I arrived in Missoula and went straight to my couch surfers house. Dick had just come back from a 10 month trip of his own. He travelled from Mexico City to Panama, mostly by bus. So we exchanged travel stories, then I headed out for a run. Like many other towns I have visited there were plenty of running trails and lots of people out running or cycling, despite the pouring rain. That evening Dick made me dinner, a dish he learned to make in Central America, and then we headed to Kettle House brewery, then Charlie B’s, a local dive bar. Since Dick had just moved into his place he did not have much furniture, so I slept on the floor with my sleep pad. I did not mind though, his place was well located. Each morning Dick also made me some awesome crepe like pancakes. He said it was his Swedish grandmother’s recipe. He was a great host.
Since Dick was working during the day, he gave me directions to some hot springs in Idaho, not too far from Missoula. I headed up there for some trail running, relaxing in the sun and a soak. Then I headed back to town for a run up to Missoula big “M”. It seems that in Montana the big M is the thing to do in the mountain towns. Later I returned the favour and made Dick dinner, my famous chicken fajitas.
Thursday I went into the city and checked out the downtown area. I was then contacted by Aaron another couchsurfer in Missoula who invited me out for some mountain biking in the nearby Rattlesnake trail system. Afterwards we drove 25 miles north of the city to the Potomac bar and grill, where his friend Jess was working. The bar was a real local join with a couple ranchers and local farmers. One of the ranchers, “Bobby” who was about 65 got a little tipsy. Then I look over and he’s standing on the bar and asks me for a leg up. So I hunch over on the bar and then he steps up on my shoulders to grab the joist beam up in the ceiling. He then climbs up there and sits on the beam. He told us he was “beaming up”. Bobby is finally talked down with a shot of whiskey and the threat to call the police. His response was: :Call the Police, I have my guns”. Luckily he left before the police came, too bad I could have been in a real live shoot out! That night Aaron took me to Missoula’s trashiest bar, the “Elbow Room”, built in a slightly expanded double wide trailer.
Friday I said goodbye to Dick and headed north to Orange Acres, and couch surfing community center run by Jeff, a 30 something normal looking and nice guy. There were about 4 other surfers there just for short stays and a couple old hippies there for the long term. The most colourful character there was “Crow” and older guy who’s travelled all over the United States hitch hiking, most recently he spent his winter camping in Yellowstone park. It's a car dealership / fab shop / junk yard, where part of the shop building has been converted into a rough hostel, with kitchen, laundry and bath, all free. I got my own little cabin that was on the property with a queen size bed. Pretty cool place for a long term stay if you need it. He only asks for a couple hours work for each day you stay (if your stay is longer than 3 days).
That afternoon, I joined the 4 couchsurfers staying there and we headed to Missoula for some breweries, food and eventually the Modest Mouse concert that was sold out. We were able to buy tickets at the gate from scalpers and the concert was awesome. Later that night when we returned at 2AM, crow had baked a cake for Mike’s Birthday (one of the couchsurfers with me) and we celebrated and sang happy birthday at 2AM. Everyone was very drunk (except me, I was the driver and running a marathon 2 days later so did not drink). The next day I headed for Idaho.
No comments:
Post a Comment