Missoula, MT to Seattle, WA

I covered a lot, geographically speaking. The morning was spent wandering around downtown Missoula and meeting up with new friend Scott at the Old Post for nourishment (oh yummy food!). Missoula is home to a huge range of people; it has everyone from-business suit-clad, fast walkers to tattooed, hawked chain-smokers to guitar-playing, vagabond hippies. And another other combination. The real highlight of my day was the following seven hours of watching the landscape unfold and change in front of me.

As soon as you hit far western Montana the mountains are just thick with dark green trees. The fullness of it is a cushion. And then you enter Idaho. Nothing prepared me for the genuine-ness of Idaho. This is probably the most difficult thing to explain because I didn't even really stop or meet anyone IN Idaho but for some reason that state has left the most pleasant, warm-fuzzy in my heart. As soon as I passed the "Welcome to Idaho" sign I was able to just put the car in neutral and coast down a slide of scenically diminishing mountains. They slowly decrescendoed into what look sort of like huge potato hills (I know - the spuds are only subconsciously there because I reallllly wanted to see some). But the mountains there do have a crumbly, chunkier feel to them. Even the Coeur D'Alene lake and river are friendly. And the bike trail running across the state, beside I-90... *sigh* that is one I will definitely be coming back to bike someday. It was asphalt as smooth as glass, gliding down the mountains.

Fun observation: In Montana all the signs along the highway read "Wildlife Crossing" but in Idaho they read "Game Crossing."

I slid right out of Idaho as sweetly as I came in. Washington. Beautiful, golden Washington. The fields are all soft and light. Even the clouds seem to be lit with gold from within. Even when you get to the central, agricultural belt of the state it doesn't seem harsh at all. On the contrary - from the second I entered Washington, still hundreds of miles from the coast, I could feel the pull of the Pacific. It was another strange sensation that doesn't seem to make sense until you have been there. It is like you expect to see a sea-torn coast in front of you after every little rise in the road. Then. THEN you see the mountains again. But these mountains are regal. They are like the old grizzly bear of all mountains. I felt like I was driving at a wall of gray-blue clouds only to realize it was rock rising out of the horizon. Although I was trying to get to Seattle in a timely manner, I did stop along the Colombia River to gaze at the setting sun stretching out over what could surely have been the setting for many a wind-swept love story.

I finally pulled into Seattle in the dark. A sea of lights met me. Quite the overwhelming sight after being in the wilderness of Montana for such a large chunk of time! My hosts here are fantastic, as usual:) Tie and Chris opened their gorgeous home to me and now my only job is to check out the city and make friends with Linus (pooch) and Duke (kitty). Not too rough;)