CasaCandeux

This being the 6-month anniversary of my last post (the last two being Cyndi's), I (Joe) decided it was time for a new post of my own. For those of you anxiously awaiting news about the start of school, sorry to disappoint you, but I am going back in time.

This summer, my sister, a family practice physician living in Livingston, Montana, was in a bad car accident. Apparently she was trying to avoid something on the road, lost control of her vehicle and flipped it over the five-foot fence beside the highway. The car came to rest upright and the paramedics were able to rescue her without further trauma. Aside from a whole-body bruise, she had a small skull fracture behind her ear and two cracked vertebra in her neck. She had to have to surgery to fuse the vertebra, but doctors expect a complete recovery with no neurological damage (Praise God!). As a result of all this, I decided that I should get out to see her. I was only able to go for two days and by the time I arrived she was out of the hospital and recovering quite nicely. So, we had a nice visit together and were able to do some sightseeing. Since my sister would probably not appreciate pictures of her on the 'net with a neck brace and black eyes, I will publish pictures of Montana instead.

This was the first time I had seen this particular part of Montana. My only previous visit to Montana was 25 years ago and only involved the SE corner of the state. Although it is quite dry there in mid-summer, it was still very impressive. I flew into the Billings airport, which is located on a rim rock that overlooks the city. Because of the elevation difference, it is about a 5 minute drive to downtown: just drive down the hill!




I rented a car at the airport and drove about two hours from Billings to Livingston. Along the way I stopped to see the off-off-Broadway show "Waltzing with the Prairie Dogs", which was based on the sequel to "Dances with Wolves". Unlike most shows, I was allowed to take pictures.




I then drove past the Crazy Mountains. They looked pretty calm to me, but I was told later that they were named that because a woman once lost her child in the mountains and went crazy looking for it.









My sister has a cute little house in Livingston, with a great view of Livingston mountain from her bedroom. Here is a similar view from in front of her house.










After I arrived, we went for a walk with Geyser, my sister's massive golden retriever. Along the way we stopped to observe the set of a movie being filmed along the Yellowstone River. It is titled A Plumm Summer, stars Henry Winkler and involves the theft of a TV puppet. They had turned the bandstand in a public park into a crime scene. The following day the governor of Montana was there for filming his role as a sherrif. This area of Montana is the setting for several other well known films, including A River Runs Through It and The Horse Whisperer.


Although Livingston is only 50 miles from Yellowstone Nat'l Park, my sister wasn't up to travelling that far, so, the next day, we drove a short ways down the road to Yellowstone to Pine Creek.






We also stopped to get this photo of the Paradise Valley Pop Stand, which was the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett's song "Cheeseburger in Paradise".






The area is called Paradise Valley because of its beauty and because of irrigation from the Yellowstone River which makes it green all year round.






Well, that's about it for interesting sites and scenes. The rest of the trip continued without incident (aside from a bit of anxiety the next morning at the Billings airport wondering whether I would be able to find the e-ticket kiosk in time, and whether TSA would get my bags checked in time to make it on the plane; yes for both, BTW).