European Fellows

As many of you know, I traveled to Europe last summer as part of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship. I was very honored to be a part of that trip and had a wonderful cultural experience. So when I got a call this spring to host a group of fellows coming from Europe to America, I jumped at the chance to host them.

Their stay in Billings is the part of their trip that exposes them to rural America. It is called the “Farm Stay” and they are supposed to spend a couple of days on a farm in rural America. However, they will be visiting over the 4^th of July and I didn’t think staying on the farm would be all that interesting over the 4^th. Most of the farmers/ranchers I know come into town to celebrate the 4^th, so why send a group out when they would just be coming back to town.

Instead I have been working to get them a place to stay in Red Lodge over the 4^th. Red Lodge is the quintessential small town America 4^th of July celebration. It has a rodeo, parade, and the town gets all dolled up for the celebration. I think it will be a fine slice of Americana.

I have several other ideas planned for their stay. I hope it works out OK. This is my first try at hosting a group, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m sure there will be a few bugs, but nothing we can’t get through.

Update: The trip through Montana with the European Fellows went quite well. We had a great time and they seemed to really enjoy Montana.

Here is a link to the Billings Gazette Story about the Fellows

Here is the link to their itinerary while in Billings