As it has been for the past few years, I traveled with some of my work compatriots to Big Sky, Montana for the IEEE Aerospace Conference. A conference that is more likely better known for being held at a ski resort than for the technical content.
So, Montana.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m from the middle Georgia area. It’s a slightly hilly region in some places, but overall, relatively flat and covered with trees.
And then I travel to Montana.
Wide open plains with few trees; tall mountains blue and white on the horizon; great rock walls punctuated by houses erected in their shadow; rivers flowing down, down along their sides; grand snow-covered peaks.
A place where the people are happy to say that, yes, they’re all cowboys and cowgirls in Montana.
Montana has…Montana has gravitas.
I think that is the best way that I can describe it.
It’s a place where the adventuring spirit still thrives, if you know where to look for it.
One of these days, when not attached to a conference, I’d like to go back to Montana and just explore. What I’ve been unknowingly searching for all these years is surely there, somewhere.