About a recent trip from Sacramento to do some work for some good folks in Helena, Montana... United doesn’t fly into Helena and I am a slave to frequent flyer miles so I flew in to Bozeman, the Northern Gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Bozeman is 90 miles South of Helena…part freeway and part highway. The first stretch is about 30 miles along Interstate 90. It is in a valley and the mountains of Yellowstone are not too far off on the right.
At the turn off from Interstate 90 to head north is a community known as Wheat, Montana. There are signs advertising a bakery/deli there that get you to thinking a quick stop would be good. It’s interesting. The place has an official Guinness World Record announcement hanging on the wall…the record is for the fastest from field to table, that is, unharvested wheat to bread…8 minutes and 24 seconds! For some reason they used microwaves in the process and I guess that speeded things up. There is other stuff on the wall indicating the "Today" show has been there checking things out also.
I had a terrific cup of soup with a fresh French roll followed by a very nice cinnamon raisin roll and a fine cup of decaf (too late in the day for regular). It seems there are more people in the deli than there are in the whole town…lots of locals with the farmers apparently coming in for treats.
Pulled out of there pretty satisfied and headed up the two-lane highway about 60 miles to Helena. There was some tall (about a foot) wheat stubble in the fields around, lots of fresh snow and purple mountains off in the distance. So, you guessed it, I started doing my best imitation of Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful”. You know, “amber waves of grain, purple mountains majesty” and all that stuff. Killed (and I don't mean in a good way) the song pretty good on the road that day…
It’s great being out on a good, fairly quiet road with all that beauty unfolding in front of you – lets you unload the vocals and brain cells a little. Only thing better would have been to be there on the Harley-Davidson Road King instead of in a rental car, with Julieann tucked in behind me, keeping my butt and heart warm…
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