Coast To Coast

After about a month of travel and almost 4,000 miles of driving, I have made it to the west coast!  I still have another week and about 1,000 more miles to drive before I reach my final destination, but I am proud to say that I made it all the way to Portland, OR by myself and in one piece.  I have been so busy having awesome adventures, that I have simply not had time to update, so this one might be long.

At the face painting party

Last time I updated, I was in Denver, CO with Jessica.  I left Jessica's place around 7am on Thursday, Aug 25 and made the very long drive to Helena, MT to visit Hans.  It's about a 13 hour drive.  My whole body hurt when I got there around 9pm that night, but it was totally worth it.  We had an amazing time in Montana together.  We just hung out that night when I got there because I was so exhausted.  On Friday morning, we walked around downtown Helena and it was really nice.  That afternoon, we went to see Our Idiot Brother, which was a really good movie.  After the movie, we went to Blackfoot River Brewing Company, which is a local brewery.  For dinner, we cooked home made mac and cheese (so delicious!) and then went to a face painting/dance party with a bunch of Hans' Montana Conservation Corps friends.  Later that night, we went to a dance club (still with our face paint on) and danced the night away.

Hans flying a kite like a pro

Band at the market in Helena

On Saturday, we went to the local market and bought some delicious strawberry rhubarb pie.  There was an awesome little blue grass band playing music in the street.  That afternoon, we hung out and Hans taught me how to fly a kite!  It was so fun and such a beautiful day out.  That night Hans took me out for a wonderful dinner at The Windbag Saloon.  After dinner, we rented the movie How Do You Know, but I accidentally fell asleep while watching it.

After our nice dinner at The Windbag Saloon

Our home for the night

On Sunday, we drove to Missoula, MT, which is a couple hours from Helena.  We went there for the River City Roots Festival that was happening that weekend.  It's a music and arts festival.  There was some fun bands playing.  We walked all over downtown Missoula and the University of Montana campus.  It was move in weekend there, so we didn't look too out of place wandering around aimlessly.  We ate some delicious sushi for dinner and then headed toward Seeley Lake to camp out for the night.  We went in the lake for a minute (it was pretty cold and getting dark).  Hans showed me how to set up the tent.  He also set up his hammock.  We made a small camp fire.  We didn't want to make a big fire because the forest fire risk was really high that day.  We saw helicopters trying to put out a few fires when we were leaving Missoula.  We roasted some marshmallows, shared a bottle of wine, and slept under the stars.  It was incredible.

On Monday morning, we hiked to the area where Hans has been working.  For those who don't know, he works for the Montana Conservation Corps making trails, building bridges, and doing other outdoorsy things.  We hiked on some of the trails that he helped make and he showed me one of the bridges he helped build.  It was really cool to see what he's actual been doing.  After waking up to it raining that morning, it had turned into a really nice day.

A bridge that Hans helped build

Some of the trails Hans helped make

After our small hike, we drove to a different park, where they have the largest Larch tree in the United States.  It was huge!  If you tried to hug the tree (which we totally did),  your arms would only go about a fifth or a quarter of the way around the trunk.  It was apparently about 1,000 years old.  So cool!

Then we drove back to Helena.  We stopped on the way back at a nice scenic overlook.  That evening, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  I didn't realize there were B Dubs in other towns besides Rochester.  Apparently they're all over the place!  Then, we went to see the movie The Help.  

On Tuesday, Hans had to do some work in the office to get ready for his next hitch.  He did his work and then showed me the tool shed where they keep all the intense tools that they use while they're working.  Then we got burritos for lunch and walked around downtown Helena some more.  We looked all around the capitol building, which was so beautiful.  We saw where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet.  Then, we went on this awesome carousel.  It had crazy animals like an otter, a wolf, a buffalo, and a triceratops.  It was the coolest carousel ever!  It had these rings sticking out on one side that you had to grab and then a clown on the other side with nets that you had to throw the rings into.  So fun!  That afternoon, Hans had planned a surprise for me. He took me to the Gates of the Mountains.  It's a boat tour in the Helena National Forest along the Lewis and Clark Trail.  It was really awesome.  There were amazing limestone cliffs and we even saw a bald eagle!

Limestone cliffs in the Gates to the Rocky Mountains

On the Gates of the Mountains boat tour

Tuesday night, we cooked a delicious dinner together of skillet ziti, honey BBQ baked beans, and corn pudding.  We also drank the wine that I bought at the Oz Winery in Kansas.  Then we went to see the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  It was crazy, but I liked it.  It's movies like that that give scientists a bad rep.  Some people legitimately think scientists are going to create viruses that cause things like that to happen.  Oh well.  

Hans left for work on Wednesday morning and I drove to Idaho.  I was really sad to leave, but we'll hopefully see each other again relatively soon.  I got to Post Falls, ID that evening.  I was staying with Kyle O'Neill and his girlfriend.  We tried to go for a bike ride, but instead got stuck in the first big rain/hail storm that they have had all summer.  I seem to be bringing the rain with me around the country.  We had some mac and cheese, corn, and watermelon for dinner and then they taught me how to play the board game Arkham Horror.  It was confusing, but really fun.  

One of the hallways at the Kennedy School

On Thursday morning, I left for Portland, OR to visit Mel, who I know from the crew team at RIT.  Her house is awesome and her parents are all about making home made food, which I have really been enjoying. Thursday night, we went to this place called the McMenamins Kennedy School.  It was so awesome!  It's an old elementary school that they have turned into a restaurant/hotel/bar/movie theater.  We watched the movie Bridesmaids (which was hilarious!) while sitting on a couch, eating pizza, and drinking beer.  It was pretty epic.  

On Friday, we pretty much hung around the house, watched movies, and relaxed all day.  It was nice to relax after so many days of adventuring.  We ate salmon burgers for dinner, which were so tasty. We watched the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe that night.  

Today, we had homemade waffles for breakfast and then went to the Portland Saturday Market.  It was really fun.  There were bands, food, and any kind of craft or trinket you could ever want.  I spent way too much money because everything was so great.  I bought earrings made from a bike chain and an apron with sushi on it.  I also got new sunglasses (I broke both of my pairs), some fun magnets, and some delicious jams (Strawberry rhubarb, Marionberry-jalapeno, and garlic jelly).  We stopped in the mall for a minute and there was an ice rink in the middle of the mall!  Mel swore that's a normal thing, but I've never seen that anywhere else.  Then, we went to a sushi bar for dinner (I'm sensing a theme here with all the sushi eating on this trip).  It was so cool and weird.  You sit at the bar and a conveyor belt is constantly bringing plates of different kinds of sushi past you!  You just pick out which ones you want off of it.  I'd never seen anything like that.  Portland is a weird and very interesting place.  Tonight, we are going to a local bar.

I can still barely believe that I am on the west coast and that I actually drove here.  It has been an unforgettable trip so far and there are still more adventures to be had.  I have loved every minute of it.  Seeing all the changing climates and landscapes was absolutely breathtaking and seeing all these old friends is even more magnificent.  I will try to update more frequently, so I don't have such a monster of an entry next time, but I can't help all the fun I'm having!  I hope you stuck it out and read all of this, because it truly was a week worth sharing.