Road Trip: Seattle ----> D.C. - Day 2

Day 2. We went hiking to see Avalanche Lake in the morning before hitting the road again.








































We have a Disney marathon, and one of the songs is the theme from Duck Tales. This makes me extremely giddy and happy for the duration of the 3 minute song, but I’m less thrilled that it’s still stuck in my head two days later. Damn it…

East of Glacier National Park, Montana is much more visibly impoverished. The areas surrounding the Indian reservations are particularly painful to drive through. Meth (a drug I’d been completely unaware was a huge problem in the U.S. until now) is a huge problem, and there are signs everywhere about it. A deserted house by the side of the road says: “Tired, broken, and torn/Meth leaves you utterly alone.” Scary.

Montana calls itself the Big Sky State. For good reason:

Sunday night, Em and I were looking for some Montanans to play beirut with in Glasgow, and the folks at the hotel we were staying at directed us to a local haunt called The Crossing. We didn’t get to play beirut, but we did have a truly memorable conversation with Mitch “The Bitch”, a 44-year old divorcee with two kids and long-time resident of Glasgow. A few highlights:

Emily: We’re driving cross-country from Seattle to Washington, D.C.
Mitch: Damn, that’s a long way. Why the fuck would you stop in Glasgow?
Emily: Well, it’s the biggest thing between here and the North Dakota border.
Mitch: I just got back from Minnesota, camping with my kid and his boy scout troop. I went because they told me there would be brownies, but we got there and it was the kind you eat, not the kind with skirts, and I was disappointed…[Referring to Montanans] They don’t call us perverts…but it’s close.
Bartender: Speak for yourself, Mitch.
Mitch: I am.
***
Mitch: So where are you from? Emmy: I’m from Tokyo.
Mitch: Toe-key-oh? Isn’t that in China or something?
Emmy: Actually, it’s in Japan.
Mitch: Wow. You really must’ve gone to college.
Emily: Ask her to say something in Japanese, she’s fluent.
Mitch: Oh yeah? How do you say, “Oh shit, a mushroom cloud!”?
***
Mitch: So where are you staying?
Emily: Cottonwood Suites.
Mitch: Oh, the most expensive place in town. (Note: Double rooms at said establishment are $78 / night)
Emmy: Well, all of the other places were full.
Mitch: Next time, you should just call me and stay on my couch. Make me a hero. You could write in your diary, “having sex with an old man isn’t so bad.”