Montana = Coffee + Booze

Phil here.

We're down to one computer and we both want to post today. So this will be short.

I'm really liking Montana and it's fun to see what the state's identity is. Whereas Texas is so proud of itself, and shouts about who it is, and how great it is, Montana is kind of understated. Let me revise that; there just aren't all that many people here, so they don't waste a lot of time telling you what's so great about this place. But it is clear that Montanans spend a lot of time in two places: coffee houses and bars. So they spend the first part of the day getting jacked up on joe, the second half mellowing out on local brews.

We're in a coffee shop now in Whitefish sipping some local roasted java that is quite good. Vivian patiently reads as I type.

We have made a tour of the cities in the Flathead Valley near Glacier Natnl Park. Kalispell is the biggest but it hasn't grown gracefully. Many chain stores line wide streets outside the city and the downtown looks like it's seen better times. Thift stores and pawn shops. Big Fork, on the Flathead Lake, is touristy and overrun. Columbia Falls is, as noted in an earlier post, depressing. But Whitefish is my pick. It has a nice downtown area, not too precious, and kind of rustic too. It's always fun to think, "Where would I live?" My secret desire is to be one of those writers whose biography on the bookflap reads "he divides his time between…" and then name two exotic places. Mine would be "he divides his time between Long Beach, California, and Whitefish, Montana." How does that sound?

Today is our last full day here and we're both savoring every moment of our time together and our time here in the north woods. We woke up to snow which has tapered off. But a gray sky hangs low. We've had a great trip, so I have no regrets, but I will feel a pang of sadness as the wheels of our plane lift off the tarmac of Montana.