Back Story: Montana Continued...

To Wisconsin and Back Again

When you mention Montana, most people think about the beautiful mountains, vast forests, and miles and miles of winding roads. Not many people realize that more than half of the big state is covered in Great Plains, meaning miles of flat land as far as the eye can see. As a matter of fact; almost the entire drive from Gardiner, MT to River Falls, WI is flat boring country. Don't get me wrong, there is so much value and beauty there, in it's own way; but driving for almost a thousand miles with barely a clump of trees here and there is very boring.

The drive is made much less boring when you have a companion to chat it up with though, and thank the Universe that I did this time. The Mountain Man I picked up, was a joy on the ride, we laughed and chatted the whole first few hours. Right around going through Billings, MT I noticed a hitchhiker on the side of the road, so I pulled over for him. He was a slender man in his later years and he was walking a little peculiar, to which I paid no attention to at first. In my rear-view mirror I saw him waving at me, but it wasn't a wave "hello" more of a wave you would see someone telling you to keep going. How strange, why would a hitchhiker be waving to me to keep going? The Mountain Man got out of the car to see if he could give the guy a hand, then I noticed his luggage. Yes, luggage. This guy started wheeling two suitcases packed with stuff strapped to them towards my car. I looked around for my Mountain Man and saw that he was coming out of the ditch with two more suitcases! Luckily for this hitchhiker, I was on my way to pick up stuff and so all I had in my car was some emergency things and road trip snacks. The hitchhiker, named Orville, and my Mountain man got his stuff all packed into my trunk and back seat of my car. Orville, Mountain man, and I all introduced ourselves and I laid out some ground rules for riding in my car, it was at this time that I noticed why he was walking so goofy, he was wearing medical walking braces on both feet. While he clambered into the back seat, I gave Mountain man a look, which he reciprocated and we took off.

"Glendive, no further!" Orville shouted as we merged back onto the freeway.

"We are heading that direction, so we can take you the whole way." It was my first reaction.

Glendive, MT From Billings, MT is 218.8 miles or 3 hours and 9 minutes. I had no idea the experience I was about to have....