Day 477 – US – Montana [Rest Day in Missoula]

25/07/21

 Rest day in Missoula (Montana, North America)

Enjoying my 3rd rest-day of the North America crossing in Missoula, in the valley, by the river and mountains

Missoula by the Clark Fork river

Three weeks into my North American crossing, I am glad to spend a full day in Missoula. The city is middle-size, it’s got an International airport and a University – at 67,000 inhabitants it is the second biggest city of Montana (after Billings, where I will be in 2 weeks). The city is set by the Clark Fork river, and surrounded by mountains. Again today there was a fair amount of haze and it was hard to spot the outline of the surrounding mountains. Speaking with the locals today I understand that wildfires and smoke is a fact every summer. I was not aware how big the problem was. And apparently it’s only getting worse.

Higgins building on the Avenue of the same name

I walked all over downtown Missoula, past the courthouse and through the popular Higgins Avenue. A pleasant city with many cafes and outdoor restaurants. This is another place where I manage to enjoy food that doesn’t involve burgers and fries, so I was quite happy to indulge! The past week I have mostly been by roadside motels and campgrounds, and it is in general difficult to get vegetables and food that is not stuffed between two pieces of bread and loads of sauce! Anyway, I was happy about the change of diet.

The man just felt like running!

I am heading now towards Helena (capital of Montana) and Billings. These are relatively large cities, but the fact is that between these cities, it is relatively desertic. That means a lot of lonely runs and not much to see when I arrive on location. This afternoon as I was chilling out, I switched on the TV and Forest Gump came up on the screen! This is the moment Forest says “I just felt like running!”. Legend!