Ho.  Weird.  My first real blog post ova hea.  We’ll see how it goes. Everything looks the same as on HawaiiStories, but somehow I feel just a bit unanchored.  Oh.  That’s not a word.  Too bad.  It’s how I feel.  I left Lika all by herself ova dea.  But I digress.  We stay going back to Montana.  Hele on!

We got to my cousins’ hale late, like at about 9 p.m.  We could smell the chicken tortilla soup that T had made; she said “No problem, we’ll just have it tomorrow”.  J had been in Pullman, Washington, for the weekend, and he wasn’t there.  We were so tired that we just showered and went to bed after talking stories with T for a bit. I really enjoyed the one on one time with her.

The next day was gorgeous. This is the view out of J and T’s deck. Those are the Bridger Mountains straight ahead. That’s what I love about Bozeman; there are mountains everywhere.

Ho, that was easy!  No more photobucket. Just upload directly! Whoot!

We stayed home and later in the day J got home; it was so good to see him.  Talking stories over chicken tortilla soup and a salad = perfection. The comfort and ease we always feel with these two special people is balm to my soul.

The next day while J and T were at work, and Nolemana was doing computer kine stuff, I drove into town and went to the yarn shop in Bozeman.  That was fun, and I got to meet Barb, the owner.

There was a whole bin of mohair locks.

The store was light and bright and I thoroughly enjoyed shopping there. I even got some bison yarn.  Ho da $$, but I was glad to get it.

J and T told us that we’d probably really enjoy a drive along Highways 86 and 89 up into the Bridgers, so the next day, that’s what we did.  Up Bridger Canyon Road.

We started out heading mauka north out of Bozeman. It was a gorgeous day; the sky was so blue and the air was crisp and clean. And still get snow!

Yep.  That’s where we’re going.

I will always be an island girl. I am most at home near the ocean. But the big sky country of Montana tugs at my heart, too.

This early in May, everything was so green and nani.

Then we passed beneath the “College M”, a 250-by-100-foot limestone majuscule M (yeah, I had to look up that word…it means “large lettering, either capital or uncial, in which all the letters are usually the same height.”) built into the side of Old Baldy within sight of Bozeman.

We started climbing a bit. Bozeman is about 4800′ in elevation, and we were gonna go even higher.

As you know by now, I love the look of roads curving up ahead.  Cuz you never know what’s going to be around the corner in new places. Advencha!

There was a river down there, but get so many rivers here that I have no idea which one this was.  I could live with that view!

Another thing that was wonderful was the lack of traffic!

K’den. I see it’s not always going to be easy to make my photos all the same size. No biggie, right?  Who needs perfection, anyway?

Oh!  U like see wea we stay going?  K’den.

Truly one canyon drive.

I also love rail fences.  Betcha didn’t know that.

Up ahead were the forested mountains.

New spring green!

And in contrast, snow on the mountains.

See what I mean?  Big sky.

You know that I love taking photos of old, abandoned, houses. Even though they’re so sad looking.  I think how someone once lived in them and loved them, and now they stand like this one, with broken windows and stacks of tires on the front porch.

Did a young girl ever looking out of this window, wondering if her boyfriend would come riding up on his horse?  Or did a mother stare out, wondering when the snow would be gone?

This old barn looked sad, too.

Talk about contrast. This huge place was for sale.  We looked it up later and was ukumillion dollars.

Wanna buy a ranch?

Snow!  It’s hard to describe how gorgeous everything was.  The snow against the blue sky, the mountains, the unhurried drive…

We’re in the middle of the Gallatin National Forest, and this is Ross Peak.   In the Bridger Range, it shares this part of the range with Sacagawea Peak and Hardscrabble Peak.

Google Earth shows how they line up.

Okay, if I have it right, there’s Ross Peak and Sacagawea Peaks.

I’m pretty sure this is Sacagawea Peak.  Montana version of Mauna Kea.  LOL.

Snow on the ground! Spring comes late to these Montana elevations.

Horse in the field of a pretty decrepit-looking farm. But he was well fed, so I felt good about that.  Kinda cool seeing the old equipment.

I think this is Ross Peak; there weren’t any signs to let us know, so I’m trying to go by what GoogleEarth is saying.  I also looked up photos in Google.  But if I’m wrong, please lemme know!

I think this is Sacagawea Peak.

 

I wish I knew for sure which peaks were which.  But what I do know is that these are part of the Bridger Range.  And it’s a beautiful sight, yeah?

We’re now here. Very interesting place this.

 

Why?  Cuz of this.

Wat?  Too small foa read?  Try dis.

K’den.  Ho, I wen make one big kine post ova hea at da new blog site. I feel pretty good about doing it.  Considering my un-geekyness. 

Stay tuned.. till bumbye, as Lika says.