Returning From Montana

I wrote this from the middle seat of our flight from Bozeman, Montana, to Denver, and now that I’ve made the happy discovery of free Wi-Fi at DEN, I get to post it.

We’re returning home after a fine week visiting Ken and Susan Aulen (Evelyn’s brother) at their second home in Big Sky, Montana. The week has included

• ·      two hikes (the most difficult and the second most difficult I’ve ever taken);
• ·      two trips through Yellowstone National Forest;
• ·      picture-taking of multicolored mountain cliffs, pine-covered mountainsides, rushing mountain rivers with their spectacular waterfalls, unique mountain wildflowers, and magnificent mountain animals (bison, elk, a baldheaded eagle, and even a chipmunk);
• ·      great food at local restaurants and cooked at home by Evelyn and Ken and Susan;
• ·      learning a new game I want to get sometime before Christmas (“Wits and Wagers”); and
• ·      exploring two quaint Montana mountain towns (Cooke Cit, and Red Lodge).

Ken and Susan have a large and comfortable condo, which served as the base for our daytrips and one

overnight trip. They enjoyed showing us around the spacious ski resort at Big Sky where they live and work every winter. And we enjoyed the extended time with them—our longest time together since I can remember.

They are good and gracious people, and our week was punctuated by lots of laughter and long conversations about where life has taken us and what might be ahead.

Our flight today is part of the price we’re paying for this week discovering unique vistas and adventures unlike anything or anyplace we’ve experienced before. We travel Frontier from Bozeman to Denver and then wait three hours before boarding the longer flight from Denver to Cincinnati, scheduled to arrive at CVG after 11:30 p.m. One consolation: the arrival time will be only 9:30 on our bodies, which now are acclimated to Mountain Time. But Sunday morning will come soon, followed right away by a full work week.

We’ve never before taken three weeks-plus of traveling vacation time in one year. (We cruised around Italy and Greece early in June.) My vacation days are all spent, except for one or two at Thanksgiving and three or four at Christmas. But we have lots of memories (and pictures—I WILL post a bunch on Facebook!) in exchange for what we’ve spent, and I’m very grateful for it all.