Magical, it is!

Montana, Montana,

Glory of the West
Of all the states from coast to coast,
You're easily the best.
Montana, Montana,
Where skies are always blue
M-O-N-T-A-N-A,
Montana, I Love Youuuuuuuuuuuu.

Picture a group of about 10 lifelong friends singing with gusto this state song for Montana.  10 grown, of-sound-mind, productive adults, surrounded by stunned folks from the far reaches of other regions. The others are stymied by the love affair these usually sane friends have with their state of origin, even when some have moved away from Montana.

Yes, I’ve been a part of this Seattle party bunch for a number of years. A Seattle 'Montana' party is always thrown when we visit our transplanted friends. And never does an evening end without our traditional and quite unique rendition of our state song. Comes from all those 4-H days we spent together building our characters and friendship, I’m sure.

Here's our first party in 1987:

And it grew even larger:

Maybe by now you can tell I love my state.  And we love to celebrate it!

But even better yet, I love exactly where I live. Before you read on, go back to the top of this page and take a good look at the picture on the masthead.

Ok, are you back?

That picture is taken from my deck just outside my kitchen window. What you see is the panorama I get to look at every single day as I awaken over a cup of coffee or as I read my Bible in my nest in my bedroom. In the summer months, sometimes it is over a 9 pm farm supper. What you see is the Yellowstone River valley, the foothills where I work and finally the glorious Beartooth Mountains, which frames the northeast entrance to Yellowstone Park (can’t quite see the ‘most beautiful highway in the USA’ per Charles Kuralt but almost ~ the Beartooth Highway)  Matter-of-fact, where my husband grew up just 12 miles north of here they could see 4 mountain ranges from there - the Beartooths, the Crazys, the Pryors and the Snowys.

But wait, we aren’t done.

Turn around. Actually, we are quite lucky that we can’t see it. It is I-90. I walk up over its overpass sometimes on my morning walk. You can barely hear the traffic noise. But within a mile, I can get on this thoroughfare and within 40 minutes be Billings and to all the shopping that a Montanan needs (well, maybe Cheesecake Factory hasn’t made it yet but you sure can get a great prime BEEF dinner here in Montana!). Billings is the metropolitan center of Montana. We have a class act medical community, cultural arts, breweries (always 5 o’clock there), friendly people, a thriving business community and a great climate.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/30000.html  (Check out the persons per square mile!)

I tell people that I live in a perfect place: An hour from the mountains and an hours from the metropolis. Thank you, Grandpa Joe, for landing this chunk of a great state some 70 years ago!

By The Way: That’s our Pride-and-Joy Field in the forefront of the masthead picture. A field that can actually make it rain when the hay is cut. It’s Magic!

Hmmmm, I thought my “M” words were mountains and metropolis and enter stage left was Montana   But maybe all along it was     ‘Magic’!    Magical  Montana. Sweet!

Cheers!