Helllloooo, Darlings!!
After my short sojourn in my little bin, I am refreshed, recharged, and ready to go! And by the way, don’t you just LOVE how my mascara, glasses AND lipstick color coordinate?! And I think the green hat is such a lovely complement to the entire purple scheme going on💕💕. But, I digress...
We drove across ALL of North Dakota today.... and into Montana by about 100 Miles. Tomorrow, we will drive about 2/3 of Montana, before taking the last 1/3 into Idaho and then head a bit south to get home on Friday. You know you are in the West when it takes you all day or more to drive across the state!!
Most of North Dakota is bucolic, gently rolling hills, with miles of corn and cattle. Very lush at the moment, due to lots of rain. BUT, in the last quarter of the state, up until the very border with Montana, comes a sudden change in landscape.... stunning, as you can see!
These are the so-called Badlands... these photos hardly do them justice! We took a short detour to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, which encompasses ALL of these beautiful canyons and buttes, with lots of bison. But, don’t let this gorgeous landscape lull you - there is tragic history here... massacre of many native peoples by the US army, and in return, total decimation of Custer’s army by the Sioux. A very unpleasant chapter in our history, which echoes through many other conflicts, including current immigration policies over several recent and current administrations. Oy vey, quadrupled.
Shortly after leaving This park, we came into Montana and the Mountain time zone.... and in about 100 Miles, we reached our stop for tonight in Miles City, Montana. This city started as a fort in response to the Custer massacre, and has had a boom-bust-boom cycle like so many towns and cities in America. It appears to be doing very well at the moment, largely due to being a hub for livestock shows, auctions and so on. But I think much else, as well. Lots of energetic young people here, and new restaurants, housing communities, etc.
At any rate - here we are! A very pleasant mid-60’s this evening.... good sleeping weather! More tomorrow from Garrison, MT.
Ta, ta - and hello from that dog!
💋 Prudence
I'm so happy to hear that you're almost done with organisation and nearly ready to create again - we've missed your beautiful work. I'm on the other end of that mission - at some point later this year, I'm going to be packing up the entire craft room to move to Central Europe, and then there will be unpacking and organising galore... I'm still working on how to make sure I can keep creating despite the chaos. Good luck with your final stages, and thank you for your lovely comment today.
ReplyDeleteAlison x