Joy Ride

Next week we are heading to Montana for a 5 day show circuit. Some of my best childhood memories are of our road trips. I remember the last weeks of high school two students were awarded a scholarship for having never missed a day of school. HA! I was taken out of class at least once a year to go to shows. I’d wager my childhood was spent more happily than some of my peers. But I digress …

We are going to Great Falls for the first two days of shows – it’s about 5 hours south of Calgary – tack on a couple more hours if you’re in a motorhome. I suspect the biggest time sucker will be stopping every hour to fill the beast with gas. Great Falls is a neat little town – I’ve been there probably 20 out of 31 years – but I’ve never seen the falls and cannot comment whether they are great or not. I do know Walmart is just up the road from the show grounds though.

Then we’re off to Missoula. I really like that town. One of the (many) things I don’t like about Calgary is the very thing I do like about Missoula. It knows what it is. It’s got a frontier town apple pie all-American image. There are neat little Davy Crockett type shops and some store fronts have old timey facades and the restaurants are decorated with snow shoes, animal traps and taxidermized critters. It takes pride in its past and heritage. Don’t get me started on Calgary’s identity crisis … I don’t have time.

I love being on the road, listening to music, reading, napping, the abandonment of a balanced diet (should you have had one in the first place) and stopping for a potty break to finally take that glorious streeeeeetch. The air smells different too … something people rarely believe when I tell them.

Last year on the way to Missoula my mom and I saw a very cool thing. Railroad tracks ran parellel to the highway and we were slowly passing a train which carried a huge ‘tube’ which tapered to a blunt point at one end. The shape was strangely familiar. It was huge – I mean just massive – and was covered in a tarp. We thought about it for a few moments and then the bulb went on … it was a plane fuselage. Probably a 747 or something similarly large minus its wings and tail. You could faintly see the window holes and windshield but it was definitely a fuselage. How else would a plane get from A to B when it’s not built? Hard to believe one day that great bulk would be flying …

Soon I’ll reminisce about the differences between a Canadian countryside and an American one.