Riding across Montana is an amazing experience in its self. The prairies are stunning and breathtaking. To think how harsh the winters are out here makes me cold to even imagine. Seeing the wooden structures along the sides of the highway to block the winds and help reduce the snow drifts really says a lot. Then they have barricades to close the roads in extreme winds. Extreme winds, what does that even mean? How windy does it have to be to close highways? That’s not our problem because we are just passing through and will be way back down south soon.
Riding across Lolo Pass is always a special treat. About 5 miles into the pass, there is no cell phone connection and a sign that says “curvy road” next 99 miles. When you imagine wilderness, THIS IS IT!!!! Although we are not completely roughing it, we are staying in a cabin with electricity and running water along a river that runs through the mountain range. There is no phone service.
No phone service in today’s world is almost unheard of.
Can you imagine being asked to do a lifesaving job and not having had the best training. We are riding to help give nurses the best training and simulation lab in the Columbus area. Our goal is to help make that connection between training and reality. To ensure that “no service” doesn’t exist when it comes to the level of training that Columbus State University can provide to the nursing program.
We all know that for us the “no service” means just a few hours of not having cell phone service and that we will soon be just passing through and will be back home and happy soon.
When a nurse has to make life threatening decisions in an emergency situation or even in a controlled environment, we hope that they have gained the knowledge and training from our brief period of “no service”.
(Written in the early hours of the morning and shared later in the day).
Steve.