Missoula, state of Montany

Saturday, August 9th was supposed to be the start of my trip but the night before I had worked past midnight at the Poison show at Nissan Pavilion and overslept. So on Sunday I tried again, but instead of the convenient Reagan National three miles from my house I had to take a $50 cab ride to be at Dulles by 6:30. I hardly slept at all that night for fear of missing my flight again, or during the five-hour flight to Seattle or during my two-hour layover before catching a prop to the Missoula landing strip. The sight of my old friend Em lifted up my spirits though. I hadn't seen her since she left GMU the year before. After closing up her shift at a downtown coffee shop we hit the bars and caught up.

Missoula is one of the few cities in the entire state with populations near or above 50,000. The place had a small college city feel to it, a smaller version of Charlottesville. There were enough coffee shops, bars, vegetarian options, and happenings to keep the University of Montana students entertained. The place remains a haven for the more liberal minded inhabitants of the state, and attracts activist/outdoorsy/artistic/hippie types from all over the country.

On Monday Em gave me a tour of the town and campus. The University has the typical layout of any established state school, a mix of hundred year old stone academic buildings around a quad with outlying buildings in every style from the 20th century. There was an older "downtown" with small office buildings that, unlike the old city centers of the south, was actually a bustling place. The Wal-Marts and mini-mall strips hadn't killed off the center. There were even bikelanes!