I read that Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park now requires tour reservations. This makes sense. It is also a little moving. We have reached the point where even going hundreds of feet underground in Montana now benefits from advance planning, digital confirmation and the faint possibility that your afternoon will be rejected by software.

I am not against reservations. I understand staffing, crowds and the general modern need to assign every experience a time slot. I only wish to note that when I was younger, a cavern was something you encountered after lunch, not something that sent you an email.

My husband said this is no different from booking a campsite or a hotel. He is probably right, which is why I did not argue with him for long. Still, it joins the same dignified progression as talking about trail etiquette like it is a moral code and pretending spontaneity has not become a luxury item.

We will make the reservation. We will arrive on time. We will descend into the earth according to schedule.

Janice Holloway, Three Forks