Road trip

Tuesday I went on a road trip (minus the bars and liquor).  Every day - for what seems like forever - has been cloudy, gray and gloomy.  I needed a change.

I decided to visit Missoula, MT -- 130 miles away.  I have lived in Montana full time now for almost 9 years and have only visited Missoula once during this time.  Since the livestock auction is well on the edge of Missoula I don't count my visits there.

The morning was our typical recent very foggy morning.  It wasn't until I reached Flathead Lake that I left the fog behind.  Then when I dropped down into Missoula over two hours later did I pick up signs that the Missoula Valley also had been foggy that morning.  By afternoon all signs of fog was gone and the weather alternated between cloudy and rainy.

When my dad was alive we had visited Missoula a few times.  And when he was hospitalized in Missoula for open heart surgury I spent a few weeks there.  So I have some memories of Missoula.

I visited their large indoor mall and over the noon hour it was dead.  Hardly anyone was around.  About the only activity were the moms sitting watching while their young kids played in an indoor play area.

I visited the REI store to compare GPS units.  I have been researching which unit to buy and I wanted to see the units in person and talk to someone who uses them instead of merely reading another online review.  After seeing the screens side by side I ruled out buying an Oregon model due to the dim screen.  Now I need to watch for one of two other models (Dakota or DeLorme) I am interested in to go on sale.

I didn't visit the hospital and that area as I wasn't on a mission to retrace steps but I did walk around downtown.  Missoula is a college town. While I don't believe the university was nearby, its influences could be seen in the types of stores downtown. Kind of hip and urban.  Still, the university must be some distance away as the stores were also a mix of bland and dowdy.

Parking meters everywhere. I hate paying for parking.  As my goal was to merely wander around I found non-metered parking on the edge of downtown.

Train tracks run by the north edge of town, between the town and the interstate.  Unlike the trains that run across northern Montana which mainly carry grain or shipping containers, the trains I saw in Missoula only carried coal.

 

Here is the train station. Apparently it is either owned or operated by the North Pacific railroad due to the logo. Considering the last passenger train came through in 1979, the station is quite nice and is well maintained.

Don't you love the old brick buildings where the owners painted billboard advertisements right on the side of the buildings?

Newer building art.

And just plain odd art.

Here is an example of what looks to be classic 1960s architecture.

Doesn't this look like a new building trying - and failing - to look 'old' and trying to fit in with the old building styles?

Being a university town Missoula is a bicycle friendly town.  Here are examples of bicycle parking areas both on and off the sidewalk.

Here is a photo of a house on a mountain overlooking Flathead Lake.  Whenever Tammy and I drove by this house we would forget to take a photo until it was too late.   This photo is not that great but at least I got one driving by myself at 70 mph.

Here is an example of the difficulty of road building along the west side of Flathead Lake.

As you can see from the photos - no snow. In fact there was no snow (other than on the taller mountains) starting at the north end of Flathead Lake and then south.  Most mountain tops disappeared into the clouds.

A number of drivers drove slower when you couldn't pass them then faster when you could.  One old farm truck pulled out in front of my and two other vehicles when we finally could go highway speed.  This truck then drove 45 to 50 mph in a 70 mph zone and we couldn't pass him on the mountain roads for quite some time.  *argh!*

During my trip my driver's door window quit working.  I rolled it down then up.  After that nothing.  At least it quit when closed. All the other car windows still work.  Today I checked the car fuses and learned apparently one fuse controls all windows.  So the fuse doesn't seem to be the problem.

I think my road trip worked.  The days since Tuesday have been partly to mostly sunny and feel good.