I've been meaning to...

I need to take some pictures of the little town we live in. It won't take much. We have a Post Office, a bank, a little convenience store, and a hardware store. Oh and a Ranger Station for the Custer National Forest. It's a pretty basic town. Everyone has a Ranger Station in their town, right?

I was going to take photos last week but then Friday came with a bit of a snow storm. It wasn't much snow, really -- just a couple of inches. However, with the ice mixed with snow, it turned the roads into ice rinks. A total of five people from the community died while driving on Friday. Joe was behind one accident. He didn't see it happen, but he witnessed the aftermath. 

In light of the sadness around here, I didn't deem it appropriate to take some photos this week. 

This also serves as a caution to those who may come and visit us in the future. Snow won't be an issue if you come in the summer. However, just be careful on the roads for a couple of reasons. Route 212 has a lot of semi-truck traffic. Driving from South Dakota to Ashland, the road is pretty flat (and really boring). It's when you drive from Ashland to Billings that the road turns hilly and curvy. That's where most of the accidents occur and if you drive this way you will see the sides of the road littered with crosses where people perished in an accident. 

Why so many accidents? Why so many deaths? The speed limit is 70 during the day (65 at night and slower for trucks). People around here drive really fast and recklessly. Combined with a very limited hospital/emergency response team, this place is a bit dangerous for driving. 

Joe and I are very careful. We don't drive too much, since we do our grocery shopping every two weeks and we make sure to drive only during the day. 

So -- y'all be careful, too.

News

At what point do I stop reading the Chicago Tribune and officially move on from Chicago? 

It's just so hard, I tell you. We are here. No newspaper. No TV (yet) and I'm tired of reading CNN.com and MSN. For two news junkies like Joe and I, it's difficult not to go the Tribune's site to see what's happening in the world of corrupt politicians. Funny stuff...crazy, impeached governor; corrupt-so-badly-he-doesn't-know-who-he-last-paid-off mayor; oh-so innocent newly appointed Senator who claims he did lie. There's just too much not to keep up with. I even read the weather report. Why? Last I knew, Tom's Skilling forecast didn't cover eastern Montana. Maybe I was worried Chicago would be buried under 10 feet of snow and then the schools would actually close for a day. It would be just my luck. We move away and the city finally takes a snow day. 

I realize that we may not move back to Illinois (not any time soon at least). I guess I'll have to start reading the Billings Gazette and Ranch & Farm Weekly (real publication, folks), so I'm aware of any good news circulating around here. 

Recycling? Huh?

Ha. Like there's a recycling center near there. Pipe dream! 

People around here don't recycle, unfortunately. There's no place to take it. Well, not an immediate place to take it.  After a bit of research, because I cannot throw out glass bottles, tin cans, newspaper, plastic bags, and plastic cartons, I found recycling centers and drop off places in bigger towns in the state (like Billings has a lot of places to put your recycling). I just can't throw this stuff away when I know it's more beneficial if it's recycled. I just wish others here felt the same way and I've been told not to bring it up. No one will listen. 

There's always an adjustment moving to someplace completely new. We are officially adjusting to our surroundings and getting used to a slower pace of life.  

Mining

A couple weekends ago we drove from Ashland, MT to Sheridan, WY. It's a really pretty drive through the hills. However, once you get near the Wyoming border, there is a little (tiny, itty-bitty, blink and you'll miss it) town called Decker. What's so special about Decker? Other than being a home to say 5 people and a post office (everyone needs to get their mail), there is a huge (gigantic, enormous, bigger than this room) strip mine that is essentially "raping the land." Familiar with mining? Blast down inside the earth, take the coal, fill it back with slurry. That's the basic process and I'm aware of the generalization.

These are the photos I took as we drove by. Since it was a Saturday, there wasn't too much activity, but we can still see the damage. I took a few photos of what we saw before we entered this area and it shows hills with trees and life. This area used to be beautiful.

We also live near a little place by the name of Colstrip, another mining town (bigger than Decker) with a mine

and a huge power plant. I haven't see evidence of the land being raped but then again, I haven't driven around the entire area.

What makes me so, let's try and be nice about this, irritated about this situation? Hmmm... It's the 21st century and we are using 19th century technology to get the energy we need. It's time we move on from coal. The possibilities are right there waiting to be used: Hydro, Wind, Solar, Geo-thermal. It seems as though this area is stuck in a time warp. (Recycling -- or lack thereof -- is another issue that I'll be writing about next.) We also have bad drinking water (smells bad, tastes bad -- yuck), so we go to one of two sacred Native American sites where natural springs flow. If you come out here to visit, you'll see our water cooler. (I could totally start telling "water cooler jokes." Joe and I should have all of our conversations around the water cooler. So, did you see what Caitlynn was wearing today? That shirt does not match those pants. Where did she buy them? Walmart?) I'm wondering what's causing our water to taste horrible and can't help but think it has to do with some of the pollution in the area.

It would be one thing if other states weren't moving forward in this area. We drove through South Dakota to get here. As we drove along I-90 through some desolate areas, we saw windmill farms. I thought -- AWESOME!! Now, if we could utilize this energy producing method even more. And then Joe told me about ranchers that have decreased the amount of cattle they are grazing and putting up solar panels on their land to sell the energy back to the utility companies. DOUBLE AWESOME!! More positive ways to produce the energy we need. All hope is not lost.

The one area I completely disagree with President Obama is the idea of "Clean Coal Technology." Sure, they can put scrubbers on the stacks to filter out all the crud to reduce air pollution, but what about the slurry they shove back into the hills where they mined all the coal? Is that clean? And how safe is mining anyway? People need jobs. That I completely understand, but is there a way to put these miners in jobs producing cleaner energy? Just some thoughts...

What the land should look like.

2 hours from everywhere

Have you seen Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? No? Boy, are you missing out. It's one of my favorite movies, so don't watch it with me. I know every line and I'm one of those people that will say the line before it's said in the movie. Annoying, I know. 

Well --

There's a line in the movie: "This place is a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!"

That is how I feel about where we are. Joe warned me on the drive to our home in Ashland that eastern Montana and Wyoming on Route 212 before we see the little town of Broadus makes you feel like you're traveling on Mars. There isn't anything but land with a few hills and miles upon miles of fence. 

But that's a drive I don't plan on making again until we decide to go see Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower. 

We may not be 2 weeks from everywhere, but we are 2 hours from any good shopping areas. Two hours. Did I tell you the speed limit is 70 during the day (75 on I-90)? Yeah, that's two hours going 70 MPH. We shop for groceries in two different towns: Sheridan, Wyoming and Billings, Montana. Sheridan is a pretty town sitting near the mountains. Lovely place. It has a Super Walmart and that's about it (well, aside from a huge western wear store and some other novelty shops). Then there's Billings. It's the shopping mecca for folks who live out where we do. It actually has stores other than a gigantic Walmart. Walmart scares me. Perhaps it's because I've been living in Chicago for so long (only a couple Walmarts on the edge of city limits) where everyone shops at Target. Target is different -- better. Walmart feels like walking I'm walking into the Twilight Zone. So, I'm a Target snob. Got a problem with that? Good. And it's pronounced "Tar-jay." Get it right.

Oh and I did map out the nearest Ikea. Ha! We have to drive 500 miles to Draper, Utah. 

Road trip! Joe, pack up the car, we're heading to Utah!

Images from the area...