vacation

i am in the mood for a vacation. montana is on my list of places to visit and the mountain sky guest ranch looks stunning. or, what about renting the moosewood meadows house? montana appeals to me for a number of reasons:

• i love the idea of big blue skies, tall mountains and open space
• my grandmother's family used to live in butte, montana before moving west to california
• i have been to europe, the middle east, the caribbean, and more but i have yet to see many parts of the united states. 

jerry and i drove across country about ten years ago. we started in washington d.c., made our way to cincinnatti, stopped over to visit friends in chicago then stopped in madison, wisconsin. we drove through minnesota, south dakota, wyoming, utah. then we drove a bit out of the way to hit las vegas and arizona, then home. we did the drive in two weeks which gave us a chance to see the corn palace, badlands, mt. rushmore/crazy horse and wall drug in south dakota, yellowstone, the grand tetons, devils' tower in wyoming, as well as bryce canyon and zion national parks. we camped out half the time and tried to find small, local restaurants instead of fast food. the trip was fantastic - everyone should drive across once. the drive gives you a sense of the size of our country.