Malta - Day 5
8/7/06
I met my boss at the airport about noon. His job is to check out this field area for its potential as a working site and training area for students. I have this sneaking hunch that, when it is 97 and 110% humidity in Raleigh, day or night, his REAL reason for coming here might enhanced by the promise of 55 degree mornings, and our late summer 4% humidity. He got the rental car from the Bozeman airport, and followed me down the 20 or so winding miles of country back roads to get to the ranch where I am staying for the summer. I had fun showing him how "real westerners" drive! Montana has only had an official speed limit for about 5 years or so. I learned fast. I mean, FAST.
I had most things ready to go, so we loaded all the gear into the rental, and headed east to Big Timber then straight north in an unbroken line for Malta. A slightly different route this time, but still just as straight and bleak. Two and a half hours of getting caught up on department issues (lots of changes), Raleigh news and politics (ummm...), and North Carolina weather (hot, wet, humid and 95 degrees since late May, perhaps cooling to 90 in the evenings), then we stopped in Lewistown for gas and food. I love this little cow-town, sitting completely alone in the geographic center of the state, an anomaly for its beautiful stonemasonry and very few timbered buildings. There are no trees here for building materials, and in the days of the Copper Kings and the building of the railroads, there were even less. But, you can see the pride that the immigrant settlers took in their handiwork, and the talent they brought from their homelands. The buildings still stand 150 years later, with all their intricate designs and embellishments intact.
Food, gas and ice-filled coolers later, we head north again, for another 2 ½ to 3 hours, and again the familiar names pop up on the road signs. This way to Winnet, straight ahead to Malta, past Zortman, Harlowton, Judith Gap...we stop in Malta for an ice cream cone, and head on to the little cabin once again. Not much has changed--but there is a newspaper on the bed we didn't leave, and we had to call the manager for the key. Out here, you trust the neighbors, it's the newcomers and passers-through that make the padlocks a necessity.
So, we unloaded and sat on the little porch in our borrowed chairs, fighting mosquitoes and watching the incredible prairie sunset, only tearing ourselves away from the view after the colors had all faded to black. One thing I am so impressed with is the absence of human sounds. Wind in the tall, dry grasses, prairie birds singing their night songs, crickets and frogs, but no television sounds, no booming music, no cars, no voices.
Dinner was mac-n-cheese over the Coleman stove, and finally bed, in the cooling night. The sun goes down, and mosquitoes come out in force, but the temp drops rapidly, until it is quite cool. My boss struggles to put up his tent in the dark, cussing out mosquitoes every other second, and me--I am in the cabin. Hot, but I had a bed! This is the kind of boss-employee relationship I like!
Posted at 01:11PM Aug 17, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]