30 November 2009
Written by
joe (
)
Published on November 30th, 2009 @ 05:09:18 pm, using 217 words, 70 views
I have been checked out into the Sagebrush flats of Ft. Peck Montana. That part of season seems the strangest. I am on the road for a month with limited access into the real world. Wives and kids are a short tired conversations on cell phone in the evening. That missing element either keeps you distracted or compartmentalizes itself and you focus on the tasks at hand. The family is always with you, its just whether or not its a worrisom extra weight in the pack or instead that end of the day smile at the dashboard pictures on the way back in.
In all the outdoor endeavors I have found that immersion in pursuit of species carries the most revelations. You may be in guide day way too many with a bad back, but focossing through the sheer repetition will illuminate trends that only show to the grinder guides. You have to spend the currency of your hours to get there and that has cost.
So I am back, trying to swap a little windy hotel in Ft. Peck Montana for my comfortable home in Missoula.
Great to be home, it just takes couple days to put the knife and rifles away and plug back into emails, family dinners, and a bed with wife in it.
04 November 2009
Written by
joe (
)
Published on November 4th, 2009 @ 09:56:43 am, using 386 words, 84 views
I work most of November out of the very small Eastern Montana town Fort Peck.
I leave tommorrow to make the seven hour drive from my home in Missoula and each hour on the road will push me through the cultural cross sections of the state.
My hometown is the very liberal college city of Missoula. Its nickname across the state is “People’s Republic of Missoula.” No problem to find Tibetan goat cheese in Missoula and restuarants that serve a vegan menu. Along with the free thinking culture there is a heavy undercurrent of money. Missoula has so many outdoor lifestyle ammenties that it attracts people who have already made or inherited their fortune. Trustafarian isn’t an idea here its a population segment. You’ll see plenty of long haired mountain bike riders but their two wheels are going to be more expensive than most eastern Montana 4x4’s.
As you head out east and ride into the Highline area of Montana you run into the hard land of wheat farms and mining. People live here to work and its not a easy ride through the seasons. In the summer it bakes you and winter drifts in with 2 degrees being a nice winter day. It is not ground that suffers fools. The cultural fluff that puts a shine on Missoula and makes it interesting and cozy is absent out east. It works or it doesn’t. It survives or the wind blows it away.
So if you are ever in Ft. Peck Montana for breakfast don’t order a Super Mocha Latte Skinny 1/2 Chocolate with fresh ground Cinamon - Enjoy your strong black coffee. No they don’t have egg whites fluffed over fresh vegetable medley, but you can get a ham a cheese omlet with heavy hash browns. Fresh squeezed orange juice isn’t going to happen, but the concentrate stuff was mixed yesterday.
Now put your hat on tight, she is a blowing hard out of the north today.
I like the Utilitarian realities of life in eastern Montana. It is a step back in time without the busy encroachment of the have-to-consume culture.
However my home is in Missoula and I will always be a migrant worker out East. Fresh roasted red peppers, pesto, french bread, and goat cheese is a great apetizer to garlic encrusted elk tenderloins.
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