It must be my Wild Mongol Blood......

When my father passed away and his DNA results came back....I was surprised and then not surprised to find he carries a large percentage of Mongolian DNA.....of course.....now I can at least rationalize why I have always ....been drawn to the grassy range land and deserts of the West. I love them....I love driving through them....it immediately opens your soul....it immediately makes your inner life feel bigger and less cluttered inside.

This past week.....people here at home....have asked me several times....did you really drive round trip to Seattle....Yes, I answer....and I watch their eyes glaze over.

True Kansas and Oklahoma are a bit tough....but the grass lands in Colorado and Idaho and Washington are well worth the sore butt and stiff shoulders from driving. The opportunity to pull over ...get out of the car and just stand there.....in the open space.....sometimes without another car passing by you for a long time....was precious.

Click on the pics to enjoy a bigger view.

Montana

After a white knuckle drive to Salt Lake City Airport (road construction, accidents), I picked up my hub and headed north. We finally broke through the traffic and stopped in the city of Brigham Young in order to catch our breath. There were several fruit stands along the road and my hub told me when he was a boy.....this whole area was covered with orchards and was known for fruit.

We bought a bag of Rainier cherries and it's a good thing the stand was closing because I would have turned around and bought them out. Incredible...fresh sweet fruit....which helped calm my nerves from this nasty drive through Salt Lake.

We hit Idaho....and the hills and sunlight immediately became softer and incredible as this sound....we shut off the AC and opened the windows. Idaho evenings are known for their soft breezes and coolness and it was fabulous after so much heat to drive down the interstate with natural air.

I found a new thing to obsess about today and that was the crack in my window shield. Yep, a rock must have struck the corner of the window shield and slowly a wonderful arching crack is developing.....I put a band aid over the crack....not to fix it....but to track how far it was spreading......because there is not a fricking thing I can do about this.....

Today we visited a friend in Idaho.......and headed through Montana to visit another friend in Bozeman. The valleys were delightful......and even though it was overcast it didn't rain till we reached our destination.

After a tense few days of driving it is wonderful to have a traveling companion.

Tomorrow we head towards Glacier....with a good weather forecast....and excitement about staying in the "Big Tree" National Park Lodge.