welcome to missoula, montana

this was the great 45 minute pit stop on our 13 hour, 40 minute drive yesterday in which we covered approximately 785.4 miles (1,263.9 km); all of which was done with baby in tow. while taking a break from the seemingly endless day of driving, we decided to pause for a bite to eat at the infamous international house of pancakes in the charming town of missoula. upon our departure, my wife so kindly declared the town to be the 'white trash' capital of the northwestern united states.

our waitress, who was quite sweet, spotted our little girl and noted how much she would like to have another child every time she sees a small baby (she may have been 18 years old). 'of course,' she paused as though she'd suddenly remembered, 'i've been fix'd.'

boy, were we charmed. i've never had such a yummy omelet.

later on during the meal we overheard the workers in the back kitchen through the open doors. "hey! where're my spoons?" one waitress asked. "whose spoons?" another questioned. "my spoons," the first waitress said again. "oh, sally took them and combind-ed them in her drawer." we must have heard the word 'combind-ed' at least twice more during the ensuing conversation. the dictionary lacks an appropriate definition for this truely awesome word, so i have concocted one of my own: 'combind-ed' - the past tense of having joined together two or more objects in a remote town's chain restaurant franchise. the word is almost as good as my sister's favorite "ebonical" (yes, i made that up) word, 'smoove.' in my sister's story, an abused wife gets arrested after hitting her husband over the head with a 'smoove.' the officer assigned to the case begins to question the woman. 'a what?' asks the officer. 'a smoove, you know, the thing you use to smoove your clothes with.'

by the time we were finished eating, i couldn't decided if i wanted someone to hit me over the head with a smoove, or get on the road with the seven hours of driving left ahead of us; and thus ended our adventures in missoula.

i was really tempted to post the following sign at the edge of city limits on our way out of town - "you couldn't find a place like this anywhere in the world, no, not even in pocatello."

in the end it was all worth it to be with family.