Mountains

Remy and I got up and bicycled (only a couple of miles) to breakfast on Main Street in Bozeman. The place is called The Nova Cafe. I had a turkey scramble and lemongrass/ginger tea. When I told the waitress "no toast," she asked if I would like a chunk of avocado instead. Of course I said, "YES!"

And I'm very picky about my Hollandaise sauce, having had my first taste at Cherie Inn, but this was just delicious and conservatively presented, not drowned in it.

After breakfast, I took Remy's kennel to a nearby pawn shop. I didn't get much for it, even though it was barely used, but I couldn't keep carrying it and the cart, and besides, he never used it. Then, we picked up Tayler, got her some spending money, and dropped her off for breakfast at ... you guessed it ...The Nova Cafe. She had seen my pictures!

I was going to check out a second hand clothing store or two before leaving Bozeman, but the wanderlust took hold, and I heard myself saying, "You have enough clothes. You don't need anything," even though almost everything I brought with me is for bike riding, so it would be nice to have a couple more items that don't look like I just dismounted. 

Remy and I zoomed off out of Bozeman on a two-lane country highway -- and when I say "zoomed," I mean it. The speed limits on these back roads are 70 mph, except where curves are marked lower. It's a little disconcerting when you don't know what's coming. I'd come up a rise and not know if the road was going to turn as I topped the hill - a little scary. Our destination was White Sulphur Springs, a tiny town north of Bozeman with a hotel that features pools filled with the sulfurous waters that occur naturally there. This particular place, The Spa Hot Springs Motel, boasts that they empty the pools every day and refill them, thus enabling them to keep things hygienic without using any chemicals. 

The cost was $7.00, and Remy was admitted since he's a service dog. I tied his leash to a pole by the pool, and he curled up against the extreme wind that was raging about us. I read my latest Harry Dresden and stayed in the pool for at least 30 minutes. On my way out, I noticed a sign for "Hot Pool," which was indoors, under cover. As soon as I opened the door, I knew neither Remy or I would stay in there for long, but I did take a short dip. I'm used to 105 degrees. I'm guessing this was higher. 

After a quick burger and a fuel fill-up, we hit the road to Helena. I had considered staying in White Sulphur Springs, but the clerk at the hotel actually talked me out of it. She said there really isn't much to do there, especially on Sunday. 

We're in Helena now, at a Baymont Inn. Tomorrow, I hope to discover some bike trails and interesting shops and restaurants in Helena, and maybe stay another day. I need to do laundry and make a couple of phone calls to businesses in GR to get some things straightened around. Wherever we go from here will most likely be on the way toward Missoula. If the temps improve, I'd like to do some camping. I have everything I need, still in packaging. 

Now, about those mountains.

I've been in the Appalachians and the Rockies before. I am always impressed by how small and insignificant I find myself, and all of us, to be. The mountains are vast, and even the fields and prairie below spread out so far and wide it is hard to imagine knowing the land even fairly close to one's home. And yet, we humans maintain roads and bridges and homes in this enormous, windy, landscape, insisting on our enduring "selfness" amidst the inclusiveness of life/death/nature. As I came around a bend upon a particularly stunning panorama, I thought of the idea of God creating this, and how easy that is to believe. And then I thought of letting go of ego and being it instead of seeing it. Lovely. Peaceful. Inspiring. Letting go.

There's no way to convey the effect of any of this scenery with an iPhone from a moving vehicle.