Reminiscing...

I just ran into a guy I work with who was in Montana last week on vacation.

Montana. Land of my hopes, wishes, and dreams.

Dh and I were able to take what was the trip of a lifetime to Stevensville, MT, in April of 2005. We have always said we want to live in Montana, though neither of us had been there. It's just such a beautiful state, the weather is perfect (for us, anyway), and the best part is there's not a lot of people. I love to pull out the road atlas and just look at the cities along the highways, and the vast expanse of land where there's nothing...that's our idea of perfection.

So for Christmas 2004, we were handed an all-expense paid trip to Montana, to stay on a ranch in what has got to be the most perfect cabin on earth. It was the first time DH had flown, which was really fun for me to be a part of. We arrived on a Saturday, and didn't leave until the following Saturday. Seven nights of heaven.

We awoke to this view from the front porch of our cabin:















The first day we were there, we decided to go for a drive into the Bitterroot mountains, and possibly hike. Idiots that we were, we decided to do this late in the day, and keep in mind this was April - many roads were still closed in areas due to snow.

So we picked a trail that sounded good - Hidden Lake, I think it was called - and started up the mountain. As we rounded a curve in the one lane road, going up the side of this mountain, we came up on snow. Since we were in a 4WD SUV, DH took one look at this small spot of snow, which hadn't melted as it was in the shade of the mountain, and said no problem, we can get thru that. After all, there were tire tracks in it - someone had gone before us.

But no sooner had we started to drive thru it, than our back tires started sliding...towards the edge of this mountian road, with nothing but a drop off on the other side. Talk about losing your stomach...we prayed for safety and forgiveness for our stupidity, and Dh made me get out of the vehicle while he backed up the SUV, with me guiding him to get the tires back into the tracks already there.

What did we do then? Stopped and took pictures, of course!

While we were there, we went antique shopping, went on long drives, drove to Whitefish, MT, and went to Glacier National Park, which we were unable to get all the way in to since only 11 miles of the road into the park had been cleared.
















Since we live in central Arkansas, where it rarely snows and 1" is enough to shut down the city, we were overjoyed to wake up to a winter wonderland one morning.















The entire trip was just perfection. It was very hard to get on the plane and come home, because Montana felt like home, like no other place I've ever been has before.

So at some point, should the Lord tarry and should He choose to lead us there, we hope to make it a permanent address. Our tentative plans are to pay off our home, fix it up and sell it, then move to Montana and pay cash for a nice spread there. This way I can return to school for physical therapy and DH can do whatever he wants, as long as he brings home enough money for food, utilities, and yarn, of course!