Missoula: Back in a City (Day 18)

We left Yellowstone fairly early for a 320 mile drive to Missoula Montana. Missoula offered not only shopping and eating opportunities that we’ve lacked for the last week, but it is also about 20 degrees warmer. Given all of the rain we’ve had, that was welcome. Driving out, we passed the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Maybe that’s why it’s so cold.

After winding our way out of the park, we got back on I90 for some more tedious but fast driving. Lunch was at Wheat Montana, a vertically integrated company that does “grow, sow, dough” with shops that sell not only big bags of wheat, but great sandwiches and baked goods. Juliet got a huge cream cheese and fruit cinnamon roll.

When we started the van this morning, it said it was time for an oil change. The warning got increasingly insistent as we drove today, nagging me as it counted the number of miles past the due mark. No big deal, as Missoula has a Honda dealer. Trying to get to the Honda dealer before they closed, we pushed on, arriving in Missoula around 3:30 at tonight’s campground. Jim and Mary’s Campground was recommended to us by several people as the best RV park in Missoula. It is immaculately manicured with mown grass and flower beds, and the bathrooms are more lavish than the late-50s pink and blue tiled relics we have at home. Too bad it’s right next to both a highway and a train track, but that’s better than the Missoula KOA that’s immediately behind the local mall. The campground is full - good thing we reserved last night (something I thought wasn’t necessary but Juliet insisted.)

We unhitched and sprinted off to the Honda dealer who changed the oil and looked over the van. Seeing the kayaks on the roof, the cashier mentioned that her friend owned a kayaking shop downtown, right by a surfing wave on Clarks Fork river which bisects town. This wave is relatively well known, so we headed off to see it. It’s a pretty high and wide wave, which looks too intimidating for us. So, we checked with the kayak shop suggested to us for local recommendations. We’ll try one out tomorrow.

Missoula is a pleasant college town that looks like it would be a fine place to live. It has:

- A walkable downtown with some old houses
- Lots of close-by kayaking and biking, including a bike path and bike lanes
- An airport
- Both Wal-Mart and Target
- An RV dealer (with a few Airstreams out back) and a Honda dealer
- Restaurants, many coffee shops, and several bakeries

We had dinner at Pizza Biga, which makes brick oven pizza. Juliet had a goats cheese pizza, me a bacon/fennel/5-spice pizza. Both were delicious; Jules liked hers more than the last New Haven pizza we had (heresy.)

Tom