It’s a Big Dam Country — Day 24

Not so much a trip report as a weath­er report.

There’s weath­er approach­ing from the north­west (hel­lo cana­da, hel­lo snow) and I’m head­ing, um, north­west. Some­where the snow and I are going to meet. I was just hop­ing to pick the spot.

I chose Billings, MT.

So off I went. 

I did stop in Mal­ta, briefly. There was a clas­sic rail depot that’s still in use.

And of course the grain elevator.

It start­ed rain­ing about then. Nasty, cold, Seat­tle in Novem­ber rain. Long straight roads with few oth­er vehi­cles. Kind of a zen thing — I go up the rise, I go down the rise, I go straight across the val­ley, I go up the rise, I go down the rise…

At one point I looked up in the sky and saw a heli­copter. A big heli­copter. It was green and gold and it was fly­ing low. WTF. Not state police and not life flight. No TV logos. Just big, and look­ing like it want­ed a place to land. Real­ly lousy weath­er to be fly­ing in.

This is what the sky looked like. When it was­n’t raining.

At Billings I stopped and called home for recon help. It looked like­ly that I could make Liv­ing­stone before it start­ed to snow/get dark. Jim sweet­ly made me a hotel reser­va­tion. I grabbed a star­bucks and head­ed west again.

About 10 miles out­side of Liv­ingston the rain turned to snow. 

Even the locals are a bit nonplussed.

OTOH My life isn’t as bad as the guy I just met in hotel hall­way. Remem­ber what I said about a big green and gold heli­copter? They just bought it and are try­ing to fly it to the coast. Maybe they should rent a truck? 

Ran­dom Stuff:

If wish­es were wings I could fly to the moon.

The music to day was unre­mark­able. Except, maybe, a cou­ple of Pat­sy Cline tunes.

Today’s Route:

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