Montana: Like a Foreign Country

After Rob and I received our 2nd Pfizer vaccine, I started thinking about our first out of state- or out of country- trip since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.  I hungered to visit a foreign country, but the dicey situation with travel to another country seemed too complex to navigate.

Then in May, a work opportunity presented itself , in Montana. I’d never been to the state, Rob had but years earlier. So off to Montana  we went. The photo above was my first glimpse of the state, and my first thought was, Uh-oh. Winter.

The plane trip , two flights, wee sheer torture, crammed into a middle seat, no room to cross my legs, rest my elbows, and no food except goldfish crackers. And a bottle of water. Or a soft drink.Or coffee. Flying is no longer fun.

But we landed at Kalispell – the airport for the Glacier National Park – it was ten at night – midnight our time – and I was too tired to notice much of anything except that I was cold. I think it was 44 degrees. The air smelled cold, clean,

We checked into the Firebrand Hotel in downtown Whitefish. As we headed upstairs to our room, I kind of felt like I was inside a Stephen King novel. Such silence. But I slept nine hours.

From this spot the next morning, we toured the town on foot. By car.

We visited a bookstore where the owner has a sticker on the front door that’s telling:

This isn’t a diverse town. I saw only four African-Americans, heard Spanish only when we ate lunch at a Latino restaurant, and yet, it’s the only blue spot in Montana. The beauty is incomparable and so strange to me, as a Floridian, that it counts as a foreign country. Our first night, we ate dinner here:

The little kid in the corner was having a good time scrambling around the deck. Stay tuned for our venture into Glacier National Park.