring the possibility… we’d have to visit and spend time there first, as with other locations we are considering when retirement makes it possible for us to get the hell out of illannoy.
Reasons to go. Reasons perhaps to stay, to live there, if you can:
“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”
“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”
“One of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.”
“At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”
“When I was young, a teacher had forbidden me to say “more perfect” because she said if a thing is perfect it can’t be more so. But by now I had seen enough of life to have regained my confidence in it.”
“Yet even in the loneliness of the canyon I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as “our brother’s keepers,” possessed of one of the oldest and possible one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting instincts. It will not let us go.”
“When I looked, I knew I might never again see so much of the earth so beautiful, the beautiful being something you know added to something you see, in a whole that is different from the sum of its parts. What I saw might have been just another winter scene, although an impressive one. But what I knew was that the earth underneath was alive and that by tomorrow, certainly by the day after, it would be all green again. So what I saw because of what I knew was a kind of death with the marvellous promise of less than a three-day resurrection.”
“To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy”
“I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched… Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.
Even the anatomy of a river was laid bare. Not far downstream was a dry channel where the river had run once, and part of the way to come to know a thing is through its death. But years ago I had known the river when it flowed through this now dry channel, so I could enliven its stony remains with the waters of memory.”
“Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect”
“Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn’t. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
We loved going through Montana.
It’s really a beautiful state to visit for a while.
We also drove through the state when there was no daytime speed limit. That was a blast!!!
Cruising a highway at 85+ & a Trooper passed us by like we’re standing still. Then, my wife yelled at me to slow down.
@DVDBZN
If you drive any road - usually fairly straight ones - that runs between any rather active oilfield area with almost no population nearby, and the nearest town, esp the nearest town with good food and good bars and so forth: there may well be, practically speaking, little to no enforcement of speed limits there, and in that case, everyone kinda drives as if speed limits exist only in some other universe.
@DVDBZN I don’t think there are. If I remember, the Feds put the kaibosh on Montana’s lack of speed limits with the threat of withholding federal highway funds, so I doubt anyone else could get away with it.
However, if you ever drive Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America through Nevada, there are long stretches where, in the right circumstances, you can go as fast as you want. The road is straight and you can see forever. There’s nothing for cops to hide behind. When we drove from California to Colorado in August 2008 I spent a long chunk of time going 90-95 mph. When we got to a town and I had to go 55, it felt like I was barely moving.
Long term plan is to move west, past the Dakotas (because screw those losers), and settle in Montana. Mom has friends out there who said that, as long as they don’t sell it first, I get their ranch when they die. Rough guess says that should happen when I’m around 55 to 60, so seems a good time for it.
Soccer tournaments in Montana - could see Glacier National Park in the (close) distance. Unfortunately my kid’s team was good. They never washed out on Saturday and were playing through Sunday afternoon… despite a fair number of parents quietly rooting for the other team so we could all pile in our cars and go to Glacier NP for the day. Stupidly I didn’t just go and visit before I moved 2500 miles away.
@PhotoJim Was getting a post office box as a Canadian a challenge? When I got my box I was surprised they wanted me to show that I lived in town. That might’ve been for accepting packages from other delivery services, though; I don’t remember for sure now.
@jqubed No, I phoned in advance and asked, and they said it was not a problem. The PO I use (Raymond, MT 59256) has about half its boxes held by Canadians. It likely wouldn’t exist if not for all the Canadian mail traffic.
My sister-in-law lives in Missoula (or maybe just outside, I’m not sure) so I’ve been a handful of times. Missoula is a great town and has one of my favorite restaurants of all time, Red Bird.
I’ve driven through Montana, didn’t have time to play. An ex-boyfriend lives there…he seems to like it. I lived in Wyoming for many years and miss the western bit of the state.
What’s in Montana?!?
@ragingredd Round American Women and pickup truck?
@ragingredd
Who has ever heard of Yellowstone, anyway
@ragingredd A little slice of Heaven.
@ragingredd Nut jobs
@El_Oel That was why we went to Montana. We had driven to Seattle for the World Science Fiction Convention and decided to return to Texas by way of Yellowstone and some other interesting road trip stops. Saw some other stuff while we were there, including the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman and a few western themed tourist towns. Had some good food, saw some nice sunsets, even by El Paso standards and we have awesome sunsets.
Best state in the country. Maybe second best (Alaska).
@christinewas Welcome back, we’ve missed you around here! Hope all is well.
@Trillian Thanks. I’ve been really busy, but things are going pretty well.
I’m waiting for a friend or colleague to invite me sometime
@matthew Or just go…
@Kidsandliz I think he means the friend/colleague whose write-up prompted this poll.
Fine, I’ll be the one to post it…
@thismyusername “Just to raise me up a crop a’ …dental floss.”
@thismyusername A better-yet Montana song:
I saw him play once in Kansas City.
Love to visit. Perhaps even love to live there, if they would have me, and I could deal with the winters.
One little teeny problem tho:
Montana’s so small. Only 147,164 mi².
Could I ever get used to living in such a tiny state?
@f00l Ah yes, Texas, the big state for small minds.
@Barney
My mind is so teeny-tiny that you’d get lost and wander forever in trackless confusion if you climbed in. Just as I have done since birth.
/giphy "bigger on the inside"
@Barney
PS. Montana will be “welcomed” and “re-accomodated” happily into Texas soon. Long before Kansas.
Ya know, them big skies and all.
@f00l
/giphy we are texas, you will be assimilated
@Barney @f00l
Well what about RI, or dare I mentioned Kansas? shudder
@PlacidPenguin @Barney
"Re-accommodation into Texas" is an in-demand offering. Not open to just any place.
RI has a coastline, very good seafood, and RISD, and is of considerable interest to us.
Kansas … sigh
The main attractions to Kansas seem to be that it’s between here and Canada, and it’s got a purple-something-@Barney, and a part-time @Pavlov and @MrsPavlov.
But perhaps we’ll take it, just to see if we can make it flatter.
/giphy flat
@f00l
Irrelevant giphy, but I think I have to leave it.
@f00l RI has new york system weiners and cabinets not to mention Del’s
@cranky1950
RI is becoming a priority.
My top four reasons that everyone should visit Montana:
Really, it’s all about the wild places, wild animals, and wild people.
And if you don’t want to take my word for it, here are a couple quotes from John Steinbeck (from Travels with Charley):
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans”
“I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.”
@christinewas I have the opposite feeling for Glacier National Park (which I call "Glacierless National Park). I guess it’s a good place to go if you want to see tangible effects of climate change. I just thought it was depressing.
@SSteve I don’t love Glacier for the glaciers. (More for what they left behind/created.) I agree, though, that the dwindling glaciers are pretty depressing. But it’s the kind of depressing thing I also find important.
We’ve driven all around it but never had time to go into the state. When I was younger it was one of the few ‘dream’ places to move to. That won’t happen any more but I still want to visit, spend time there, fish, prospect, maybe hunt, definitely sightsee. Someday…
@duodec Wouldn’t it have been faster to drive through it than around it?
@jqubed It wasn’t like that. We drove up to Idaho from Nevada to visit old family friends when I was a kid. We drove across Wyoming another time when going to Minnesnowta. Then we drove from our current environs near shitcago to visit family in North Dakota. So we’ve bracketed Montana but never actually been in it. It is a sad thing. I really want to go there, and to be honest were a winning lottery ticket to fall in our lap, I’d still want to seriously explore the possibility of moving there.
Emphasis on exploring the possibility… we’d have to visit and spend time there first, as with other locations we are considering when retirement makes it possible for us to get the hell out of illannoy.
Last time I was in Montana, I was sperm. True story.
/giphy Montana
No, my dad lives there.
Been there several times in the past couple of years. My wife got a masters degree from Montana State.
Reasons to go. Reasons perhaps to stay, to live there, if you can:
“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”
“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”
“One of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.”
“At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”
“When I was young, a teacher had forbidden me to say “more perfect” because she said if a thing is perfect it can’t be more so. But by now I had seen enough of life to have regained my confidence in it.”
“Yet even in the loneliness of the canyon I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as “our brother’s keepers,” possessed of one of the oldest and possible one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting instincts. It will not let us go.”
“When I looked, I knew I might never again see so much of the earth so beautiful, the beautiful being something you know added to something you see, in a whole that is different from the sum of its parts. What I saw might have been just another winter scene, although an impressive one. But what I knew was that the earth underneath was alive and that by tomorrow, certainly by the day after, it would be all green again. So what I saw because of what I knew was a kind of death with the marvellous promise of less than a three-day resurrection.”
“To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy”
“I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched… Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.
Even the anatomy of a river was laid bare. Not far downstream was a dry channel where the river had run once, and part of the way to come to know a thing is through its death. But years ago I had known the river when it flowed through this now dry channel, so I could enliven its stony remains with the waters of memory.”
“Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect”
“Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn’t. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
https://smile.amazon.com/River-Runs-through-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B06X99WMNF/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492231249&sr=1-3&keywords=a+river+runs+through+it
This novella is a small, lovely masterpiece.
We are haunted by waters.
We loved going through Montana.
It’s really a beautiful state to visit for a while.
We also drove through the state when there was no daytime speed limit. That was a blast!!!
Cruising a highway at 85+ & a Trooper passed us by like we’re standing still. Then, my wife yelled at me to slow down.
@daveinwarsh
Slow down? At 85? Are you sure she didn’t say, “Speed up”?
@f00l Actually, I got up to 100. Fastest I’ve driven. I was going 85-90 when the cop passed me.
@daveinwarsh
I wonder if there are still any roads without speed limits in the U.S.
Otherwise, I will have to visit Germany sometime.
@DVDBZN
If you drive any road - usually fairly straight ones - that runs between any rather active oilfield area with almost no population nearby, and the nearest town, esp the nearest town with good food and good bars and so forth: there may well be, practically speaking, little to no enforcement of speed limits there, and in that case, everyone kinda drives as if speed limits exist only in some other universe.
@DVDBZN I don’t think there are. If I remember, the Feds put the kaibosh on Montana’s lack of speed limits with the threat of withholding federal highway funds, so I doubt anyone else could get away with it.
However, if you ever drive Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America through Nevada, there are long stretches where, in the right circumstances, you can go as fast as you want. The road is straight and you can see forever. There’s nothing for cops to hide behind. When we drove from California to Colorado in August 2008 I spent a long chunk of time going 90-95 mph. When we got to a town and I had to go 55, it felt like I was barely moving.
Here you go. It’s a product from Montana, where the rivers are wild, and the people are wilder.
http://duckboy.com/
@Trillian I’m surprised it took that long to get posted.
@Trillian Thank you. I was about to start Googling
@Trillian
Long term plan is to move west, past the Dakotas (because screw those losers), and settle in Montana. Mom has friends out there who said that, as long as they don’t sell it first, I get their ranch when they die. Rough guess says that should happen when I’m around 55 to 60, so seems a good time for it.
Soccer tournaments in Montana - could see Glacier National Park in the (close) distance. Unfortunately my kid’s team was good. They never washed out on Saturday and were playing through Sunday afternoon… despite a fair number of parents quietly rooting for the other team so we could all pile in our cars and go to Glacier NP for the day. Stupidly I didn’t just go and visit before I moved 2500 miles away.
At least somebody from Montana bought today’s Meh.
I’m looking at you, Wyoming.
All my purchases at meh make me look like I’m in Montana, but really, I’m across the border in that big winter storm-producing region to the north.
Alas, the part of Montana that’s near is the flat, desolate part. But at least they put a post office there so I can get meh stuff.
@PhotoJim Was getting a post office box as a Canadian a challenge? When I got my box I was surprised they wanted me to show that I lived in town. That might’ve been for accepting packages from other delivery services, though; I don’t remember for sure now.
@jqubed No, I phoned in advance and asked, and they said it was not a problem. The PO I use (Raymond, MT 59256) has about half its boxes held by Canadians. It likely wouldn’t exist if not for all the Canadian mail traffic.
My sister-in-law lives in Missoula (or maybe just outside, I’m not sure) so I’ve been a handful of times. Missoula is a great town and has one of my favorite restaurants of all time, Red Bird.
Here are a couple pics from our trip in August 2011.
This is at Holland Lake:
@SSteve Yes it is a great town. I broke down there in the ghetto van and they moved heaven and earth to fix it for us the same day.
Entered thread for the Zappa, leaving satisfied.
I’ve driven through Montana, didn’t have time to play. An ex-boyfriend lives there…he seems to like it. I lived in Wyoming for many years and miss the western bit of the state.
Dying to ski Big Sky. One of these years…