So, to the day’s summary…
We woke up to mixed snow and rain in Bozeman this morning, snow level was around 6,000 feet and so we caught some of it. We didn’t go down to Yellowstone due to the distance, but the weather considerations would have made it a poor choice anyway. We did go that direction as far as Gallatin Gateway in order to step foot in the Gallatin National Forest, and take the requisite touristy photos. And then headed back north to the interstate to push on through Montana.
Letterboxing once again was responsible for two neat stops today. The first was near Three Forks, at the Madison River Buffalo Jump – a huge rimrock formation where the Indians harvested buffalo in large numbers by stampeding them over the cliff face.
Then when we stopped in Butte, we took a side trip right up the mountain on which the city is perched, to go look at the Granite Mountain Memorial. It recognizes the 168 lives lost in the country’s largest metal mine disaster, back in 1917 when the Speculator Mine went up in flames. That whole part of the mountain is still under active work, so you just kind of wind your way back over a mud track – Alaskans, think the Hatcher Pass road in bad weather - and eventually find this monument while bulldozers roar nearby. [I found this news headline profoundly moving - it literally freezes in time both the shock of the disaster and what turned out to be the futile hope that not all lives were lost.]
The weather today made for some really interesting changes of scene. We went through everything from bright sunshine to driving rain to totally socked-in, and lots of changes in between. We crossed the continental divide at 6393 feet just east of Butte, and our descent in bright sunshine lit up the rugged rock faces in so many shades of gold and red and orange –compare that to the deep cool evergreen forests of northern Idaho, with mountain after mountain fading away in softer profile as the fog obscured each a little more than the last. I don’t have the words for the beauty we saw today. I do think you could set me down in either Bozeman or Missoula and I would feel entirely at home making a life there. And our joint observation is that the men of Montana have got it going on – it got to the point today that when we stopped at a café for lunch, by the time the third long cool range rider walked in the door, Phyllis and I looked at each other and said only “you know, we really just have to get out of Montana.” There’s only so much a girl can take.
And I don’t really have the words for how it was to see my family tonight after this many years apart. I got to meet Josh’s fiancée Tiffani – they are to be married on Sunday, so with all this medical stuff, wedding plans have gone haywire – and Phyllis was a real champ to just sit there in the hospital room with us all evening. Mostly it is so gratifying to see Matthew looking so well tonight and to just hold his hand and feel like it has always felt between us – that even when years go by between phone calls or emails, we just pick up where we are and in the end there has never felt like more needed to be said.
So we will take a day here, visit a little more with family, catch up on things like laundry and bill-paying, and enjoy the setting here on the edge of the beautiful big lake. We leave Wednesday morning for Calgary.
Peg and Phyllis
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Phyllis remembers:
Peg's family is - not surprisingly - amazing. How they were able to be gracious to a total stranger in the middle of such difficult times is a true testament to their strength and spirit. They made me feel as welcome as if they'd known me forever. Matthew's family, and a couple of the kids' friends, all spent time jammed in this one hospital room. The laughter flowed constantly. The phone kept ringing with people checking up on Matthew. I was simply amazed.
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