July 7, 2003 Today we are resting in Missoula, MT. This is a very nice city of some 55,000 people that is the home of the University of Montana - the Grizzlies. This city is located where five valleys come together. As result, there are many hills, a lot of streams, a river, mountains peeking over the hills and generally nice scenery. It is a "happening city" that is prosperous, exciting and interesting. The people here are very open and friendly, and we have absolutely enjoyed ourselves. This morning we walked to the Double Tree Hotel for breakfast. Their dining room is right on the river, and we had a very nice breakfast mixed with some wonderful scenery. The people there really took good care of us. We had been looking for a ride to Lolo Pass - we made a bit of a planning error, and if we didn't get a ride, we would have had to redo all our reservations for the rest of the trip - that just didn't sound like fun for us. We talked to our waitress about this, and at first she was going to arrange to have her husband take us. That didn't work out, but a few minutes later, she showed up with the cook. The cook has a van, and she will be meeting us at 7:00 AM in the morning to drive us. That is a big relief, since it allows us to stay on schedule without having to spend a lot of time on the phone doing administrative stuff. So, we will have another 40 miles of SAG on our record, but it is exactly what "Meriwether would have done!" By the way, the SAG miles are not included in our stats. After returning from Breakfast, we walked the bike (It is against our rules to ride the bike on a rest day.) to the bike shop, and arranged for its TLC. We then wandered around downtown enjoying a very vital, specialty retailing area - both of us buying some books, LaValle getting a piece of art and having lunch. Ron mailed some postcards to his grandkids. We will be spending some time this afternoon retrieving the bike, and arranging for the forward shipment of some stuff to keep the trailer load light. We are actually going to ship stuff home - we are too close to worry about having some of this stuff with us. That is a good feeling. This city has a lot. An example is the selection of restaurants. We had lunch at the Pita Pit - a really nice place with an authentic menu that even had a lot of vegetarian offerings. Tonight we are going to have dinner at a Thai restaurant. The owner just returned from Thailand with spices she can't get here. There is also a Children's Theater - located in a very nice facility, and obviously well funded. The river front is equipped with a trail on both sides, and downtown the river area is very well developed for civic activities and community enjoyment. Obviously, we are impressed with Missoula. We are at an interesting point in our adventure. As the days pass, we are becoming more and more excited. The end is near, and our anticipation of arrival in Astoria is growing geometrically. This is so much fun, and we are proud to look back on what we have done, and forward to what we will do. To see, first hand, what Lewis and Clark did, to ride the bike most every day and achieve a dream is difficult for us to comprehend. We are just going with the flow - soaking up everything we can - as we near the end of the crossing of our great county. Until you see it this way, we don't feel that you can truly appreciate just how much we, in the good old USA, have. Tomorrow we will be back on the bike on our way to Idaho - another new state. We leave Montana knowing that we have visited one of the most beautiful places in the world. Ron Note from LaValle... we talked with a number of people today and they were all very happy to be living in Missoula. It is a wonderful town that for its size has as much energy coming from the cracks in the sidewalks as any larger west coast city such as Seattle, San Francisco and Portland. One woman who we spoke with had been living in Missoula because of her husband's job at the University of Montana. They had since moved to Portland where she had just finished her first year of medical school. She hopes to return to this area after becoming a doctor. She wants to practice medicine here in Missoula. The van driver who took us to the Fed Ex location had moved from a small town near Culbertson, MT. Although he is the least happy here in the winter (he doesn't ski and has lived in Montana all of his life) he still loves being here and will probably stay. For dinner this evening we retuned to the Doubletree and had a pasta dinner while sitting by the river. The Thai restaurant was too far to walk and would have required us to take a taxi. All in all it's been a great rest day and with the help of Micki the cook at the Doubletree we'll be certain to have another great day on the bike tomorrow.