Get me to Montana!

I have traveled to Montana twice by train, twice by car, and four times by plane. I've really enjoyed all of these trips. They have taken me through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Denver, Iowa, Indiana, the Dakotas, Idaho, big towns, small towns, past monuments, and fields of canola, corn, soy and native prairie grass. Over the Mississippi and the Missouri. Past grazing land and reservoirs. Over shocking mountain ranges. Through wide open spaces and jet black tunnels. It is a different kind of traveling to get to known the heart of the country so intimately. It is not as glamorous as a trip abroad, or as luxurious as stretching out by a pool. It feels hardier. Like getting in touch with what this country is.

The people that I met on the train left such lasting impressions. I only knew them for two days. But I remember what they look like, what they were wearing, where they were going, where they were from. They are vivid- like

part of a book that I read.

From the sky the scenery is different. The people don't stand out as much as the land below. Traveling by plane makes you realize the closeness of things- how four hours can separate what on the ground seems like different worlds, but what from the sky seems like something at peace and at one with itself. From the sky the world is predictable. I like knowing that beyond the horizon of the great lakes comes rolling green landscapes, dotted with silvery lakes, and after those, endlessly fertile fields and lonely grazing lands that eventually give way to towering mountains. For as long as I am- those will be too.

And then there is the car- the car is like having your cake and eating it too. You get to borrow a moment in someone else's life, in another place in the world. I think that I love that most of all.

Love,

Zoe