On the road: Day 1.5

Its good to finally be on the road to Minnesota.  Our journey has been uneventful and we have been fortunate enough to meet some interesting folks along the way.  Last night we stayed with Jane, a friend of Becky’s from her Midwifery program.  Her hospitality was a welcome beginning to our journey, especially all the love from her friendly lab Godiva who Josie was enamored with. 

This morning we ate breakfast and brewed coffee at a park next to the Peaceful Valley Community center.  The Spokane River was in flood from spring runoff and provided a somber backdrop for our breakfast.  We met a man named Jim who was living in Spokane, but originally from Maine.  Underneath a faded black moving company hat peaks long gray hair.  We struck up small talk about my Whisperlight stove which he was admiring.  Behind huge wire rimmed bifocals his eyes were fairly alert, but his speech came clipped and without rhythm.  He is the first real character we have encountered on our trip.   I was asked him about the river and he took me down to where he swims his dog and explained how much higher the water was a few days ago.  He originally arrived in Spokane in 1997 and has been working as a house painter, but work is scarce now.  He was eager to chat, but quickly abandoned our conversation and got into his patched up van when I started packing up the car.

Our next stop was in Libby, Montana at the Museum on US-2. It was a great place for Jo to runaround for an hour and for Becky and I to make a late lunch.  We enjoyed poking around the exhibits and seeing the frontier artifacts in the round log building.  Outside we wandered around ancient diesel caterpillar engines, ore carts, and mineral processing equipment and met Earl Stevenson who was mowing the grounds.  We started chatting and I learned that he drove a Metro bus in Seattle for fifteen years before moving to Libby.  He told me that he had been mowing the lawn at the museum for the last six hours.  After a few photos of Jo next to some mining equipment we headed east on US-2 towards the mountain.

After a wild goose chase trying to track down two campgrounds, Jo had enough and let us know that she wanted to get out of the car…immediately.  So we coughed up some cash and landed in a cheap motel here in Kalispell.  Upon arrival we promptly setup a parking lot kitchen (our kitchenette unit had a sink and a refrigerator, but no stove) and fixed up some delicious linguine with meatballs and homemade sauce that Becky made before we left home.  Both of us hate hearing Jo miserable in the car, and have come up with a better strategy for tomorrow (we hope). 

As I write this some of my fantastic motel neighbors are shouting at one another.  We may meet some more characters before the day is done.