When I tell my friend, Anne, about the divorce, she invites me to come visit her in Boulder, Montana. I can stay at Boulder Hot Springs, the 100- year-old hotel she’s remodeling and turning into a Bed and Breakfast, soak in the mineral waters, take time in nature, paint, wait for my divorce to be final and figure out what to do next. She tells me Montana is like the Wild West, a great place to start over. Boulder is a tiny town, home of a tavern called “The Lounge,” where in 1986 two drugged-up teenage boys shot and killed the parents of actor Patrick Duffy.

          I’ve never been to Montana...