We spent the past two days in the beautiful town of Missoula, Montana. Geez, cruising through all these places really makes me wonder why people stay in SoCal. There are actual rivers of water just cruising around all over the place! I know the winters are supposed to be bad, but here in Missoula they say there are rarely below zero temperatures, and this is a mighty fun town. It's very reminiscent of Santa Barbara: it is bike and alternative-transportation-friendly and has a progressive college atmosphere (the University of Montana being close by). They have a nice community garden system set up in this town, as well as a functioning bike-share program where people can check-out bikes like library books through the university. They are working on the same for cars-- they are trying to design a system like in Europe where many people only need a car once every two weeks or so for groceries etc, so a designated pool of people can 'rent' one for a few hours. They also have a biodiesel college tram - this is in response to a proposal for a new parking structure that the students vetoed. Yep, I like this town. Our dinner came from the community garden, and it was scrumptious.

We also had our first night on the town as a group, listening and dancing to 'vinyl,' a fun, funky jazz group that covered a lot of reggae and salsa in the mix. It was great to let loose with everyone, sore butts and all. : )

Onward to our next stop!

love, cher