postcards from Bozeman

Here are some sights from the very lovely trip we had to Bozeman last week. Let's start with breakfast on the second day on the road. Again, the Patient's favorite type of place.

He likes to have on-the-road meals with all the truckers who pull into Rest Areas to sleep.

We got to Bozeman on Thursday afternoon. Here is the Mansfield-Davis B&B where we stayed. In the morning early I looked out the window to see their nearest neigh-bors. It's hard to see these two beauties, but they're out there placidly munching the tall grass.


Later in the day we went downtown with Caitlin to pay our annual visit to the Bozeman Public Library, an institution that even the largest city would love to have. A beautiful building, great setting, fabulous holdings. Then we walked down Main Street to check out the action. It was Crazy Daze, like a giant sidewalk sale. All the merchants had hauled stuff out on the sidewalks. That was fine until a fierce rain and hail storm hit, flooding the streets in about 10 minutes.


We took shelter in a store, the owners of which were madly pulling things out of the rain, until it let up enough for us to dash back to the library parking lot where Cait had left her VW, sun room open just enough to let in a good sprinkling of water. By the time we got back home the storm had let up and the sun was out again. Later on the clouds rolled back in and provided us with a gorgeous sunset.


Saturday we went to the Museum of the Rockies to see again the dinosaurs that have been found in Montana, but this time also to see an exhibit of the industrial designer Raymond Loewy. This man designed all sorts of great stuff; logos (Lucky Strike, Shell Oil, US Postal Service), appliances, train cars, airplanes, and a fantastic jukebox that is a true work of art. Saturday night we drove over to Livingston to Cait and Mike's favorite steak house for a birthday dinner for the Patient. One more year under his belt!

On Sunday we took Ike the Wonder Dog up to the reservoir for a swimming lesson. Mike is training Ike to be a hunting dog, to fetch downed birds on land or in the water. This was Ike's second lesson and I must say, for a mere baby (4 months) he is very impressive. He was somewhat hesitant to jump right in to fetch the buoy, but with a bit of encouragement (such as pushing his rear to the water's edge) he finally got the hang of it. Mike tossed the orange floater into the water, called "Fetch it up!" and Ike was after it.


Then, of course, he had to shake off and spend the next 10 minutes sniffing out the picnic area. It was considered a successful lesson by all.

The reservoir is about 12 miles from their house and is a place used by swimmers, boaters and fishermen ~ and dog trainers. The setting is beautiful; wooded and lush with wild flowers. This is the view looking north.


Looking south you can see the snow that remains in the mountains


They will have only another two months before the snow starts again in the high elevations. While we were there we had rain, hail, fog, wind (70 MPH winds shut down the airport on Wednesday night), heat, more rain, an a couple of absolutely perfect days. In fact, it rained almost every day or night. That's why it's still so green and lush.

The rest of the time was spent relaxing, reading (I spent one whole day reading a new John Harvey procedural; I love his books), playing with and walking the dog, watching the weather roll in and blow out, and generally loafing. Tuesday we packed up, and Wednesday we headed home. We drove through the Gallatin canyon this time, along the rushing Gallatin river. It is quite full this year; they had a big snow melt that has kept the river high. Then into Idaho, out of Idaho to Elko, NV. We stopped for the night, then headed home on Thursday morning. We arrived back in the early afternoon.

So there you have it. Here's what I learned about the four states we visited.

•CALIFORNIA ~ full of smoke
•NEVADA ~ full of cactus
•IDAHO ~ full of potatoes
•MONTANA ~ full of mountains.