Doubletree Hotel Missoula/Edgewater

... And if it is freezing balls.. plans may change! I hope to visit my friend Nikolas in Sweden, he was the one who stuck by me while I was detained at the Lebanese border.. a very loyal Swede and great person. Wherever I am I really really can't wait. I worked hard all summer and I could definitely use a vacation and a much needed cure for itchy feet.<br><br><br> <br>

We went to Yellowstone today.Here're the headlines-- hard driving ,beautiful mountain views,waterfalls, and wildlife, blah,blah,blah!(Look at the pictures.) I know what my peeps want to hear - the dirt on how we're getting along.I told you that I was worried about Linda being too organized. Actually she's been totally flexible, going with ...

Well.....<br><br>We solved the "over heating" issue for now, turned out it was only the need for a new radiator cap. Our old cap was weak sauce apparently, couldn't handle the pressure. We'll see what happens when we hit the Rockies though....<br> After we left the dodge dealership this morning we made it all the way through the "skinny" part of Idaho, but it sure didn't ...

We decided to drive towards Glacier Park but near a larger city so we could do some shopping. <br><br>The landscape in Montana is unbelieveable. You have a large dry, barren mountain on one side with maybe a few trees or sagebushes and other other side is one green and loaded with trees. There there is going up and then coming down a 6-7 ...

... is the only way to travel and get the true taste and touch, of a new place. Plus, you save a lot of money on stuff that's not really important. Now, for you old folks, I know what your thinking. "Brandon, you're so easy to please." Well, you're right. But you could offer a couch to a stranger... The people you meet somewhere are what make a place special and couch surfers have turned out to be very special people.

... hike- I still wasn't really feeling very good, so I didn't really feel up to doing anything major. After our hike we headed back to town and then to dinner at Eddie McStiff's Brewery. Yes, we branched out and finally tried a new restaurant- still a brewery though! It was a pretty good dinner and they had some live music- I think we'll be eating there again. <br> In the morning we had our sights (and our stomachs!) set on the Jailhouse cafe ...

... though. Joe hadn't brought a second lock to secure his bike independent of ours. The Mountain Line takes bikes, but how could he unload it at his destination with a sleeping child in hand? Finally he rode the bike home, walked back to the bus station, took Ren from my arms and brought him home by bus. Ah, the crazy things one will do without a car. (The worst part was, Ren woke up the second Joe opened the house door. They hopped back on the bus and met us at ...

... a year-round, indoor water park, a Children's Museum and even a now-famous kayak play spot known as Brennan's Wave, right on the Clark Fork river downtown. But no amount of gushing about how extraordinary Missoula naturally is, or how dedicated its citizen organizers, will bring such treasures to my own city.  As I mentioned earlier, there are things about Northampton that simply can't match what Missoula's got.  For one thing, we have tons of hills, making biking ...

... have to hope the desire to hunt eventually gets replaced with a respect for nature as the generations pass. So anyway, we had a nice relaxing afternoon before ducking back to the hotel for pizza and sorting through our photos of the day before Kirilee dragged me back out at 10pm to see Sex and the City at the cinema. We had planned to spend the next day lazing about in the hotel room and sorting through our pictures from Yellowstone but instead ...

... dead branches we perservered (lisa had the biggest stick and it made her look like Gandolf!!) When we reached the M, which is actually only a third of the way up the mountain, I felt like a giant as i peered at the ant-sized cars and buildings, but still found it hard to comprehend the size and length of this distance-fighting town. We burned the mixture as a romanesque torch as we descended the Mountain to become human size once again. We descended in almost ...