Traveling to Big Sky Country

My last night in Portland I visited a few friends, saying a last few farewells. The car was packed and I was ready to spend some quality time with the family for Christmas. It was great to be home and my little vacation was over way too fast.

Just after 0800 on a Saturday, my life re-sorted into my small car, arranged just so to fit an extra person, I drove to pick up my road trip partner. In true Western Washington fashion, we stopped at Bigfoot Java for the largest serving of coffee you can order from a coffee stand. Then it was “Goodbye, Seattle”. Forty-eight-ounce coffees in hand and The Eagles strumming familiar chords through the speakers, my brother and I settled in for the long drive ahead. (Let me sidetrack for a second here: for those of you who haven’t met my brother, he is wonderful and I’m a lucky sister to have a brother like him. I’m grateful he was available to come with me.)

Long drives for avid readers meant that after a bit, we threw on the requisite audio book. Both of us being Sci-Fi junkies, we chose to listen to Name of the Wind, which I highly recommend. It was a fitting choice for the gorgeous scenery we were driving through. The drive from Seattle to Spokane is filled with sweeping landscapes that no mere picture could do justice to. We passed the first signs of the fact that it was January and supposedly winter when we reached Cle Elum.

As soon as we passed Spokane, I was in territory I’d never been to before. We made Coeur D’Alene, Idaho just as the sun was beginning to set.

We finally made Missoula, MT around 2030, checked into our hotel and headed out to find dinner. Turns out Missoula is a bit of a foodie town! We stopped at a taco spot for takeout and grabbed ice cream from Big Dipper, which we hadn’t known was THE place to go in town for ice cream. Happy accident. It began to snow, so we stayed in and filled our evening playing cards and listening to Name of the Wind.

The next day we ventured out and walked around town to see what could be found in Missoula. We discovered really good food and Create, an “art bar” where you can work on an art project while sipping on an adult beverage. It was pretty fun.

All too soon, it was time to drop Al off at the airport. Left to my own devices, I went to see Little Women at the cinema and prepared for my next day’s arrival at the Resort at Paws Up. I was ready for the next adventure to begin.