And you thought the good times stopped in
Wyoming, well, the good times kept on rolling into
Montana. Our driving day on Monday was actually quite uneventful; we just drove through random vacated land. However, the land is remarkably undisturbed. Driving through it we couldn’t help but think of how it looked to Lewis and
Clark nearly 200 years ago – probably not much has changed. It is no wonder they call it Big Sky country, it is impossible to capture the whole horizon. We both found ourselves with our head on swivels just trying to see everything. Nothing like it.
That night we found ourselves in Missoula, an old mining town turned into a modern college town. It is such a fascinating melding of two cultures. Montana, the sunshine state, gorgeous. Furthermore it seems they have a buy two get two free drink policy. I don’t know if the bartenders were just really nice to me, or if they really liked to here about baseball, or they wanted to get me drunk, but I have never had so many free drinks in my life. It was amazing. I think I needed that many drinks in order to comprehend what was about to happen.
So I went to a bar which was actually a converted underground parking garage. And there were only 4 patrons. One was a grey haired gentleman who had trouble forming audible sentences. About 47 seconds after meeting him he thought it would be a good idea to show me his war scars. He started by showing me the bullet wound on his right buttock. I saw the buttock, yet no scar. I then declined to see his scar from when he was stabbed in battle in Cambodia in 1979. To the best of knowledge we never had troops in Cambodia in the late 70s which makes me think he probably wasn’t going to show me a war wound at all. I sprinted up the stairs and across the street. I hope that is the last time that ever happens.
Geoff was still occupied so I hung out another Missoula bar. Come to find out there are more bars in Missoula than hairs on my, well, there are a lot of bars there. And Montana people are great people. Good, down to earth, folks. I probably met 40 people that night, I love them all. Minus the “war vet” of course. I had an awesome time.
The next morning we continued to drive through some of the prettiest country we have ever seen. We both agreed that Montana is the most scenic state in the union. We rolled through Idaho and into Washington, which was a delight because like Minnesota they have free coffee at the rest areas. What a treat.
We arrived into Seattle early Tuesday afternoon and to both of our surprise it was not raining. It was actually nice, real nice. How would have thought? But it gets better. We walked into some random bar downtown. Geoff ordered a beer and get carded, because, well Geoff (who is two years my senior) has a baby face. The sweet little bartender decided not to offend Geoff and carded me as well, and was excited to see I am from Whittier, California – God’s Country. When I asked her why she said she went to Whittier College and come to find out, she went to the same high school as I did. As a matter of fact, she was friends with my oldest sister Sherry. Whittier, just united people worldwide. As if that wasn’t cool enough, she gave us three free beers. Whittier, making people happy worldwide.
We hitched a ride on the bus from downtown to the game. Free. Those hippies, they love their public transportation so much that during rush hour the bus runs for free. So for those keeping score at home, that is free parking, free beer, free ride to the game – not too shabby Seattle.
Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, is an architectural masterpiece. It is an open aired stadium in the rainiest city in the world which is made possible by a retractable roof. The stadium itself is a bit boxy, but otherwise quite beautiful. The game was most enjoyable, we got to see a walk-off hit, which is always a delight, unless you are an Angels fan like Geoff and then you hated every moment of it all.
Last great Seattle story: We met up with our friend Kathleen at the game. Kathleen is a senior at Western Washington University and she brought with her to the game four of her college friends. Five college girls at a baseball game lures more men than, well, … four college girls at a baseball game, or maybe at a state penitentiary. You get the idea. So all game long men in their middle years would come over and try flirting with them. I told one guy he was hitting on my sister and he needed to buy me a beer if he wanted to continue. He complied. The only thing that took the attention away from the girls was when the men found out about our trip. Geoff and I have discovered over the past few weeks that we are the personal heroes of working class men because, simply, they lack the time and ability to leave their job and family to do what we are doing. Geoff and I are homeless, and unemployed, and as far as we know we have no family of our own. This must have been the best game of these middle aged men’s lives. They thought they were just going to be a seeing a Latin Night at Safeco from the cheap seats and instead they got to hit on college girls and talk about the greatest road trip of all time with Geoff and me – a fine evening. But the magic of girls continues. After the game we went to the Pyramid Ale House across the street from the stadium. There we ordered dinner and 3 pitchers of beer – we are looking at a healthy bill. Moments later three young males who were probably in their high schools’ Advanced Placement program asked us if they could sit down and buy us some beer. They went on to buy four more pitchers of beer and then when it came time to leave we looked for the bill and low and behold, these guys paid for it already. Well, that is not entirely true. Their company paid for it. Microsoft paid for it. So next time you are upset about the price of your software package, or think that the earnings per share of your Microsoft stock is a little low, it is probably because their computer engineers are out buying guys like me dinner and beer on the company credit card. Brilliant.
I think it is also worth mentioning that the five college girls did not pay for their tickets to the game. Some nice man gave them tickets outside the stadium. If Geoff and I were beautiful girls in our early twenties we could have done this entire trip for about $36. Even if that isn’t the case, we certainly would have had a lot better time in Miami. Filthy.
We spent the next couple of days hanging out in Washington before driving down to San Francisco Friday morning.
Check back tomorrow (hopefully) for an account of San Diego and the Bay Area
