Day Four: Attack of the Mole People

Fourth day of the trip took us from Billings, Montana out to Liberty Lake, Washington (just outside of Spokane), which covered about 800km.

Finally out of the plains of middle America, the terrain was becoming increasingly mountainous and forested. Which was absolutely gorgeous to look at but at times challenging to drive through. I also quickly realized that in the same way that North Dakota is obsessed with buffalo, Montana has an unhealthy fixation on bears. Within the first couple of hours I lost count of how many Bear Creeks, Grizzly Roads, Bear Lakes and other ursine place-names we passed. Not to mention a bear zoo that offered to let us pet the grizzlies (I'll decline, thanks).

Finally, something to look at

ATE AT: Out first stop of the day was to refuel and get a spot of lunch at an A&W, which if you ask me if you have to eat at a fast food burger joint, A&W is the best you could ask for. The frosty glass mugs add a lot to what would otherwise be a drab fountain drink. We found one in the city of Butte, Montana. Although the workers there were polite and efficient at their job (not that the place was packed or anything), both my father Brian and I couldn't help but notice that not a single worker we could had all their teeth.

Driving into the city I was trying to come up with something interesting to say about Butte and figured I would end up resorting to a pun, the lowest form of comedy (Brian's suggestion: "We stopped to stretch our glutes in butte"). But after interacting with the haggard looking A&W employees I started to think I had some new material to work with. Then, after we'd finished our meal and were heading back towards the highway, I saw this;

I think Butte, Montana may have a drug problem. Or a monster problem. "Not Even Once," indeed.

I don't want to portray the entire state like this, so I will say that the next place we stopped for gas, Missoula, Montana, was full of college kids enjoying their last week of freedom before classes started up again, and I kinda wished I had the time to stay there with them. It was seriously party central there (during the five minutes it took to refuel I'd already been hive-fived by two random dudes in shades, presumably passing between keggers on opposite ends of the street).



For dinner we ate chinese food at "Ding You" restaurant, but it wasn't really remarkable apart from it's surprising popularity.

ROAD KILL: Almost none! Which is kinda shocking considering how much forest and mountains we drove through. I think I remember a Raccoon or two maybe.

LISTENED TO: Having exhausted the podcasts I'd had the foresight to burn onto CDs, I now resorted to pulling out my old music collection from the 90's, before music was something that was easier to listen to on a WinAmp shuffle. We heard:
*Soundtrack: "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas"
*Soundtrack: "Austin Powers: Goldmember"
*Soundtrack: "Ghostbusters"
*Barenaked Ladies, "Stunt"
*Cake, "Comfort Eagle"

TALKED ABOUT: A lot of the conversation was about the scenery and life in the mountains, talking about camping and forest fires and the perpetual smoky haze that had enveloped the west coast after a dry summer. It really was impressive to see during the thickest portions of the drive, and I suspect my car now has a pleasantly manly woodsmoke scent to it.

This is not an instagram filter, nor is it the apocalypse

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS: Around the Idaho panhandle we crossed Yellowstone river about three times and passed only a short distance from the norther edge of Yellowstone park. Which, naturally, made me think about the dormant (?) supervolcano in Yellowstone and wonder what it might be like to see it go off. There was also the aforementioned bear-zoo.