I must admit, as much as I travel, I had never been to the state of Montana.

Until last week.

Now, why would any east coast sane person want to travel to the middle of Montana in January? For work of course!

You see, Rich and I were invited to present our one day seminar "How to Love Dentistry, Have Fun and Get Rich" to the Ninth District Dental Society of the Montana Dental Assocation. Since I had never been to the state, I decided to head over a couple of days early and explore the area.

I flew into Billings on Tuesday, which by the way is not simple to get to. There are no direct flights from major east coast airports, so I had to fly through Minneapolis. Once I arrived, I was immediately impressed with the cleanliness as well as the friendliness at the Billings airport. I could just tell this was a cool place.

After gathering up my luggage, I got into my rental car and followed the directions to a place called Red Lodge. No, that was not the name of my hotel, it was the name of a really cool old western town about an hour outside Billings. The ride was beautiful. Great scenery, no traffic jams, no schmohawks and best yet, no road rage. Didn't see anyone being carjacked either.

Upon arrival at my hotel in Red Lodge, I threw my stuff down and went out to explore the area. It mainly consisted of a few blocks of cool stores, restaurants... all of the stuff typical of a small mining town.

After getting my bearings, I got back into my car and took the six mile drive up the mountain to the Red Lodge Ski Resort. Now this was a scary drive. The road started as any normal road would, but after a couple of miles, it turned into what was a narrow dirt road with sheer cliffs and no guardrails. I was OK, but if there had been any snow or ice, I would have been a basket case driving on this road.

The ski area looked pretty cool, however, the locals admitted that they needed snow badly and therefore some of the really good slopes were not opened. I rented a pair of skis for two days and told them I'd be back the next morning to give it a try.

The next day I got up bright and early, went into town for a very cool breakfast, then headed up the mountain for some skiing. I skied pretty much non-stop for the day and had fun, although it would have been better if there had been more snow. Instead of skiing Red Lodge, occasionally I felt as if I had been skiing "Rock Dodge!"

On Thursday, Rich came into town and the two of us skied for the day. I think Rich really enjoyed it, especially after his little ski injury last year at Park City. He looked strong and even though he threatened to retire from skiing last year, I think he's now back and better than ever!

After skiing, Rich and I drove to Billings to prepare for our seminar on Friday. What a great little city Billings was. It seemed to have everything we needed and we just couldn't get over how nice and friendly everyone was. Believe it or not, we found a great little sushi restaurant where we had dinner and even met and had pictures taken with Max Baucus, the US Senator!

Friday, we presented our seminar to the Ninth District and it went great. They had about THREE HUNDRED people in the room and the vibe was just great. We did our thing and we seemed to be very well received. I hope the attendees not only got a lot of great information, but had a fun day that will never be forgotten. I certainly know that Rich and I will never forget our experience there!

I am sorry that it has taken me 52 years to get to Montana. It was my first time but it certainly will not be my last. Next time I want to explore much more of the area. Big Sky and Yellowstone are waiting!!! Missoula and Whitefish need to be discovered. And I can't forget Bozeman.

Let's go back soon to America's best kept secret. Thanks for having us, Montana!!!!