A Picture Window View from the Owl Cafe.' View Looking To the Southwest and Toward the Mountains of Wyoming.
“ …. while I listen and gaze through the large restaurant window at the storefront across the road. So different now from that lonely night in South Dakota. Beyond those buildings are mountains and snowfields. .. Sylvia says John has talked to someone in town about another route to Bozeman, south through Yellowstone Park."
Laurel, MT. This view out the window of the Owl Cafe’ l. Beyond those buildings and a giant switch yard of the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway, do lie distant mountains to the South and somewhat East. But to look in the direction of the highest mountains and Red Lodge, MT., would require looking at a considerable angle to the Southwest. This spatial orientation ability of the Narrator comes from his considerable previous mountain climbing experience plus his intimate knowledge of this local area as well as the distant mountains. As a traveler, the Narrator would have been able to project spatially the direction of the highest mountains from a site such as the Owl Café’. Pirsig would have a similar spatial orienting ability when writing ZMM. Within walking distance of the Hurzler Hotel, I did not see any other Laurel restaurant that would have been a better “fit” to the ZMM clues given above.
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(Photo = (Photo = Summer2006 0398) ...... ZMM Page = 104 ...... WayPt = 122`|u|' 3396ft)