Hello Montana, Canada here we come!

OK, so let us back up...to where I left off  back in Western Kansas.  It was smooth sailing, and quickly we made our way into Eastern Colorado, which is not the mountainous region that you think of when you mention the state of Colorado.  However, I took Natalie to one of my favorite stops...Colorado Gifts in Limon, Colorado...home to some of the kitschiest gifts on the planet!  They even have a gigantic stuffed bear whose lap you can sit in...and Natalie did!

Natalie also did some shopping...and out we came with some dangly earrings, giardettos, soda, a few postcards (I bought those) and a few other things...

Then we went on through Denver, Colorado...where we got really bogged down in Friday evening rush hour traffic.  That was a real bummer since we had such a long way to go, but eventually we fought through it and made our way into Wyoming, and stopped in Cheyenne for dinner.  But you know how some cities just aren't built around the interstate?  Well, Cheyenne isn't!  So we wandered around the city a bit and finally found an exit with a Mr. Jim's Pizza and a Silver Mine Sandwich Company.

Now, my wife LOVES good food, and neither of these was what she had in mind (nor was it what I was planning, either!)...but we soldiered on, and found that the sandwich place had outdoor seating and the temperature was just perfect and there were NO bugs!  So we enjoyed our dinner as the sun began to set, and here is Natalie enjoying that setting!

It worked out very well, and as we pushed on along interstate 25 heading North through Wyoming, Natalie and I were treated to one of the most magnificent sunsets of my entire life.  It reminded me of one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 121, which says...I lift up my eyes to the hills, and where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, maker of Heaven and Earth.

Natalie was deep into book 2 of the Hunger Games series, and would look up occasionally to be wowed by the sunset, take a few pictures, and then she would dive back into her book.  Here is one of the photographs Natalie took of that memorable Sunset.

But, that unfortunately still left us with a good bit of driving to do.  So I just put the foot on the gas pedal and drove on until we finally reached Billings, Montana, sometime after midnight.

We got about seven hours of sleep and then I went down and brought us up some breakfast, and we hit the road again, headed across the prairie with the Bitterroot Mountains on either side of us.  Fortunately, I had stopped in Billings at Subway and grabbed a couple of Subway sandwiches for the road before we left because we were truly in the middle of NOWHERE!  I was also thankful that we had taken the time to have some really good coffee with caramel, pecan and white chocolate flavoring -- yum!

Then we headed out across the middle of Wyoming (listening to the Lumineers on our Ipod) until we reached Great Falls, Montana.  We stopped for lunch at Noodle Express, and had a delightful late lunch / early supper and Natalie is now driving as we head for the Canadian border.  We are about an hour away from the border crossing right now and headed to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where we will be staying in the heart of the city tonight.  Hope all is well for our friends and family wherever you are this day.