Brian and I had an adventure together yesterday.  We decided to go to Billings to go to the temple.  Brian needed to do a bunch of stuff for work along the way.  We left around 10:30 and drove to Meeteetse which is a very small town of just over 100 people about an hour away from us.  I've never been there before so I was excited to see some place new.  He was delivering some building materials to a Catholic monastery that is being built about 30 to 40 minutes up in the mountains past Meeteetse.  Believe me when I say this place is the definition of the middle of nowhere!  We drove on a very narrow paved road for awhile and then it was a dirt road that thankfully the monks had plowed so it wasn't a snowy mess.  On the way up there we saw huge herds of elk.  Brian has been to this work site a few times and he told me that the construction workers have seen grizzly bears. The monks ride around on 4 wheelers with ak47's so they can shoot bears or wolves that attack!  The monks will be producing coffee when the monastery is completed which will take another 2 years.  It was really beautiful up there, a stark sparse beauty.    These pictures don't do it justice.

This will be their cathedral

Those buildings will be the monks hermitages

Oh, and it was cold!  Windy and very cold!  Those construction workers are troupers!

I think those mountains in the far distance are part of Yellowstone park

Another view of the cathedral

I don't think I've ever been a place where there is literally nothing around me

View of the dirt road to the monastery

Brian was hoping to see one of the monks when we went, but they weren't around.  He deals mostly with the construction site manager.  The workers are all from Cody which is about an hour and a half away.

After we left the mountains we drove to Cody and Brian needed to pick up some more supplies from the Bloedorn store there.  We had a lovely lunch at Wendys!  A "real" hamburger tasted so good and I haven't had a frosty in ages!  Then we drove to Billings.  We hadn't driven to Billings on the road from Cody before.  When we go we take another road from Worland and by pass Cody, so we got to see some really beautiful scenery.  This road takes you very close to the mountains of Yellowstone, I believe they are called the Absarokas.  With the light dusting of snow on everything and the many hawks flying and deer and antelope it was sublime!  Brian felt like he really wanted to take a detour, he felt like the mountains were calling to him to come and check them out!

We made it to Billings and of course had to stop at Costco and Brian got a hair cut and we went to the temple.  It was pretty late by the time we got to the temple and their sessions are only every 2 hours.  We didn't want to get home after midnight so we decided to do some initiatory names instead of a regular session.  I love the Billings temple, the temple workers are so excited to see you since it isn't very busy.  They were just waiting around for someone to come and do initiatories, I was the only one there!

We grabbed some food after and headed back home.  Thankfully we didn't see any wildlife on the way back, deer are very common on the road back to Worland and I was driving because Brian was very tired.  The deer stayed off the road and we made it back home before 11:00.

Wonderful day with my husband and such beautiful sites, it couldn't have been better!  I never thought I would say this, but there is something to say about wide open unpopulated spaces.  It can be very peaceful.