Day 79: On the Wall

I made it to ACA headquarters today (via car) and the door was open! I got added to the wall of cyclists coming through for the year and got the grand tour and a chance to poke around their archives a bit. I was looking for evidence of my mom from the tour she lead for them in 1978, which was a failure, but I did find some of her articles in old magazines, a review of one of her books, and even one of her books for sale in the store.

Missoula Monday

I slept in this morning as much as my body let me then lounged in bed until I got hungry enough to head upstairs. I made some toast to go with my coffee and sat on the porch doing the crossword and admiring the mountains. I also got a chance to connect with MJ as we’re meeting up tomorrow to drive back to route and start the final push westward. 😳🥳🤯

Pam and I headed into town to do some coloring. First up was the library, which just got selected as the best public library in the world (yes, world). It’s a huge modern building with lots of great art, nooks, interactive things for kids, public spaces, and of course books. I settled into a comfy armchair and flipped through a huge atlas of the National Parks.

After the library, we acquired a variety of cookies for later and went to a cafe for more immediate food needs. The cafe had an excellent selection of mugs and also great coffee. We both got lunch and Pam explained some of the neighborhoods and history.

After lunch, was the ACA adventure and then a grand driving tour around town. We went over to the university, through their old neighborhood, checked out a couple of the houses Jesse has worked on, and then meandered back home. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and catching up on postcards.

Jesse, Rachel, Adalin and Juliana came over for dinner. Pam made a pitcher of delicious margaritas to go with the burgers, fries and salad. It was fun hanging out with Jesse’s family as I don’t think I’ve seen him since I was maybe 10 or 15 and (obviously given that timeline) never met Rachel or the kids. They’re a fun bunch!