We made it. Most of today was spent in the Comfort Inn of Lethbridge, Alberta waiting for the overnight shipment of the letter that Marlene needed. I felt just like a little kid again. Impatiently waiting and constantly looking out the window, waiting for the mail man to deliver my Sgt. Slaughter G.I. Joe. Finally, at about 2pm, after we gave up on a late check out, and accepted to pay for another night. We saw the Fed Ex truck pull up. Marlene actually ran down the stairs, and greeted the Fed Ex man at the hotel lobby entrance and exclaimed, "I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOOOUUU!!!!" (She probably freaked him out). After getting the letter she needed, we started packing up the truck. The staff at Comfort Inn (who treated us very well) told us that they wouldn't be charging us for the 2nd night on the room. So we checked out, and told the Comfort Inn folks not to take it too personally, but that we really hoped to never see them again. An hour down the road, and guess who was manning the gates at the U.S. Border? The same agent that was working with Marlene the day before. He was very friendly and greeted us with a, "Hey! You guys look familiar!" When he saw my passport he gave me the classic, "Oh right. You're the one with the hair." (For those not familiar, my passport photo features me, a giant beard, and a mane of dreadlocks). Without asking any other questions (besides my license plate number) he told us to pull around and go into the building. About 1 hr later. We were back on the road, into Montana. It went very smoothly.
A few quick notes on Montana before I go eat my microwaved chili. (yes, Chili, with an 'i' not chile with an 'e').
Our first purchases in Montana:
2 Idaho Spuds (the candy bar, not Russets)
1 Montana pin (I collect pins like a 87 year old bridge master grandma)
1 L'il Sheriff Montana badge (Marlene loves the concept of the Sheriff)
1 bag o' corn nuts (What? It's a long drive)
1 bag of knock off Gardetto's snack mix (not as good as the real deal)
Oddly enough, when we got change, I got a freshly minted New Mexico Quarter. It's the first one I've seen, and I think they did a great job. I was very excited.
More notes:
- Montana is an incredibly beautiful state, and this is based solely on about 3 hrs of driving on the interstate. I can't imagine what it would be like to have the chance to explore this place more. The trees have been devastated by bark beetles in places though. The red bed outcrops are great too, so Marlene got a lesson on red bed diagenesis as we were going down the road.
- It's very hard to drive 75mph after living in Canada, where 100 km/h (~63 mph) is hauling it.
- There are casinos EVERYWHERE here. They aren't crazy-flashy-sign-showgirl-Wayne-Newton-Las-Vegas type places. But more like Is-that-a-Denny's-nope-it's-a-casino type places.
With that, I think that's about it. Today's major sentimental moment is that it's really amazing how NICE people are. The people at the border were very friendly and quite helpful. They remembered turning us around yesterday, and just wanted to get us down the road (making sure to follow the rules, of course). For me, it was the easiest crossing ever. Very few questions (none to me, really). The people in the hotel knew our situation, and were very helpful. Being lenient on the checkout, and not charging us for the extra night, even though it was way past check out, is one of those small things that helps take the edge of a crappy situation. The people at Marlene's future work were great too. Sending lots of email updates, and one woman even working on her day(s) off to help work this out. It's been really great. Tomorrow we'll probably hit Yellowstone, so today's scenery was a good warm up. Hopefully the struggles of this trip our behind us. Ok. Sensitive moment is over.
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