A Montana Vacation

I was born and raised in the beautiful state of Montana.

Population 902,195. Yep, 4th largest state in the country and we don't even have a million people. And one area code. For the whole state. It is 559 Miles east to west.

And somewhere along the course of my life, being from Montana became not a geographical point of reference but rather a personality trait. I was often introduced as "This is Jen. She's from Montana." Which would, in turn, elicit a tilting of the head and a long drawn out 'ahhhh'. I've never been quite sure what that meant.

Until maybe now.

I haven't lived in Montana for 7 years now and every time I return for a visit I feel as though I notice something new that is very distinctly "Montana". This past weekend I found many things that caused me to say outloud "Only in Montana". Here is what I found:

1. My cousin was getting married in a little town called Scobey, MT (population 1082). As my mom and I were shopping for outfits for the wedding, this conversation took place in the dressing room:

Mother: "Do you think this dress is too dressy for the wedding?"

Jen: "Mom, it's a Montana wedding."

Mother: "What does the mean?"

Jen: "There will definitely be people attending in Wrangler jeans and cowboy hats".

Mother: "Oh."

Flash to the evening of Saturday, July 11th: I counted 7 men dressed in their Wrangler best at the wedding. A few took their cowboy hats off during the service. I even counted 3 women in jeans with the classy sleeveless Wrangler shirt. Only in Montana.

2. My father and I were trying to find parking at the grocery store in Scobey. We think we found a great open spot next to Farmer Joe's pimped out super extra duty farm truck. Until we start to pull into the spot and realized it's occupied by a 4-wheeler. That is a licensed. Only in Montana.

3. The wedding reception was an 'open-door' event. An invitation was put in the Daniels County Newspaper for 2 weeks. And anyone in town is allowed to stop by at any point during the evening. Only in Montana.

4. Upon telling people that I live in Seattle, they cringe and say "there are so many people" and "oh, that traffic". And then when I tell them that I love it out there, I immediately lose any credibility of spending the first 18 years of my life as a Montanan.

5. My dad was pulled over in Scobey by the Sheriff because we had a burnt out brake light. He was very polite. But as he continued to wax on about GM cars and their unreliable brake lights, we determined the short bald man was just bored. Only in Montana.