I have named my car! Oh, and bears.

Her name is BB, and it stands for Budda's Belly. I find myself rubbing her for luck or encouragement when we are climbing big hills or driving for long stretches down questionable dirt roads.

I am in Polson, Montana tonight. (On the map I kept thinking it said "Poison" and I wondered who thought that was a good name for a town.) So many campgrounds are full so now I am calling ahead when I have a destination in mind. Tomorrow I will dip down to Missoula and stay at a hostel for hopefully some more interaction. Driving solo is fine but it really is nice to have people to talk to! In the overflow camping at the KOA on the East side of Glacier last night I met a really sweet couple from Edmonton. We ended up talking and drinking rum and cokes until midnight. It was great!
Today I took the Going-to-the-Sun road through Glacier. There were some super beautiful views, lots of construction and plenty of reminders that it is bear country. I stopped at Sun Point, there was a sign for a .2 mile hike I thought I could do quickly and I got about two yards onto the trail and there was another sign reminding me about bears with the caution that "hiking alone is NOT RECOMMENDED". I'd already been a little weary but that sealed it that I was too uncomfortable hiking solo in bear country.
Wishing I had companionship in the form of a human or dog right now. So while Glacier was beautiful from the road... It wasn't exactly what I had been excited about. I really miss camping and hiking...hopefully there will be a chance to camp and hike on the Olympic Peninsula when I'm with friends later this month. Taking in scenery on a two-lane highway when you are driving is a very delicate task, I just stopped at pretty much every pull over area.

I am really getting excited for camp, I haven't been in about five years. The problem I'm having now is that I'm so close, I could feasibly make it to Seattle tomorrow and stay there with friends until camp on saturday but that wasn't the reason I gave myself a week to relax and meander...clearly I have issues doing this. I like projects and destinations and straight lines from A to B. So I assigned myself the next destination of Missoula, and stuck with our even when the other part of my brain resisted and whispered "friends in Seattle, friends in Seattle!"
Does this mean I'm growing or something? Probably only if I remember that this is how I am when someone asks about how flexible I am! I consider myself flexible within boundaries and I like to have goals, milestones, destinations...spreadsheets :)

Hopefully the hostel will have the internets, then I will upload photos of how beautiful Montana is though you should really just come here.