CHASING MARY--Ignoring the Warning SIgns

The long road to the home of Mary Richards continues in this third post. I was in unfamiliar territory and, traveling solo, my mind was susceptible to odd detours.

Montana alone was enough to make me question the journey. Fourth largest state in terms of area. I hadn’t known. I hadn’t had reason to know. But Montana was getting monotonous. And then there was that odd sign at a rest area:

 

Well, that got me…rattled. How did the State of Montana train wild rattlesnakes to stay off the sidewalks? Was this accord still in effect? And why did the sign maker forego punctuation? (Personally, I’d have peppered it with exclamation marks.)

The sign seemed like a sign: Turn back now.

She’s not real. You’re driving four days to recall a theme song on YouTube.

But I was already many hours into Montana and I had no yearning to revisit what I’d already plowed through. Out of nowhere a minor John Denver song about the Wild Montana Skies popped in my head and cheered me on.

Surely there’d be no snake in the toilet when I checked into my hotel outside Billings. (There wasn’t. And you can bet I checked.)

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