Yes, naming cities is fun. But these particular cities are ones I’ll be visiting during the month of September, on a long drive from Chicago.

I live for road trips.

But part of this is a business trip, which involves documenting certain features of places like Olympic National Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Grand Teton National Park. Oh, and I’m also going to take a gander at places near the beach. Yeah, the Chicago weather may finally be getting to me, this living and dying by air conditioners and heaters. Plus, well, the scenery. It doesn’t exist here. You have to drive five hours to reach any kind of countryside (as defined by a roadless area of a thousand acres or more) or a national forest, and even then the topography is decidedly…flat.

Chicago is a wonderful place for art, schools, museums, sports, and culture. And the people are amazing. I truly love the area. But it lacks a big one for me – nature. No national parks. No national forests. So every year I have to take a pilgrimage of sorts.

The woods and mountains are my “church”, always have been. So I’m testing the waters a bit, just for kicks.

A pic from the National Bison Range (Montana):

So…what the hell was a wild grouse doing on top of my car? Good question. I’d stopped to admire the view a the top of the range, and this grouse decided to hang out on my car. It let me get close, and even touch it. Crazy. We sat there for about twenty minutes, watching the view and listening to the hoppers singing and the wind in the pines. And then a clattering diesel pickup approached from the rear, and the grouse immediately flew away.

Needless to say, this was the strangest “scenery watching partner” I’d ever had. Such a cool bird.