The Sky is the Limit

70 MPH on a two lane road in Wyoming. In the rain and on the lookout for cows and semis.

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God is still architect here. His cathedral mountains and awesome endless prairies dwarf all human refinements. – Wide Open in Wyoming, by Thomas J. Abercrombie, National Geographic, January 1993.

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On a Wednesday morning in August, the first thing that struck me was not the cathedral mountains or the endless prairies, it was the speed limit. 80! Eighty miles per hour! This is Montana.

Movies and pictures try to convey “Big Sky” country and the wide-open spaces. Try driving Montana (7.3 people per square mile) … 80 MPH is a death pace anywhere in Maryland (622.0 people per square mile).

Heading to Helena, Montana and turning onto a two-lane road, I am again struck by the speed limit... 70! A two-lane road! 12 feet of road for me and 12 feet for the oncoming semi - there is little margin for error (although he is limited to 60 mph…60!). Don’t text and drive.

On Thursday, driving through Wyoming ( at 70 MPH on a two-lane road and a population 5.9 people per square mile), a diamond shaped yellow sign appears:

Free Range

Live

Stock

Pondering the meaning of this, a sign on a sandwich board placed on the shoulder reads:

Speed

Limit

55

Now pondering what an impromptu reduction in speed limit might mean, I round a bend and standing on the shoulder is a COW! The pondering shifts to how fast a cow can move - the brake is quickly applied.

I did, of course, joyously take in 3 days of cathedral mountains, awesome endless prairies, and Big Sky. On Friday night, I had dinner with a transplanted Marylander, she looked at me with empathy (pity?):

“Oh, you have lived in Maryland all your life?”

Then, she leaned towards me, pointed her fork to the night sky and said,

“We have stars.”

I looked up. I love Big Sky country – day and night at any speed.

How about you? Where do you go to wander (wonder)? Share a story!

Bonus picture and facts:

Free Range Bison in Yellowstone National Park…