Mountain Standard Time

I am newly in from London and back on the plane, headed straight for my HOME - Missoula Montana. I am a summertime girl - I am in my element and happy and giddy everyday. However, it is also everday in the summer that I miss my home on Champagne Alley.

It is when the snow begins to melt, the fish begin to bite, and my father takes to his place behind the drums, that I miss the Big Sky Country with every fiber of my body. It is the feeling of being homesick intensified with the pull of Montana.

A feeling you only know when you have grown up under the Mission Mountains, spent your days on Polson Lake, floating the Bitterroot, hiking every weekend through sprawling meadows until the road meets the sky.

I have been across the globe and love many places, but no where can make me feel like Montana does and can break my heart the way Montana does when I am not there. It was a blessing to grow up in such a beautiful place and I wish I had appreciated it more when I lived there, but it makes me love my trips there that much more. I love the South and the Southern hospitality and way of life but my heart lies on Flathead, in Glacier, with the mountains of the West.

My parents spend most of their summer in Montana, playing shows, enjoying the slow pace of life, and when I arrive we load up the RV and hit the road.  I will always rather be in my RV..

We spent our days jet skiing, floating the lake, having cocktails, and swimming, and seeing great old friends.

 We spent every Happy Hour in the shallow end of the lake - grilling out and playing volleyball.

I woke every morning and kayaked the river. A solo early morning kayak is one of the most peaceful moments you can have, one that holds the answers to any of your questions. To understand the importance in life when the animals come to the banks to drink and you drift by watching the day begin.

My kayak - that I wish I could fit in my carry on to Atlanta

Riding horses, playing in the lake and rivers, roaming the woods, watching Mission Mountain Wood Band shows - it is then that I felt my soul BREATHE again.

Thank God for Montana

Because this is my country, this is my HOME, SWEET, HOME.