Traveling West

Salt Lake City

Hello,

There was a beautiful bright yellow field in the distance. “Do you think that could be rape seed?” I wondered. Rape seed is used to make Canola oil.

A little later a yellow field was right by the road and the sunflowers turned their bright smiling faces to the sun. Beauty is everywhere. The rolling hills grew into odd lonely grass covered projections that grew into mountains that were a lot of rock. Grass then was a scarce and valuable commodity with sage dominating the green choices. The Teddy Roosevelt National park overlook was great. It would have been a great place to see buffalo, but there were none in sight in spite of signs warning of their dangerous speed.

Somehow we did not bring our road atlas instead it was stored in Chariton. We also have ND, MT, and Utah maps, but not with us. Sign! It was easy to get across ND by just following Interstate 94. As soon as we got to MT we looked for an information rest area. This great stop also provided not only a MT map but also a WY map so we could plan our trip south from Billings. Yellowstone seemed like a nice route to take.

Leroy suggested that I stop at Mile City, MT to get gas and eat lunch. It seemed about the right distance on the great MT map. Just before this city was in sight, Leroy woke up. As I saw the first exit I asked should I get off here. Leroy was not with it enough to answer. I headed down the off ramp because I did not want to miss my stop. I was concerned since they had not listed any gas stations.

After driving what seemed like two miles we finally came to a town, but which way to go? Again Leroy had no idea so I made a decision based on feelings. We drove through the town and were again out in the country. It was time to ask. There was a Veterinarian’s office close. They would surely know the area. We had to back track for a few miles, but we had seen a nice city park on the way the first time. It was a great pleasant shady place to eat lunch. Then we made our way to the gas station that was at the second Interstate exit. The air in the town seemed to be so clear. Is there less pollution here?

Paula