February 3, 2003 - Missoula, Montana

Today is a day off! We arrived in Missoula, Montana around 10AM. When I got off the bus the first thing I saw was a huge mountain with a big letter "L" on it. We've been seeing mountains the whole tour, but these were different because we were right at the foot of the mountains so they looked humongous! Next to that mountain was another huge mountain with a big letter "M" on it. I later found out the "M" was for University of Montana and the "L" was the initial of the local high school.

When I took my luggage up to the room I had planned on resting, but Victor gave me a call and he wanted to go for a walk. We went for a long walk all over downtown Missoula. When we left downtown we went to the University of Montana campus which was at the bottom of the "M" mountain. We went to the campus book store and activity center. There were lots of students there selling things they had made - there was a lot of activity going on. A lot of students recognized Victor. The school photographer wanted to take a picture of us and the school radio station asked Victor if he would mind being interviewed. Even though it was his day off and he wanted to relax, he did the interview and talked to EVERY student that wanted to talk to him. Victor stayed at the campus and I walked back downtown.

I was trying to find a good place to have breakfast and find some good book stores. The places that everybody recommended for breakfast were closed. While I was walking, I came across a school for massage and so I got an hour massage for $30 from a student named Kristen Harper. She's gonna' be a very good masseuse when she gets out of school. She recommended that I go to a place called Finnegan's for breakfast. When I got there and placed my order, I asked a very young waitress if they had any grits and she didn't even know what I was talking about! She looked at me as if we were playing Scrabble and I had just made up a word! I keep forgetting that I'm not in the Southeast anymore… I ordered a vegetarian omelet and it was surprisingly good.

After that I walked back to the hotel. Victor & I decided to go to a movie. Tomi Pedersen gave us a ride on the hotel shuttle to the theater. We saw the 9:30 showing of "The Recruit" with Al Pacino. He played the typical Al Pacino role, where you're not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy, but nonetheless, it was a good movie. We got out of the movie at 11:30 and the shuttle wasn't there because Tomi had to take some other people to the airport. So Victor & I stood out in the cold and snow for a short while. The hotel was kind enough to send a cab to pick us up.

When we got back to the hotel, Victor & I stayed up late in his room talking. Then I went back to my room and called my wife. I was too tired to do a diary entry that night, so that's why this didn't get posted yesterday.

More tomorrow…

peace & blessings,

anthony