From Gaclier to Missoula. Grizz Country!

Oh yeah, we're in Missoula, home of the University of Montana Grizzlies. Everyone has Griz Fever! Hahaha, so yesterday was a relatively rough day for us, but it ended well thanks to some local hospitality and some good college bars.

We woke up early to try to see as much of Glacier as we could, as early as we could, so we weren't on the road until 10:00 PM. Unfortunately, though, the rain from Tuesday persisted through the morning, so we weren't able to do any real hikes in the park. Don't get me wrong, the scenery at Glacier is amazing - I just think we picked the wrong time of year to visit. July or August probably would've been better, as more snow would've been melted off of the landscape. But we were able to see some huge rapids due to the massive amounts of water drainage from the snow and rain. So that was good.

We left the park around 3:00 and headed south towards Missoula. This would've been a nice, scenic, fast drive - except that Montana is a state who's entire highway system is under construction. And in Montana, they don't just rip up one side of the road at a time, nope. They tear up the entire thing so you get to drive over gravel and mud for 10 miles at a time. Thanks. So the drive took a good bit longer than it should've, but we arrived at Missoula around 7:00 ready for some dinner. After touring the UM campus (which is really nice, set right in front of a mountain), we headed to the Iron Horse Pub in downtown Missoula.

At the Iron Horse they have a Bob and Barbara's-esque special: a bottle of PBR and a shot of jager for $4. Oh yeah. So I had a couple of those, then asked the waitress if they could substitute Jim Beam for Jager. And the nice bartender did just that for me. I felt like I was back in Philly! Alex and I ate some good food, had a few drinks, then asked our waitress what bar we should go to. She suggested the Top Hat for some live music. To the Top Hat we went.

First off, I loved the place. They had a cover band playing songs from the '60s and '70s, and when we arrived they were playing "Up on Cripple Creek" by The Band. That's one of my favorite songs, yes lawd. The people at this bar were fairly hippy, and as I mentioned to Alex, everyone looked like they were having a great time. So we stayed for about an hour and enjoyed ourselves as well. Yes lawd, I'm glad we got to experience some of Griz Country!

Today we're heading to Seattle where Alex departs and heads back east. I'll miss him! He's been a good navigator and conversationalist, so now I have to talk to myself and find my own hotel rooms. We'll see how that goes...