Hello from the Hi-Line

Oh the Hi-Line, how I have missed thee.

If you’re either thinking a) what is the Hi-Line or b) why is she talking funny? I have the answers! The answer to B is easier – it’s because I can. As for A, the Hi-Line is basically a line across northern Montana that runs parallel to Canada. I guess it’s a geographical term, but I know it by another name: US Highway 2.

I had some good time on the Hi-Line back in the winter/spring; Malta, Chinook, and Lambert and I got to revisit a few of them on my drive from Helena to this current residency, Wolf Point.

I literally made about 3/4^th of the drive I did today on my very first drive day way back in January when I drove from Missoula to Malta. I actually passed the place where Mandy and I got our very first ever drive day meal in Great Falls, MT this morning. It looked different with less than six feet of snow in the parking lot! Then of course, I passed the place of our second residency, Chinook, proud home of the sugarbeeters (I wore my sugarbeeters shirt just for the occasion) and then on to the place of our first residency, Malta (yes, sometimes we go east to turn right around and come back west… just wait until I tell you about what’s coming next weekend).

I stopped at Mandy’s least favorite gas station in world; everyone should know that the gas station in Chinook is still made for meat eaters (our residency in Chinook predated my switch to the herbivore lifestyle so I didn’t quite suffer like she did that week). I was going to get a F’Real at the gas station for old time sake (it was the first F’Real machine that Mandy ever used, after all!) but it was only 10am and they didn’t have smoothies and I didn’t think I could handle the pure vanilla sugar of a F’Real milkshake so early in the day.

I discovered that I have a playlist that is FIVE HOURS LONG on my iPod today. Five friggin’ hours. It almost got me through the entire trip without any skips or repeats. What was I doing that I made a five hour playlist? I just started working on my ultimate road trip playlist and I didn’t even have time for it after I got through this first one.

I also realized that definitely drove through Wolf Point in the spring, I just didn’t know it/remember it until I was sitting behind the wheel of the truck getting ready for a long day of driving.

We have a little rental house to ourselves and it has questionable wireless internet so I’ll probably be blogging from McDonald’s when I get the chance. I haven’t eaten at a Mickey D’s since I started touring (even before the switch) and have only stopped at like three to sneak into their bathroom or jack their internet but I might have to actually buy something if I’m going to mooch off of their internet for an entire week… Although the lady who owns the McDonald’s also owns the rental house, so maybe not! In the meantime, I’ve decided that my life has becoming a reality show called “Can She Eat That in a Week?” I’m the only contestant and when I’m in the grocery store, I have to determine if I can eat something in a week or if I can take it with me if I can’t, then I bring it home and the real challenge begins. The test this week is a dozen eggs and two cups of Mexican cheese.

While I’m not shoving my face with food, I will be sad because the lack of WiFi means that I cannot take advantage of my new HuluPlus account. It’s my latest obsession! What am I supposed to binge watch if I can’t watch anything?!

Oh and I promised to tell you about next weekend! So, next week, we have a residency in Lolo, MT, which is less than ten miles away from our headquarters in Missoula, so we drove all the way east to turn right back around and head home in seven days. There’s literally only one logical route we could take and it is the one we drove today, with an additional hundred miles tacked on for funzies.

Next week’s drive will, however, be the longest drive day of the tour which means it’s only down from here and going down is going up in my book plus anything is way, way down from what we did this summer (2805 miles from Maine to Montana, really?!).

I’ll let you know when I’ve succumbed to some McDonald’s fries in the name of internet access! Bye from the Hi-Line.