I do not like this sign.

We left the Best Western Grant Creek Inn at 9:00. We’d been given an upgraded room, enjoyed the best hotel breakfast buffet ever and found it easy to pack everything into the car.

And then…this sign. EAST.

Oh, dear.

I woke up feeling a little lost. Untethered, even. Our roots run deep at the lake, in the mountains and the views and most importantly, decades upon decades of friendships. Every year I appreciate those ties, that history, the stories that bind us together and often amuse or horrify our grown children.

So I was a bit unsettled.

I have missed my East Coast friends, too. Friends of twenty, thirty-seven and sixty years. I know that in a couple of weeks I will be okay again once we get together and exchange stories of our summer and make plans to do fun things. It will be so good.

That said, the transition is jarring.

Banjo Man and I switched driving every two hours, as we do, shared a burger at the Hotel in Big Timber, and later that afternoon made our way 14 miles off the interstate to the back country southeast of Billings.

Our plan was to hike to all four of the “caves” at Pictograph State Park. The problem? It was almost 100 degrees in the rock-surrounded area. We walked up a never-ending hill to the first and largest overhang, a spectacular place we had visited on a cool October morning three years ago.

It didn’t take us long to realize that Hill + Heat + Age equalled a medical issue unless we took breaks in the shade (of which there was little), drank water and returned to the car asap, cutting short our plan to hike the loop of caves dug high into the rock cliff.

It is magical. Twelve thousand year old artifacts have been found here.

And some of the paintings still survive, though they don’t show up on my photographs.

After communing with the ancients, we couldn’t wait to get into a hotel room in Billings, blast the AC and guzzle ice water. Dinner plans turned into picking up sandwiches at the Subway down the street and eating in our nice, chilly room. We were so tired!

Tomorrow the high temperature in Billings will be 64. Go figure.

We will be heading to Buffalo, Wyoming in the morning (it will be 45 degrees when we leave). A museum awaits!

And then on to Douglas. Wyoming awaits!