This is a reanimation of the Vicaribus blog as lived by Miro Kazakoff and Ehren Foss in 2004 and 2005. The photos may be spotty.

Big Belt, Big Sky

Posted by ehren

Wednesday we returned to the library for additional internet, I almost finished two years worth of taxes (the hardest part was all the right documents through the mail), and I spent a while updating this site. Perhaps another hour of work for C-Factor, another two or three for SPECTRE. In the late afternoon we started down I-15 towards Helena.

It's no mystery that country music doesn't have a wide audience in the Northeast, but if the country stations in Boston or New York were as high-quality as those we picked up on I-15, then it might have a chance. Shaniah Twain's name wasn't even mentioned. After a while the the Great Falls stations faded and we could only pick up an evangelical Christian rock station, which we didn't realize was a change from regular country for around 20-25 minutes. Along the way I pulled off onto a random gravel sideroad, just because it was that beautiful and took some pictures. One of the DJs said something about a high pressure area moving in, and that the next few days would have highs in the mid 80s, full sunshine, and lows around 55. Finally.

Patrotism and fireworks are both rampant in Montana to an extreme far beyond my expectations. Perhaps it's one of the few areas of the country both worth vigorously defending and with few enough people that they feel personally responsible for the land. Montanans love God, America, and overseas troops. Montanans seem to treat the 4th of July like Carnival, Lent, Ramadan, or a similar prolonged and deeply cultural holiday. The 4th of July is simply the 4th day in a row during July on which fireworks are set off in broad daylight on busy city streets. Nobody seems to mind. One of the radio ads we heard from "Pyromania Fireworks, INC" boasted that they had videos of each firework bursting so you know what you're getting, and they also promised to help the consumer put together family fireworks displays "within a budget."

I-15 led us into the Big Belt Mountains, and we elected to take the serpentine recreation road along the Missouri river. It looped under and over the interstate and the railway (all sharing the same canyon) but the recreation road was easily the most enjoyable option, with better views and plenty of pullouts. Rain showers moved in, and we picked a pullout at random for semi-legal camping. During a false period of sunshine Miro started to climb the nearby hills, made of steep crumbly mud, then it started to pour again and he was very wet and dirty by the time he came back down.

I ate a quick dinner and worked for two hours, and I think I've finally got the first two SPECTRE forms into reasonable shape for replication. I had to take a 15 minute break while the sun set over the river, as I couldn't see the screen and didn't want to look at my laptop just then anyway. Once the stars started to appear I walked about a mile down the road to what looked like a gravel logging road, and climbed far enough to establish that it was someone's driveway, and then I sat and watched the Milky Way come into focus. Amazing. If I had Mouser's set of awesome astronomy lenses some of the photos might've come out, but as is, they didn't.

In the morning Miro went for an hour's bike ride, and I climbed a small hill and sat there watching I-15 until I could see Miro's bike on the return trip. We drove for a little over an hour to get to Helena, climbing most of the way through the Big Belt Mts.