It’s a Big Dam Country — Day 24

Not so much a trip report as a weather report.

There’s weather approach­ing from the north­west (hello canada, hello snow) and I’m head­ing, um, north­west. Some­where the snow and I are going to meet. I was just hop­ing to pick the spot.

I chose Billings, MT.

So off I went.

I did stop in Malta, briefly. There was a clas­sic rail depot that’s still in use.

And of course the grain elevator.

It started rain­ing about then. Nasty, cold, Seat­tle in Novem­ber rain. Long straight roads with few other vehi­cles. Kind of a zen thing — I go up the rise, I go down the rise, I go straight across the val­ley, I go up the rise, I go down the rise…

At one point I looked up in the sky and saw a heli­copter. A big heli­copter. It was green and gold and it was fly­ing low. WTF. Not state police and not life flight. No TV logos. Just big, and look­ing like it wanted a place to land. Really lousy weather to be fly­ing in.

This is what the sky looked like. When it wasn’t raining.

At Billings I stopped and called home for recon help. It looked likely that I could make Liv­ing­stone before it started to snow/get dark. Jim sweetly made me a hotel reser­va­tion. I grabbed a star­bucks and headed west again.

About 10 miles out­side of Liv­ingston the rain turned to snow.

Even the locals are a bit nonplussed.

OTOH My life isn’t as bad as the guy I just met in hotel hall­way. Remem­ber what I said about a big green and gold heli­copter? They just bought it and are try­ing to fly it to the coast. Maybe they should rent a truck?

Ran­dom Stuff:

If wishes were wings I could fly to the moon.

The music to day was unre­mark­able. Except, maybe, a cou­ple of Patsy Cline tunes.

Today’s Route:

View It’s a Big Dam Coun­try — Day 24 in a larger map