Livin' la vida lujosa

Susan's daughter and her family are so incredibly sweet! I came here expecting to camp in their yard, only to discover that my impending visit had motivated them to work on their guest house in a not-much-used outbuilding on their property. So now I have walls and a roof, a bed, an easy chair, a table, electricity and a heater. They let me shower (it's the first time I've showered without flip-flops since that hotel in Spokane), fed me and told me to do laundry. They said to stay for as long as I like. They might never get rid of me!

I am near the towns of Columbia Falls and Whitefish, something like fifteen miles from Glacier. I'm sure soon the wanderlust will kick in again and I will be off to see the ice before it melts.

Today Susan and her husband Jim took me into Whitefish to check out the great bike shop there. I picked up some degreaser and signed the touring guest book. Today also happens to be the thirteenth birthday of Susan and Jim's granddaughter. Happy birthday! I totally got lucky, because I got here in time for pizza, cake and ice cream. I'm loading up on the calories before I get back on my bike.

As to Kim's questions: I've never been good at answering superlatives. Perhaps it has something to do with my indecisive libra nature. The coolest and oddest things I've seen this week... I've been trying to add two photos to my new flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26490833@N02/ I think this link works. If not, search "peripatetically speaking" on flickr.com) that might answer those questions, but I am having some spotty reception issues, so I haven't been able to do that yet. I always find the weird little symbols on signs to be wacky. You know what they're *supposed* to mean, but it's so easy to see something different. I saw a couple of good signs on restaurants a few weeks ago that I didn't photograph. One said "Country Kitchens" and then there was a big mural painted on the side wall of the restaurant that said "A Mexican Restaurant." The other one said "(somebody or other)'s Bar and Grill- A Family Restaurant." So that's enough of what I find odd. The coolest thing: I know I keep saying it, but everywhere I look it is so amazingly beautiful. The mountains, the trees, the lakes, the rivers, Kootenai Falls... The other really cool thing was the breakfast buffet sign. That's probably an anticlimactic answer. If you had asked me the grossest thing, it would be easier, because I would only have to pick from the two or three larger roadkill items I have seen. The dogs always get me.

There is a snippet of song that keeps running through my head:

"Go where you think you wanna go,
Do everything you've been saving for
..
Promises, promises, promises-- words."

-Fugazi, "Promises"