We flew from Portland to Montana on the little planes (smaller than the one pictured above) flown by Hughes Air West. We flew from Portland to Spokane and then on to Great Falls, Montana. We walked up a little step stool type ladder to board. Already I was less than reassured about our transportation. I had a good scare when we were circling the Spokane airport and the pilot announced that he was “waiting until he could see the landing strip!” Apparently he didn’t use more “advanced” instruments.

We drove around Montana visiting Browning where we stayed in a kind of “no-tell motel” with what passed for a diner on site. It was amusing to have the other “patrons” give us funny looks when we came in for a meal. We may have been the most unavailable women the motel had ever seen.

In Great Falls we stayed in a grand old hotel with a bathroom down the hall. The room did at least have a basin sink in the room in case we would rather sponge bathe than venture a dip in the communal bath tub. The Guam Hilton this was not.

Fortunately, the people we met with were warm and welcoming. We spent a couple of nights on the Rocky Boy Reservation in people’s homes being well taken care of and learning a great deal about the challenges facing them. I was eager to return home and get to work on this new set of readers.