Denver to Montana and the view from the air is astonishing and I will post a couple over the coming week. Have been in the USA since Friday and the two countries divided by a common language is there and not. We share so much in terms of culture, popular culture and so on but some of the differences are marked. But then again Oklahoma is different from Montana, I am in the refectory right now and no one is wearing a baseball cap - whereas in Oklahoma, baseball cap or even stetson wearing seems to be a major essential when eating. I am wearing neither while drinking my morning coffee and having just come here from Oklahoma I feel quite naked - I guess I will get used to it. Getting used to the USA too, for a place so full of bad news stories it really is a pleasure being here. The people are warm and friendly and nothing ever seems to be too much trouble. I was even picked up at Billings airport by the Poet Laureate (well Tami Haaland is a colleague and friend) - and her ambition to get 300,000 miles on the clock of her car is going strong - reminds me of this long and winding song by Gillian Welch, I dream a highway:
