Moses Lake, WA - Dear State of Montana.You are such a tease. For hours, you taunt me with snow- capped mountains and scatter large pockets of deer and antelope throughout your vast lands. You have curves for miles. And miles.
And yet, you are 'Big Sky Country' precisely because you have nothing different to see on the ground. Sure, the topography sheds its skin from flat to mountainous, the land scarred by seismic shifts. But I can only take the browns, olive greens, grey and pale yellows of dry scrub for so many hours - even with high speed limits. I will concede, you have incredibly pretty moments, but then you beat me over the head with them, like the popular girl at the dance in grade 12. You then proceed to offer me hours of sameness.
And you, my comp- licated friend, are enormous. I have never seen so many hunting jackets. Or so few people (Montana has fewer than a million) in such a large space (America's fourth-largest state). Cows hang from cliffs and horses graze, seemingly without homes. Apart from that, there is nothingness.
I chide you because I love you in your own special way. The low fences point me into the horizon, leaving me with the anticipation of climbing the next hill and seeing something - anything, really. And being disappointed.
You have your charm and your beauty, but it gets swallowed in your never-ending hills of similarity.
Vitals:
And yet, you are 'Big Sky Country' precisely because you have nothing different to see on the ground. Sure, the topography sheds its skin from flat to mountainous, the land scarred by seismic shifts. But I can only take the browns, olive greens, grey and pale yellows of dry scrub for so many hours - even with high speed limits. I will concede, you have incredibly pretty moments, but then you beat me over the head with them, like the popular girl at the dance in grade 12. You then proceed to offer me hours of sameness.
And you, my comp- licated friend, are enormous. I have never seen so many hunting jackets. Or so few people (Montana has fewer than a million) in such a large space (America's fourth-largest state). Cows hang from cliffs and horses graze, seemingly without homes. Apart from that, there is nothingness.I chide you because I love you in your own special way. The low fences point me into the horizon, leaving me with the anticipation of climbing the next hill and seeing something - anything, really. And being disappointed.
You have your charm and your beauty, but it gets swallowed in your never-ending hills of similarity.
Vitals:
- Time: 10 hours
- Distance: 698.7 kms
- Weather: Sun, Moderate, Cloud
- States: Montana (and more Montana), Idaho, Washington
- Wildlife: Deer, Antelope
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