Flying to the West

On Saturday we were picked up at 8 a.m. and took a plane to Chicago. The flight took 2 1/2 hours. From Chicago we flew to Billings and that took us another 3 hours. The coach was waiting for us and so was David Stanley Professor of English Emeritus at Westminster University, our guide for this week. He also specialised as a teacher of American Studies and is a keen folkorist. On the coach, Dave gave us an interesting summary of the history of the West and then we could watch "Shane" a western of 1952 portraying the "good old values" of the stereotype cowboy. Busdriver Mike brought us to Fairmont, after a 4 hour drive, where we checked into our comfortable hotel rooms. A beautiful swimming pool with water from the hot water springs was waiting for us but most of us were too tired and went straight to bed.

We were pretty tired after such a long trip but also very excited about this part of our stay.