One More Cup Of Coffee

It is late November and the road to camp ices over every night now. Only to melt out to a simultaneously slippery and sticky mud by the afternoon. t the risk of being overly dramatic, I have to say it is a difficult effort and a bit unsafe. I know because I have walked it 4 times yesterday and 2 times today with the last of the stuff I think I’ll need for my winter sabbatical.  I slipped and fell yesterday on some frozen mud on one of the trips. I didn’t break a hip or anything so I guess I am not old yet.  I was only able to drive in once in the past week and that was lazy winning over wisdom. I ended up having to drive out at 3am in a snow storm to keep from getting stuck for days or longer. I finished up my night sleeping in a parking lot. It was good practice for the winter car camping that lies ahead.

Fast Forward to now……

The camp is locked down and I have left the mountain but as usual, I don’t have anywhere to go and a long time to get there. So before hitting the road, I decided I might as well burn a couple hours sitting in the coffee shop for a few hours and get caught up on the internet while I have it. I do have to get a room somewhere tonight just to get a hot shower, or two. It is waaaay overdue especially now that I am going to be out with the great washed more often then not. I am working on a few videos of the property and will get them posted  as soon as I can get them off the phone.

Faster Forward to even more now……

I made it to the resort town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho just over the Washington Border. I found a surprisingly cheap room at the Resort City Inn. It was simple and cheap, just like me. It was also on the Main Street, not like me. After a nice snowy stroll around the already decorated for Christmas town and waterfront, a hot shower was more important. I enjoyed them considerably. Yes Plural. I was that dirty. It wasn’t a very cold night I guess, because though it was still snowing when I woke up, none was piling up.

Now, I like a good pile of snow more than most, but not on the Interstate at 4700 ft (1430m) surrounded by fearless Semi-truck drivers and overly confident Subaru owners. The Idaho snow plow team kept the conditions to a snowy slushy mess up and over into Montana. There were a couple of spinouts into the wall but mostly no drama.

I have downgraded to car camping (euphemistically) since the Coeur d”Alene hotel. Walmarts have started to crack down on us cheap ass travelers and don’t hang out the welcome sign as much anymore. It can still be done if you park around the overnight shelf stocking crew’s cars but my best option so far is Highway rest stops. They tend to be well lit with clean restrooms open 24hrs. I have a mattress in the back and a good sleeping bag. It is working so far, but are usually located pretty far from any city. Once I get off the interstate, I will start looking for non creepy truck stops. They have come along way over the years but I am sure I don’t want to look too closely at what goes on at night there. You also have to watch where you park too cause they are not built for car parking and the truckers get pissed when they find you parked in their way.

I still had a few days before my AirBnB starts so hung out in Billings, Montana over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I had big plans of taking advantage of the black Friday sales in tax free Montana but nothing really caught my eye that was worth breaking the seal on my wallet. I was ready to commit to a new phone but in the end I couldn’t justify an $800 toy when the toy I have is working fine. As I have complained before, my cell service had gotten worse over the summer, so I did make the big jump to a new carrier. And for no reason other than to add a little spice to my life, I chucked my old phone number and got a new one. So if you have any interest in pressing the ignore button when you see I am calling, send me a note and I’ll get you the new number.

I would like to get a new computer as this one is getting a little long in the tooth. But as you can read, it is still working so it was easy to talk myself out of a new one. Then there are these rags I am wearing, Everything I have (and own for that matter) with me is stained, ripped and burn marked from mountain life. It does save on laundry since even a box of Tide Hygienic Clean Heavy Duty 10x Free Power Detergent would have no impact. Like I said though, I am going to be out in the real world for a few months, so I better look like I care.

Billings doesn’t scream “welcome”! from the Interstate. Any view of its limited skyline is blocked by the oil refinery along the road. Most of the view is just a long stretch of business parks.  It was easy to just take a break in the much more engaging town of Bozeman. Then I read that Outside Magazine named Billings as the Best Town to live in back in 2016. I am glad I saw the article because now I always stop in for a low key rest before or after the drive through the vast nothingness of the Midwest. It has been a few years since the award but I think it is holding up. It is not a big city and might be a bit run down around the edges. I don’t know if was the growth in oil production or the Outside article but it has started  to sprawl out like Americans after Thanksgiving dinner. Even so, it does put out a good effort to keep its small town community feel. There are plenty of restaurants and bars downtown. There aren’t any national chain stores or restaurants either. The only downside, and for Montana in general, is the Casinos. They are as common as coffee shops in Seattle. It seems like the main focus of nightlife in the state. I am not a gambler, with money at least, and still not drinking so there isn’t much for me to do after dinner.

No rest stops within an hour of town so I hunkered down at the nearest truck stop. They all have the aforementioned casinos attached though. The folks standing around the entrance looking grim made it feel a little less safe than I would like. I slept for a few hours before I decided that I would be better off at the Walmart. It was a pretty good sleep since there was no Black Friday craziness this year. Except for the street sweeper going back and forth, the parking lot was darn near bucolic.

Mostly, my time in Billings was spent drinking coffee and dodging the shoppers at the mall. I did learn that there is a park nearby where William Clark vandalized a sandstone outcropping by carving his name in it. It is the only physical evidence that Lewis and Clark made the trek across the USA before there were any United States. Its pretty cool. On the other hand, I checked out another state park that has a cave of ancient Indian Petroglyphs. At least that is what the sign said. They have long since faded into a few red marks. Definitely not worth the $8.

 Short of the useless (so far) pair of snowshoes that have been digging into by back while sleeping, I am not equipped to take advantage of Billings’ famed outdoor activities. I decided that I might as well head into Wyoming and wait out my time before I get the AirBnB keys.

 

 

Really, Now. Honest.

OK, that’s enough run-on sentences for one post. I am going to start working on my Christmas cards at the Cody Library, It is a really nice library for a little town, By The Way.