Conner's Blog

I’m going home this weekend. Back to Montana to see my parents, my brothers, and some of my extended family. I’m going to be gone or a little over a week. I’m leaving here Thursday afternoon and will be heading back here on the following Friday.

For the most part I’m very excited. Except for the driving part. That’s right, I decided to drive home this time as opposed to flying like I have in the past. This means I’m planning on a 15 hour drive through Minnesota, North Dakota, and the most boring part of Montana. This is why I’m leaving Thursday night. I’m meeting my brother in Fargo and we are planning on driving all the way through the night, getting to Bozeman around 6 in the morning.

Back when I was in college this wouldn’t have phased me. But now I’m a little nervous. Will I be able to sleep while my brother drives? Will my car make it? Will I be a functioning member of society when I arrive? How am I going to survive being cooped up in a car for 15 hours? This is insane? I’m booking a flight tonight? Ahhhhh?

Ok, I got that out there. Honestly I think it will be fine. I have plans to download a number of podcasts, load up the iPhone with a ton of good music, and invest in a case of both caffeinated and uncaffeinated energy drinks. I bought carrots this weekend that I’ll be cutting up to bring with me, so I can hopefully avoid buying too much junk. I think I’ll brew a large batch of iced tea or coffee as well.

So maybe that’s the difference. I used to just throw a bag in the car and go. Now I have plans, but with planning comes realizing everything that can go wrong. Then again maybe I’m just going crazy in my old age. Who knows.

I plan on writing while I’m out there, and depending on the cell coverage I may even use Twitter. If I do, follow along at #mtrt2010. It should be fun, lots of time with the family, but I also hope to see what sort of local food scene is happening in Bozeman and Helena. I’ll be reporting here and over at Garlic and Onion.

Last night I suddenly got an overwhelming urge to go home for Christmas. Up until then I hadn’t really felt bad about missing Christmas. The reason I wasn’t going home is because I can’t get much time off for Christmas and flying is ridiculously expensive. Tickets are over $400 and going home for 2-3 days for that kind of money doesn’t exactly seem worth it.

There are a few issues at work here. One, the cost to fly is now $600+ and rising quickly. Two, the drive is at least 12-13 hours and goes right through the heart of North Dakota which is not only exceedingly boring, but also notorious for nasty snow storms. Three, I’m dog sitting for Nicky and even though I know Ninja can travel well, getting stuck with her seems like a bad idea. I also don’t completely trust my car, though I’m sure it will be fine, it doesn’t have any problems and is running great when I do drive it.

Anyway, I’m working on making a decision. If I do go it will be a quick trip and next week will be a drag, but spending Christmas with my family is really tempting. It also would lead to mountain photo opportunities which would be fun.

Here’s a photo that will keep you guessing.  I bet no one can figure out where this was taken.

So what do you think, any guesses.  I’ll give you one hint, it’s located west of Minneapolis. 

Ok, I’m kidding April Fools everyone.  This photo was actually taken in Virginia City, Montana from Boot Hill.  The real Where? is below, though it’s a bit different than usual to.

This week I’m posting two photos that I took recently, but don’t remember where I took them.  I’m looking for help identifiying the location.

The first is a church somewhere west of Delano.  I don’t remember much about the town other than it has railroad tracks going through it.  Also two highways cometogether here, the north/south highway turns into a city street and runs under a bridge after it crosses the east/west highway.  The church is in the north half of town.

The second photo was taken off of Highway 13 west of Prior Lake.  It was a frozen fountain near a small office building.  It was outside of town but I can’t remember the exact location.

Let me know if you have any ideas.  I’m learning to write down the locations or take photos of street signs and such, but photos like these still slip through the cracks.

I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.  It is one of those places that no matter how hard I try to explain it, no one ever really understands just how small and remote it was.  To put it in perspective, you should know that the closest fast food place was a Dairy Queen 20 miles away.  The closest McDonalds or Wal-Mart was 80 miles away, and the nearest mall was three hours away.  If you needed something from a grocery store after 5pm, you were out of luck.  It was a completely different world than most people grow up in.  Was it terrible?  Not at all, it gave me an appreciation for convenience, and taught me the value of maximizing trips and time.  Unfortunately, one lesson I didn’t learn is the value of going out and experiencing the place you live.

In the 15 years that I lived in Westby, I barely experienced anything.  Granted I was a dumb high school kid, but there was a museum in a town 20 miles away, which though small and not overly impressive, was something that I should have checked out.  There was a site called Writing Rock, which was a rock with pre-Columbus drawings on it.  I vaguely remember going to see when I was very young, but never visited when the memory would have stuck.  Sitting Bull was captured somewhere near my hometown yet I never bothered to try to visit that site.

I left for college in Grand Forks in 2001 failing to take advantage of my environment.  Once again, I failed to experience 90% of what the city had to offer.  I never attended the catfish tournament.  I didn’t go see some of the best high school hockey in the country, and I only went ice fishing once.  Why?  I couldn’t tell you, but things are going to change.

This coming February I will have lived in the Minneapolis metro for 2 years.  Yet I have hardly experienced anything that the cities have to offer.  I’ve been to a Twins game and went to the Frozen Four. But haven’t seen the Timberwolves, the Lynx, the Wild, or the Saints.  Let alone experienced the ridiculous amount of culture that is available.  This is something that I’ve decided I have to remedy.  I will no longer spend my weekends wondering what I could be doing.  I’m going to get out and experience the city I live in.  Even heading into Minneapolis or St. Paul to try out a new restaurant would be an improvement.

To kick-start my initiative, I plan to post a list of 50+ things that I want to accomplish in 2009 on New Years Day.  Along with my post of things I should experience, I’m declaring my New Years resolution to be “Experience my city”.  It may not be about improving my health or another generic resolution, but I will not be bored in the city I live in.

I would love your input, what do you think I should try and experience in 2009?

I saw these at the farmers market in Bozeman last week.  They had some very clever tee shirts.  This was my favorite from the shirts I saw at the farmers market.

The FAQ is worth a read, my favorite line “Every tee is inspected for awesomeness. Each shirt is made with love…lots and lots of love…and rubber gloves.”  Oh, and the last question I can attest to, at least if the girls running the stand at the Farmers Market were the girls who run the business.  :)

Mac and Tees

When I was in Montana last week, my family and I went to The Garage in Bozeman, MT.  No website, so you will just have to trust me when I say it exists.  The Garage is  a soup and burger joint located just off main street.  Apparently it’s usually busy, and on the night we went it wasn’t full but it was busy for a Tuesday.  There was plenty of patio seating which made the experience great, unfortunately the sun was directly in my eyes for the first 15 minutes or so, they did have some shade, but the sun was peaking through at first.

The first thing that stood out was the menus.  The design itself wasn’t phenomenal, but they came bound to state licenses plates.  This is a great touch.  Not overwhelming, but unique enough to be remember on a future hungry night.

Their food was pretty good.  I had a burger that was topped with spinach, bacon, and swiss cheese.  It was excellent, not as good as a Five Guys burger, but still excellent.  The best part of the meal was their coleslaw.  Normally I’m hesitant to order coleslaw, but decided to take the risk.  It was well worth it, the coleslaw was cabbage, red onion, and I believe sesame seeds.  The dressing was great, it was oil based and really tasty.  My brother ordered the fries, and it they were pretty good, but nothing to crow about.

On great thing about Montana is most restaurants have a large beer selection.  The Garage was no different, having a good selection of local and national brews to choose from.  I opted for a Skinny Dip from the New Belgium brewery in Colorado and it went well with my meal.

Their soup selection appears to be what they are known for locally.  Unfortunatly it was a hot day and I opted to skip the soup.  They have a soup bar during the winter months and I hope to be able to return in December and give it a try.

Gray wolves back in protected column – CNN.com.

I’m not sure how I feel about this, on one hand, 2,000 wolves is a very small number, and allowing the possibility of 500 wolves to be killed is 25% of that population, which is a ridiculous number. (note: I haven’t looked at the actual hunting schedule so this could easily be an over estimate).

Of course as someone who grew up in a family who relied on livestock for it’s income, I also understand that ranchers in those areas are going to be affected by this ruling by losing additional livestock.

I guess I fall on the side of the environmentalist more so than the government on this one.  If only because seeing a wolf in the wild is honestly one of the most incredible experience you can have.  I just hope that people realize that it is decisions like this that can help contribue to rising food costs.  It’s a price we all pay, and I feel that is is worth it.

Edit:

Here is a link to a more local story,

Helena Independent Record – Notes that Montana was looking at moving wolves from endangered to in need of management at time of this ruling.