Ha. I bet by the time we get back home on this road trip I’ll be up to Part Ukubillion!  You can see Canyon Creek down there; we parked right at the bridge.  You can see the sandbar where we saw the pelicans last time.

Right now,  we’re still in the Shields River Valley, looking with awe at the Absaroka Mountains.

One of the things we were loving most about this trip was the lack of traffic. It was unusual to see more than one or two cars or pickups within a fifteen minute stretch.  We had the roads pretty well to ourselves so that if I had a “Oh my gosh! We have to take a photo of that!” moment, it was easy to just stop in our tracks so that Nolemana could take the photo.

See what I mean?

This barn looked to be in good enough shape to still be functional.

Okay now, try look this!  An old cabin (maybe a fishing cabin?), right on the river.  I could see myself, out there on the porch with my spinning wheel, and Nolemana nearby, fishing for our dinner. Oh, the serenity of it all!

Try look!  Another car on the highway!  Oh, Montana, how I love thee.

We were getting closer to the mountains, and saw this old railroad trestle.  The trestle goes over the Yellowstone River.  And there is “no jumping or fishing from the bridge”!

I wish we could’ve seen a train rumbling over the bridge just then.

We are over the river in a heartbeat.  This mighty river flows through northwestern Wyoming southern and eastern Montana, and northwestern North Dakota over a course of 692 miles.

All too soon, we were leaving the backroads and heading back to the freeway.

But you know what?  This is Montana.  It’s not like we were immediately heading into major civilization!  Weʻre now on I-90 heading makai.

Nope. Not at all.

Next to the road were horses for Kikue and  a lone pīpī for AFK.

According to our notes, this is a view of the Crazy Mountains from a fire access road.

This sign is for the Livingston city center and the entrance highway for Yellowstone National Park. I love how, in May, everything is greening up, yet there is still snow in the highest elevations.

So tempting to just turn and go back!

Bozeman and ʻohana are just a few more miles ahead.

Now weʻre just starting over Bozeman Pass.  Weʻd been over this pass when there was a bunch of snow on the ground, but now the roadway is clear. Just seeing these photos again reminds me that thereʻs a webcam over the pass, and I love watching it throughout the winter.

Itʻs pretty amazing, really. Mid-afternoon, and thereʻs virtually no traffic.

We’re at the summit and about to head back down again. On the wintertime webcam, I can see a lot of snow and ice on the ground, and trucks stopping to chain up, but not today.

Amazing the craggy cliffs here!  Kikue loves seeing photos like this, so I always try and get a few for her.

Almost home. Yes, when we’re in Montana, my cousins’ house is home.

Cool da bison, yeah?  This is right in Bozeman.

And back at Cousins’ place, I delightedly took photos of “my” trains, the blue coal trains that went by a couple of times a day.  Now, my cousins tell me, there are tons more going by, all the coal heading to China. So then it comes back to us in the way of pollution. Go figure.

I still love the sound of the blue trains going by, though.

One thing we don’t have here in Damascus are Magpies. So I took a photo of one out in Cousins’ yard.  Cool manu, really.

Whew.  Pau dis part!