Miles City, Montana

Changing Plans
After slaving away for the last month, trying to arrange our itinerary, the weather arranged it for us. We kept checking online, and things kept getting worse. Thunder storms. Then, 60% chance of precipitation. Then, 80%. "Self," I said to myself, "we need a cabin."

Scott protested because he really wanted to try his tent in the rain. The thought of sleeping in the van with tons o' stuff and a wet dog, however, had me setting us up with the KKK--the KOA Kamping Klub. Right, I know--people who put "K" where they should put "C" should be at least partially flayed. But let's face it--they're fairly cheap, have a great online set up for planning, and they have really "Kewel" kabins. (Dang, this is getting worse than the Kinetic Sculpture hype.) One room, just wood, some plugs (glad we brought the heater and the hot pot, cause it was freezing!), a double bed, two bunks.



We were snug and happy and I could work, work, work grading away. (Ugh--but it's that end-o'-the-quarter grind.) I was also stoked to find I am getting two more classes this fall: mythology and tech writing at Pierce and grammar at UMUC (U of MD U College). YES!

To Big Timber, MT
So the KOA that was a decent distance (450ish miles) from Spokane was in a tiny blip of a place that is really part of a wonderful, eerie spread of rolling green pasture and rocky spires. The myth students were just finishing up writing about how Native Americans viewed land and landforms, and one of them used one of the extra readings to remind me of a wonderful vision:

Often, after a mythic event, a mythic figure will come to inhabit a certain land form. People can feel their presence lingering as they walk along a ridge that is the twisting body of Great Snake or see a rock that is a monster's heart. Lakota elder Lame Deer says that a long time ago when the world was still new, a water monster named Unktehi caused a great flood that flushed all the people from the soil. After the flood, Unktehi turned into stone and came to live in the badlands where her backbone forms a long ridge and her vertebrae stick out in a neat row of red and yellow rocks. The story does not end there, for it is not a mere explanation of why a land form looks like it does. Rather, it is a key to why the land has the power it does. Lame Deer goes on to say, "It scared me when I was on that ridge, for I felt Unktehi. She was moving beneath me, wanting to topple me."[11]

...Native American cultural leaders teach that this spiritual presence is not necessarily a permanent condition, but can only exist with the context of an undisturbed natural setting. Substantial disruption of the natural pristine qualities of the Sweetgrass Hills will displease the spirit life and spirit powers, and may cause them to leave forever.[19]

Protecting a few vision spots while mining the rest of the Hills does little to solve the problem, since the spirits of the land are interconnected. "These Hills are not just sacred in one place. Every bit of those mountains are sacred," Pat Chief Stick says simply.

--"Mountains Made Alive: Native American Relationships with Sacred Land" by Emily Cousins

Someone else referred to the sacred songs of the Lochsa River, where we hope to go near the end of this trip. Responses from students like this make you feel good about teaching. (We won't go into the other responses.)

A Long Day
The driving to Big Timber, while beautiful, was mostly pouring rain, making I-90 more interesting than usual. Also, we kept bemoaning the fact that we couldn't stop and explore about a zillion places. Since it took us 15 years (!) to get back here, my hopes aren't high, but they're still there for coming back and hiking some of this beautiful country.

There was also a bunch of road work that slowed things down, and we had forgotten the time change. This meant we got in about 7 p.m. I went right to work. It was a pretty exhausting day when I turned in past midnight. And by the way, my new Lenovo ThinkPad is fab!

Easing Up
We decided that night to do a wimpy 200 or so miles to the next KOA in Miles City. Still in Montana. This was a good decision! I can catch you guys up and maybe even work, while Scott gets to goof around on the front porch and stuff. (Hmm, wait a minute....) No, actually, he's doing the unloading the van, cooking the dinner househusband stuff while I work. Only a few more days!

The clouds are rolling in, the winds picking up. Yup, glad we went for Kabin #2.