Very few people get to go everywhere and see everything.
People travel more than they once did, but there are still people who never go anywhere.
Five years ago, I was in upstate New York at a nearly empty Pizza Hut. My waiter was 18 years old and he had never been farther than a hundred miles from Cooperstown, where he had been born. It was difficult for me to imagine someone who had always liked in New York and had never been anywhere near New York City.
I have traveled more than the average person — 46 states and 16 countries — and I’ve been to many of the great cities in the world. I could name five or six cities I would still love to visit, but for the most part I have been as entertained by great cities as I care to be.
I would still like to get to Sydney and I would like to see Chicago and New Orleans. Mostly, though, I would like to see places that are out in the middle of nowhere.
My six grandchildren went to the Sahara Desert earlier this year.
Wow.
I’d love to go to Montana.
I’ve been watching the Kevin Costner show “Yellowstone.” It’s not a bad show, but what makes it really special is the landscape.
We call Montana “big sky country,” and that is one accurate description. Geographically it’s the fourth largest state behind Alaska, Texas and California, but it’s 44th in population. Just behind Rhode Island and ahead of Delaware.
I actually have been to Montana twice, in 1989 and in 1990. Both times were to the western part of the state and both times were in the winter. I was working at the Reno Gazette-Journal and covering Nevada basketball. In both cases, I flew into Missoula on Wednesday, down to Bozeman on Friday and back to Reno on Sunday.
I loved Missoula — one of my favorite college towns — and wasn’t that fond of Bozeman. On the second trip, in February 1990, I covered a game at Montana State on Saturday night. After filing my story, I returned to my motel room and learned that my 94-year-old grandmother had died in Ohio.
There I was, in southwestern Montana on a Saturday night and needing to be in northern Ohio for a funeral Tuesday morning.
And I haven’t been back to Big Sky Country since.
Maybe someday.