Back to Montana we go. Going get plenny ʻānuenue this time. The clouds were getting darker, but there was no rain.

 

The sun was behind us though, and about 63°, and through the dark clouds, we suddenly saw this ʻānuenue over the northeast hills.

We just had to take another photo, because it was so nani.

Straight on to Butte we were going. This would be new territory for us since last time we took the journey over to Helena.

The rainbow was still there, the sun at our backs making it last for a long time. This combination of light is one of my very favorites, dark up ahead, light behind. Thereʻs just something about this kind of light that fills my senses with joy.

Straight up into the clouds rose the ʻānuenue.

Thereʻs a saying about Montana, that you can knit a whole sweater as you travel across the state. For this island girl, the distances were so vast, the spaces so wide open, and the sky so big, that it was hard to take it all in. Island girl I am, to the core, but I also love being able to stretch out across all these distances.

Out to the front of us were the lovely snow-capped Rocky Mountains, reminding us that spring comes late to this part of the country.

The pastures were really greening up, and though it was spring down here at freeway level, up there it was still winter.

ʻĀnuenue colors against the wheat-colored hills. Absolutely stunning.

Now it looks like the other end of the rainbow… see how it’s curving back the other way?

I especially love this photo because of the contrast of the rainbow, the golden fields, and the red roofs. Oh. Red Roof Inn mebbe? Ahahaha. How many of us from Hawaiʻi know about dat, yeah?

Looks like the rainbow is a curved staircase going up from the hill!

But if you look close, you can see how it goes all the way down to the ground. I don’t see a pot of gold, however.

It started to fade out a little, and I hated to lose it.

I think one of the reasons we took so many rainbow photos was because of all the contrasting colors, from the rainbow, to the coulees, to the sky, to the winter trees.

And try look how the sun is so bright on the hills now! See what I mean about the contrast between dark and light? Kinda like life, yeah? Because life isn’t all just one color; there’s always a bit of both in all of it.

Try look!! One puka in da clouds!!

He couldn’t turn around very well, so I asked Nolemana to take a photo of the sunset in the rear view mirror. So funny to see how objects are really closer, but the sunset wasn’t!

Kinda kewl, yeah? I think we were just about to Butte by this time.

We could just see the last of the sun’s color up ahead on the hills. We sure weren’t going to make it to Bozeman by dark!

Civilization up ahead!

The highway curved, and we could see the sunset in front of us now.

Oh my goodness, it was so nani!!! When I see sunsets like this, I often wish they could last a lot longer. But I guess that’s part of the beauty of them; you have to appreciate them as they happen, and be grateful for what we have in the present. And if you’re lucky, you have a photo to remember it by. I took the next two photos from the gas station, looking back the way we’d come.

Too often, I think, we’re so focused on getting someplace that we can miss all the beauty that surrounds us. To me, it’s about the journey, not the destination, and I enjoy so much along the way. Which is, of course, why we take so many photos. I always think of my sista Izzie, at times like these, for she truly has learned how to live in the moment.

Rain coming down through above the street lights in Butte.

And here we are in Butte. We stopped here to get gas and to find a Subway so we could get sammiches for dinner.

Which leads me to a really wonderful part of our journey. I was parked at the gas station and Nolemana was filling the gas tank. I turned to the wahine at the next pump over and asked her if she knew if there was a Subway nearby. Why, not only did she, but she would lead us there…it was just up the road! I demurred, not wanting to bother her, but she insisted. She was so friendly, and so eager to help, that I said, “Well, sure then!”, as I was thinking, “Lead on, McDuff!” (Ho, da wahine knows Shakespeare anden!)

We both finished filling our tanks, and Susie got into her old pickup, and she led us about a mile or so up the road, right to the Subway. We pulled up beside her and thanked her again and again. We felt as though we’d made a friend. She waved us on, and off she drove. We will never forget her.

So if you’re ever in Butte and run across a really friendly woman named Susie who drives a pickup and knows exactly where the Subway is, tell her we said hi!

Blurry photo taken just as we were leaving Subway, looking back down the way we’d come.

By this time it was getting too dark to take anymore photos, and this is the last one we took. I think it’s the old train depot, but I’m not sure.

We still had about an hour and a half to go, over Homestake Pass, which was pretty wild in the dark. But we made it and were warmly greeted by T (J was in Pullman, Washington, and would be home the next day). We were all pretty tired, so pretty much just unloaded the car, took our showers, and fell into bed. What a day of adventuring and beauty we had!