Welcome to the HiLine
where the wind and crickets sing
Last week, the much-anticipated Montana loop road trip took place, and it was indeed epic. As in, of epic proportions. Someone could write an epic (poem) about it. We didn’t trick the Cyclops or not-succumb to the sirens, but did Homer sail 1800 miles in 5 days? I doubt it.
I’ve lived in Montana close to three decades and had never experienced some of what I saw last week, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity. My sister Joan, a sound editor, came along and did the recording — audio, video, still images, — which freed me up to take care of the planning, the talking, and much of the driving. Her expertise will certainly become obvious when I am able to assemble some of the recordings into course materials, because the quality will be excellent.
On Monday1 we spent the afternoon driving all around the Crow Reservation with my language partner there. We visited their gorgeous new dance arbor. All three of us pressed our noses against the wood and smelled of it, gorgeous to look at and to inhale. We saw the camp that our friend sets up each year for Crow Fair, and then drove way out to Okabeh, a dammed spot on the Bighorn River. We spun back to Billings from there and after twelve hours in the car, I was finally able to stretch out in a hotel room.
Tuesday we looped northeast through badlands and prairie toward the Fort Peck Reservation. The only thing as constant as the wind were the grasshoppers which, by the end of the trip, had pasted themselves across the front of my vehicle in what can only be described as a car bra. How unfortunate. I confess, though, I wildly underestimated eastern Montana, at least the I-94—>Terry—>Wolf Point portion that I saw.
We crossed the Missouri River and met our Nakoda language partner in her classroom in Wolf Point. We recorded a little, but the wind singing to us under the door was persistent. “Welcome to the HiLine,” our friend said with a shrug. I was told to stay at the Cottonwood Inn in Glasgow, a ways west of Wolf Point, so after a bit, we pointed the car that direction in search of dinner and our hotel.
In the morning we nabbed some coffee at The Loaded Toad and were approached by a reporter for Montana PBS, because Joan goes nowhere without her gear on her head/around her neck/in her hand, and this attracts attention. The reporter happened to be in Glasgow because of a hereditary ice cream truck situation; that’s all I know, people. You’ll have to look it up.
Wednesday, friends…this was the epic-est part of the epic. We met our friends in Poplar at their office, and please know that the air conditioning had gone out overnight. It was 95° or greater. And you can’t record with fans running. So. We did a lot of recording in an airless room under dire sweating conditions, working with both our Nakoda partner and our Dakota partner, as I am creating course modules for both languages.
After lunch our friends took us all around the Poplar portion of the reservation. We met the tribal council, interviewed the chairman, visited the stunningly beautiful wellness center, met everybody’s mom,2 saw the powwow grounds, and were deposited back at our car around four-thirty with instructions to return to the wellness center at 8 am for an interview with the director. We drove the hour back to the Cottonwood, located a surprisingly tasty dinner, and were punchy well before bedtime. 5:30 am came too early though, that’s sure enough.
After our trek east to Poplar and a quick visit with our friends at their office one last time, we said good-bye and drove west to the Ft. Belknap Reservation and traversed it north to south. Mostly flat Montana 66 began rollicking a bit, then rose the Little Rockies near Hays: beautiful, surprising.
That night, a stayover in cabins just north of the Upper Missouri River Breaks brought a storm and double rainbow, singing crickets, and needed sleep. The next afternoon, after 1810 miles and the gathering sense that what I’m doing might make a difference, I pulled into the carport and breathed deeply of home.
Long-day driving notes: I left Missoula at 6 am on Monday, picked up Joan in Billings around lunch and drove to Crow, about an hour away. Drove all over Crow and back to Billings. Day two: from Billings to Wolf Point is about 4.5 hours if you don’t take a gravel cutoff that a rancher decided to fence off two miles before it rejoined the main road. Glasgow to Poplar, which we drove four times, is an hour. Day four: Poplar to our cabins was about 5 hours. Day five: cabins to Missoula, six hours. I hear there’s a puddle jumper from Billings to Wolf Point…
Not an exaggeration - our two language partners took us to meet their families.
That last line ✨💛
Anna! The ice cream truck in Glasgow would be Dan Taylor Family I am sure of it! It was my childhood dream to own it. Thus the need for my snowcone trailer I built during Covid.
FYI. You’d be proud of my Taylor. She has been teaching music in Box Elder since February. She loves it there. She made it!