June 13 Boulder, MT

We're at the Radon Mine this morning, another beautiful, sunny day. We're getting spoiled. Yesterday, while Annie was inside, I took a walk up the hill behind the mine. This is the view from near the top (the mine is the purple/blue building at center/right). The town of Boulder is in the valley beyond. The dry sagebrush country is deceiving. There are wild flowers everywhere. I must have seen 20 different plants in flower, along with sage brush, rabbit brush and prickly pear cactus. The sandy, course soil allows only sparse vegetation, but the variety is astounding. This morning we went to the farmers' market in the park beside the town hall. Only about 5 booths, but it's still early. Got some salad greens from the sister of Sandra Hunt, who used to play in the Flute Choir with me in Homer. "Small World! Speaking of which, yesterday morning at breakfast in the Mountain Good Restaurant we mentioned to the Owner/Waitress that we were from Homer. She asked if we knew the Hillstrand boys from the Time Bandit. It seems Dangerous Catch is her favorite TV show and the Time Bandit her favorite boat. We said we knew them slightly and talked about the shop on the spit selling Time Bandit souveniers. The fellow at the next table piped up and said he had been a photographer for Deadliest Catch and spent the first season of the show on the Time Bandit. He's now in Montana filming something for Animal Planet.

It looks like we'll be staying here in Boulder for about a week before heading on south to Wyoming. If you're interested, the Radon Mine has a blog with some interesting info. http://montanaradonhealthmine.wordpress.com/
There are some really interesting old buildings here. It's the county seat and despite being a little run-down is a pleasant place to spend some time. I think I'll close this for today and go see what I can find out amongst the cow-flaps and the sagebrush.

There's a reason why they named this place "Boulder". There are wonderful cairns of soft granite boulders in all the fields--they look like someone just piled them up that way.

Still having problems with our rear tire holding air, so tomorrow while I'm back at the mine, David will take it to a tire place and get it fixed. They'll have to put a tube in it and then it will be good as new. As soon as my two hours are done here (at the mine, where there's WiFi) we'll go back to the motel (the guy gave us a great deal for a week's stay: $39 a night!) and make some lunch, then have an adventure and then back to the mine again this evening for another two hours.