Ha, hardly! After my morning route I was lucky to get to drive a bus to Kalispell, a 50-mile adventure, for repairs. Went from blasting through a squall of blowing snow that swirled around on the highway to clear, sunny skies bordered by mountains freshly draped with snow. After my boss picked me up we headed back through town and spotted legs in the air. It’s common to see deer in the back of trucks this time of year but rare to see elk. And this poor elk had been loaded up in a pretty comical manner.

My boss is a great guy and was kind enough to pull over at the lake so I could take a couple of pictures – the lake does weird things as it’s freezing up. We watched distorted mist and little wispy funnel clouds for miles along the west shore then drove through the same snowy squall line we’d hit on the way up. As soon as we got back from that we went and picked up a bus from Ronan, 20 miles south – that’s the last picture. Even with a town in the foreground the mountains are nothing short of majestic. Then I drove my afternoon run. Covered a lot of ground, saw gorgeous scenery, and got paid!

<