The Softer Side of Pensiero

Recently geno was asked to do worship at a calvary chapel in...drumroll please...the great state of Montana! Not only were we blessed that someone would ask, we were excited at the prospect of a getaway. And get away we will. On June 21st we will be departing by car, and beginning what is shaping up to be the roadtrip of a lifetime. Certainly our first married road trip, to say the least. I decided I should do some research on the world wide interweb (for those For Your Consideration fans out there) and see what awaits us in the 41st state. Here are some not-so-useful but interesting facts that I uncovered:

• Montana's state motto is "Oro y Plata"; translated into Spanish it means "Gold and Silver"; translated into 'why is that the state motto' yielded no results - alas, it will have to remain a mystery.

• The state dinosaur of Montana is the Maiasaura Peeblesorum. In case that doesn't mean much to you, maybe you'd better listen to this: the fossil of Maiasaura Peeblesorum, state dinosaur of Montana, was the first fossil to be launched into space! That's right - the final fossil frontier.

• In relation to the fact you just read, apparently Montana is a big site for paleontology in the U.S. Who knew? If you did, 5 bonus points.

• For those of you who have been calling Montana's highways the Montanabahn for years, think again. Changes within the last 8-10 years have created new speed limits on state highways that were previously un-speedlimited.

That's all for now, perhaps more to come as our journey gets closer. And for fans of my brand spanking new blog AND, more likely, fans of geno's blog, I can guarantee with great certainty that there will be blog updates while we are away. 6 days is a long time not to share our lives with you.

My only question is, do any of you have any car games to share with us? These would need to be games that can be played by driver and passenger, so checkers and the like are out. I can't wait to hear some!

Labels: montana, vacation, worship