Day 3: Missoula, MT

Even though we haven't really done that many miles, it was nice to sleep in a little today and not have to get up and drive.  We drove straight to The Shack for a delicious breakfast. Trout and Eggs and a full bottle of champagne for our mimosas was the perfect start to a perfect day.

After breakfast we walked the streets of Missoula.  Missoula is not a big city.  The downtown area is about 6 blocks long and about 2 blocks wide.  It's super cute.  The shops are all a bit funky and cool.  We went, of course, to every vintage store we could find.  We found a 50 year old sports coat for me and a sweet ass hunk o' neck jewel for Willow.

In the middle of the day I got a call from the contract company.  The message was something to the effect of "We finished running your background and need to speak with you ASAP".  My palms started to sweat. This was the moment I had known was gonna happen from the beginning.  It was all too good to be true.  What kind of asshole gets fired, buys a brand new car, takes off across the country to a job he doesn't actually have yet?  It's pay the piper time.  They came across pictures of me after a night of tequila exposing myself to an innocent blackberry bush. They interviewed George Bellcoff, and all he could talk about was how I would wear my fruity polyester shirts to meetings. Nervously I call them back... thinking about how I was gonna break the news to Willow while the phone rang.

.... turns out while they were doing the background check on me they came across the knowledge that a gentleman by the name of Hector Gonzalez and another gentleman by the name of Juan Suarez have been using my SSN. That's it?!  Look if Hector and Juan want my credit... they can have it!  I know... I know... I need to get that taken care of but still it was relatively great news!!

We continued our day exploring, walking every street downtown had to offer, driving over to the college, meandering around the beautiful neighborhoods, visiting the places Willow would visit when she was a super cute cutie pie.



We both love the architecture of this town.  We love the old houses.  We love the mountains around the city.  The deciduous trees lining the neighborhoods are beautiful.  The people are super friendly and surprisingly left!  I mean this is a VERY left leaning town.  More so than Portland.  We felt right at home walking into a dive bar with people glued to Rachel Maddow on the TV.


We came back to the our hotel room to have a little siesta, post some narcissistic rants on Facebook about the evils of religion, and ready ourselves for the night.







Taking the advice of our favorite person in Montana,  we started our night at the amazing Charlies Bar.  This place is impossible to find if you don't live here and know about it.  It is unmarked with the exception of "CB" on the door.  Inside it's a dive bar with a couple of outstanding exceptions.  Lining the walls in this massive space are these amazing portraits.  I mean absolutely stunning portraits.  The portraits are of patrons.  Some of them of famous, most of them just hard working salt-of-the-earth types. Each individual photograph is perfect, but together, the hundreds of individual images make up a complete and solitary piece of art.  If you are ever in Missoula do not miss this. 

Charlies has another gem tucked away in the back.  A separate restaurant inside the bar called The Dinosaur Cafe.  From this humble little kitchen 3 dudes kick out some ridiculously amazing cajun food.  Yep, cajun food. I had a pig and crawfish sausage po boy with grilled onions and peppers. Willow had a pulled pork sandwich.  We shared a cup of nom nom gumbalaya.  It was southern comfort and completely unexpected.     

We met our favorite Montanian, Amie here.  She was with a bunch of guys, we assumed from work so we we didn't run up and hug her like we wanted to.  You might remember Amie from yesterday's post.  We met her at the hotel bar, she was drinking well whiskey on the rocks (sexy!). At Charlies, she bought us our first round and informed us that the whiskey's that I ordered her the night before kept her drunk in her training until well after noon.  In a couple of hours we would follow her advice once again and head to the next stop of the night to a place called the Top Hat. She told us that there was a band named The Boxcutters that reminded her of The White Stripes.  We were so in.  The Top Hat was a perfect bar.  If we lived in Missoula, it would be our Binks.  The second act (whose name I was too buzzed to remember) was from Bend.  We chatted with them for a bit.  We listened to stories about them playing at Laurelthirst and Doug Fir.  I got everybody's permission to photograph and so set up a spot and got ready for some difficultly lit photography.  The Boxcutters were friggin awesome.  If they come to your town... go see them.  They rock... and I'm not gay or anything but damn that drummer dude is fuckin hot.  When he threw his shirt off it was all I could do to hold Willow back.  Stay out of my wife drummer dude!!!!



 

We finished the night back at the Hotel Bar for one more not very well thought out drink. We hoped to see Amie there but she was a smidge snockered.  We didn't get a chance to exchange emails or Facebook info... no worries I will find her.  I will be looking for her band, Rabbit Stew, to head west!!

Missoula is a great town.  It's not big enough to live in.  But it's a great place to visit for a few days and even longer if you use it as a home base for the amazing nature that exists just outside it's boundaries. 

We're off to the next place!  Talk to you tomorrow!!


Don't forget to check out my Smugmug gallery for even more pics!!

(SmugMug Lesson: Once that page loads you can use your arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through the pictures.  The first picture from day 2 will load, so you can use your right arrow key to scroll through that days pictures.  You can also use your mouse to click on the picture to open up the gallery and look at picture at will)