Montana is big: I have probably crossed it nearly a dozen times and it never gets any smaller, or less windy.  It was all I could do to hold the wheel steady between the  lines in the strong winds.  And I added additional miles by going nearly across the state east to west and then nearly going across the state north to south, so I saw a lot of Montana’s big skies and felt a lot of the winds and endured the road construction with gravel trucks spewing rocks.  I guess you could say Montana is not one of my favorite states~~~even though it has its own beauty. But amid the Harley-Davidson traffic and endless rolling hills you will find some great people.

In Glasgow I stopped at the Chamber office and was immediately welcomed to the town and invited to Diane and Jim Brandt’s house in the country to photograph a real Montana clothesline!

Before I left town I noticed I was parked under a little clothesline with clothespins that were little office clips.  It was fun to photograph thoseagainst the blue of the Montana sky.

At Havre I “camped” at the fairgrounds, complete with Hwy 2 noise and rain puddles, all for the price of $25!!  Yikes, Montana has big skies, big winds and big prices for tourists.  But while there I met some nice folks who used to be from Duluth, MN, and who now live on the west coast.  Chuck and his wife Suzi.  The amazing thing is that Chuck and six others are bicycling from coast to coast~~~a 10 week journey averaging 75 miles or so a day.  They have a support trailer with scouts who go ahead and anticipate where they will camp for the night.  I am in awe of bicyclists~~~especially on roads like Hwy 2 with strong winds and lots of truck traffic.  The day I  met them they had the horrible wind I faced on their backs,  and Suzi said they had a record day of over 100 miles.  Even so, a mere 100 miles with a seat stuck up your butt is not my idea of fun.  Hats off to you, Chuck, for being fit AND brave!  And Suzi, I so much enjoyed visiting with you and hearing your ideas for where to live in Oregon.  Best wishes for the rest of your trip, and may our paths cross again!!

Missoula, MT, is close to the Idaho border.  I passed through Missoula and headed for Lolo Pass, getting there before the tourist information booth opened up at 8 AM.  This because the border begins Pacific time and I gained an hour.  PW Ford and the fluffsters liked the cool of the mountains after being in the heat of ND and MT.

North Dakota has a magic about it.  It might be the way the light falls, not having any trees to absorb the color.

My grandparents are all from Minnesota, so I consider myself a true Minnesotan, but I was born in North Dakota and graduated from high school there.  My mother resided in North Dakota until she passed on in 2006; my sister and family live in Bismarck and my daughter and family live near Fargo.  So I have a great loyalty to North Dakota.

I traveled to North Dakota on the first leg of my journey west in PW Ford.

Here are some photos of why North Dakota is so special

The day was just beautiful for kayaking into remote lake 958 in Itasca County.  Mary Shideler, aka The Kayak Lady, asked me, after we finished the adventure and were back at her house in Grand Rapids, MN: “How would you rate that lake in terms of getting in and out?”  I said, “Well, about a 5.”  This is on a scale of 1-10 for difficulty.  The road was good to get to the access, the portage was not very long, and we could pretty much float the boats into the main lake.  Yes, there were bugs; and yes, there was mud; but no steep cliffs, no loon shit, no barbed wire and only a small beaver dam.  In all, a piece of cake, and a nice first kayaking paddle experience for Dan, who was a natural from the start.

It seems fitting to start my Grand Adventure tomorrow with a kayak paddle in Itasca County, led by good friend Mary (aka The Kayak Lady) who will guide us on a trip into an isolated lake which will be lake number 958 in Mary’s quest to kayak all the lakes in Itasca County (1007 of them).  

Stay tuned for a report on how the day will go.

From Itasca County I will travel west to North Dakota to an all school reunion, then take several weeks to enjoy my journey to Oregon and Washington, where I plan to kayak with the killer whales near Port Townsend, WA.

I hope I will find some interesting road signs and also some clotheslines to photograph.  As much as I can,  I will stay on the less traveled “Blue Highways.” described by author William Least Heat Moon in his famous and inspirational book.

This journey is an awakening to new possibilities in my life after coming through the trauma of my mother’s death from cancer, my retirement from a job I loved, my leaving a man I loved, then moving to a brand new city where I become lethargic wth Lyme Disease.  In the midst of all this depressing chaos I was fortunate to meet Dan, the computer guru who suggested that I create this website and who has continued to guide me through this creative process, inadvertently giving me a new direction for my creativity.  Thank you, Dan, and thank you, readers.  What awesome connections we share!!

When I have traveled in the past I have done so anonymously, passing through places and personal interactions that are only known to me and my journal.  This journey will be different~~~there are a lot of you who click in to my site and I appreciate every single click.  I appreciate your interest.  I will try to provide some common~~~and some quirky~~~things to keep you clicking in.  No doubt the editing will be the most difficult, as life on the road offers a million things that delight, disgust and pique my investigations, not to mention my camera lens. 

Like my dad would say, “We are off like a dirty shirt!”

In the previous postyou can see a photo of the lovely Toad Trillium with variegated leaves and about ready to bloom. 

Mamma deer by trillium garden (see three variegated leaves in background)

In this post I must tell you that the lovely thing has been eaten by this mamma deer, who would not even budge when I came at her with my camera; I was hollering at her to SHOO!!  No doubt she was puzzled by the netting I had covered the trillium bed with in anticipation of a critter returning in the night. 

I thought it was a rabbit who had chomped off the bud, leaves and all—but now I know for sure who it was.  I have often been tempted to use a baseball bat to these deer, who desecrate every garden plant, every cedar tree, every flower without an 8′ fence to protect things.  

 

 

Munching on lilac leaves as I try to get her to Shoo!!

As I tried to get this one to leave, she lazily munched her way out of my yard: first on lilac leaves, then on maple leaves. 

 

I could see she had recently been a nursing mother, and her ribs were pretty obvious, so it was hard to be too upset with her.  But how I longed to see the first bloom on this plant I have so carefully nurtured!!

Hostas surround the north and west sides of my house

Enjoy some nice rain music HERE

And my favorite stormy Monday song HERE

This is the temp (F) on my deck today in Duluth, Minnesota.  “Colder by the Lake” is always true here where I live down close to Lake Superior where the average lake temp, year around, is about 38 degrees F.

The light was just right for about an hour, so I got myself outside in my yard, where it is beginning to feel like a rainforest~~all lush and green~~of course it could snow any minute, no kidding.

 

 

My Himalayan cat, Trillium, is named after the lovely trillium flower that blooms at this time in the spring when I brought her home from Michigan.  Trilliums are protected flowers in Minnesota so I could not dig any up in the wild to plant them.  But through a few phone calls last spring I discovered a place in Duluth where they are grown and can be sold.  I bought three or four different trillium plants (tiny little things in tiny little containers for the big price of $30).  I had little hope they would ever come up or bloom.  But, LO and BEHOLD the first to bloom was the common one with the big white flowers.  And now I have this delicate pink one that has bloomed, and the larger verigated leaf one that is about to bloom.  It is really fun to go out to the “Trillium Garden” under the birch tree to see their progress each day.    

One of my favorite northern flowers is the lupine.  The ditches here on the north shore of Lake Superior are filled with their beautiful blooms in pinks and purples. 

They just happily seed themselves, but are not happy to be transplanted.  I bought a couple of lupine plants from the greenhouse and LO and BEHOLD they are ready to bloom this spring.  I also gathered a bunch of seed pods from the wild ones in the ditch and scattered the seeds in a place in my front yard.  LO and BEHOLD I have two plants that are up.  Once they get established they usually will regenerate.  I love how their feathery leaves hold the rain like a bunch of diamonds. I am hoping I can see the blooms before I leave on June 17th.

 

Listening to Internet radio this morning and THIS song by LeAnn Womack came on.  It reminded me of all the people I know who have been afraid to dance and then have become brave enough to try it, and now could not live without expressing themselves that way.  My good friends Mary and Kim are good examples.  Can’t keep them off the dance floor, partnered or not.

Just the other night I was asked to dance and nobody else was dancing.  I said “Oooooh, maybe not, nobody’s out there.” My friend Jim said, “Come ON, who CARES?”  This from a guy who has just learned to dance and now has pulled out all the stops. Darn, If he was gonna’ dance, shy as he is, then so could I.  It was a bluesy song and soon we were doing all kinds of moves, which THEN prompted a host of other people to join us.  Soon the floor was full. That’s how it works, everyone WANTS to dance like nobody’s watching~~~~so ‘who cares” is right!!   HERE is a tune to get you started.  Maybe try a bit of THIS.  And a fabulous dance song to get you in the MOOD.  And who could forget THIS song?

I hope you dance.

My house has sold so the next part of my life adventure can now begin. 

Thanks to daughter Angie and hubby Kirk for their help loading the “treasures” to take home. I am so happy they could use all the items I cannot store (a 20-ft RV cannot accommodate a picnic table or a treadmill~~~lol) 

When I bought this house it was in a very sad state of affairs.  It had been completely neglected for years.  I loved the view of the lake, the huge 200 year old white pine and the possibility of renovation, which I consider my art work. This is the seventh property I have renovated.  I love the challenge of changing a homely and hopeless house into a thing of beauty and light for new owners.

If you listen to a house it will tell you many things, some of which you will not like. Some things you do not want to discover.  When the house is too resistant to change you have to have help, and then you call on a friend to use sage or sweet grass or other ceremonies to clear the bad vibes. It was a herculean job to change the energy here, but it did happen. 

Artists are never artists because of money, so with this economy I knew I would have to price the house below market value.  I had two offers in the first 11 days.  The first person backed out because I really didn’t want to sell my house to her so I would not negotiate on price.  Remember, I believe a house will tell you if it is happy with the next person who will live there; this house did not want that woman and her kids, period.  The next offer felt completely different, even though I have not yet met the buyers.  I know they are the ones to have this house and I trust my intuition. Of course, I do not have the check in my hand yet, so there are always glitches a person has to be prepared for.  

Let me take you on a little tour of what I love about this property.

Thanks for stopping by to take a tour.  The idea of purging all unnecessary “Junk” from my life is not new to me.  I have sold properties and traveled for a year two other times in the past.  Both those times I just had a mini-van, so this will be quite a luxury to have two wonderful companions (Iris & Trillium), PLUS indoor plumbing!!

People are often amazed at how I can just give stuff away.  Well, most of what we have is just that—stuff.  And furthermore, stuff we don’t need.  I love giving stuff away by the carloads.  I do not get attached to “things” in the way lots of people do.  How many pizza cutters does a person need?  Who really needs a 52″ television to be happy?  I bet I counted at least 15 different waste paper baskets that have accumulated here (do they reproduce or what?).  What in the world can a single person do with all those?  When I went to the recycling with “stuff” I noticed the electrical BIN was filled with 30″ TVs and computer after computer.  Folks, we have too much space here in the good old USA, that is why we are always trying to fill it up.  So my 20′ RV will serve me just fine and I bet I will still lose things!!  I am so looking forward to simplifying my life.  No matter how much I long for a double Lazy-Boy it is out of the question. 

What I am not fessing up to is my love of Walmart and furniture stores and buying paint at Home Depot.  I have a bit of withdrawal already.  We artists are always looking for our fix, and mine usually is a broken down house with good “Bones.”  Just think how good that Fuster art would look on THAT wall!   Stay tuned.

First of all, Happy Birthday Bob Dylan! We love THIS song.

And the lyrics, too.

THIS is a great theme song! (Thanks Traveling Wilburys)

I am longing for some WIDE OPEN SPACES~~~room to make a big mistake (Dixie Chicks)

Blogs have been few and far between lately.  Getting ready to roll in the RV.  House is for sale, family has taken a good share of stuff and now to do the rest of the packing. 

I am really looking forward to being on the road as it has been a long time since I have had the freedom to do a big road trip. 

Not sure how this blog will evolve.  If you have suggestions, leave a comment or drop me an email.  I am very grateful to my readers~~~as far as I can tell there are about 3,000+ of you a month from everywhere: lots of you from the states, lots of you using access from Amsterdam; readers from Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other places through Google and Yahoo that do not have a place name (Hello, Cuba!!). Many more click and move on without stopping on any post. 

So hang in there with me as we head out to discover what adventures await.  Iris and Trillium have had their hair cuts and will have their Vet exams; I have my new Passport, PW Ford has new license tabs, and mostly we all have a big desire to move from the winters of the northland. 

Our first destination is going to be to kayak one last time in MN, then move west to my North Dakota class reunion, then keep rolling west to kayak with the orcha whales and take in a writer’s conference.  That’s as far as our plans go.  Of course, if I could drive PW to Cuba, I would love to hear some true Cuban music.  Listen HERE

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