Missoula Road Trip

Although it pains me to say it, I was a bit of a jackass on Wednesday.

The previous week the Missoula city council sent a request to my boss to have someone who works with Bozeman’s historic preservation department come down to Missoula foe a Q & A session. Missoula is considering adopting similar ordinances that I implement in Bozeman, and they wanted a program overview from us.

I say us because I work for Bozeman’s preservation program with one other person. And thank god there’s two of us, because we’ve both been swamped in the last month. I have two major grant applications due next week, she’s got ordinances to be adopted, etc. And believe me, neither of us really WANTED to go to Missoula at all, but when the boss says “you’re going” there doesn’t really leave much room for discussion.

So Tuesday night I brought the city’s small all wheel drive SUV home, in preparation for the 200 mile, 3 hour drive to Missoula, and then the 200 mile, 3 hour drive home from Missoula on Wednesday.

I woke up at 6:15am, showered, and glanced at the new two inches or so of new snow outside. Damn. Snowy roads over the continental divide and Cardwell Pass were going to suck. Nothing to do but soldier on, right? I mean, I was under the boss’ direction, at a request from a municipal council. They were expecting me at 11am.

And usually, its snowing in Bozeman, but by the time you get to Belgrade the weather is just overcast.

DJ, admirably, didn’t throw a shitfit when I told him I was still going. He reminded me about how all wheel drive works, and handled it ok when I gave him a cheery “I’ll be fine!”

He left for work, and I backed the CRV out of the garage, to hear the radio announcer say that the Belgrade interchange with I-90 was closed due to a major accident. Shit, ok, I had to reroute through Churchill and hit the Manhattan interchange. Good thing I left early.

Lets just sum this whole saga up by saying the following: 1) driving behind a semi-truck on Homestake pass is no place to find out that the City’s vehicle is out of wiper fluid; 2) or needs new tires, despite all wheel drive; 3) it’s a pisser when you fill up the gas tank and wiper fluid, in Butte, only to find the wiper fluid still doesn’t work; 4) I accept that being a Montanan means you’ll drive in snow, but that sucked; 5) the roads sucked all the way to Missoula; 6) I was an hour late because the roads sucked; and 7) and it wasn’t cool to be told, now that you’ve risked your life to get here, you’ve got 15 minutes to talk.

As I drove over in the shitty roads, I kept thinking about DJ. That I needed to be careful, because the last thing he needed was to have me get in an accident (or worse), because I was bullheaded about doing something stupid and he bit his tongue and let me do it anyway. I let him know when I got to Missoula, when I left Missoula, Butte, etc. But I know he probably didn’t get much done all day on Wednesday because he was worried about his stubborn FI (who also likes to drive fast).

I think one of the successes of our relationship is that we let the other person be who they are, and do what they do. Despite it sometimes being annoying, or ridiculous. And I learned on Wednesday that my stubbornness and drive to do what I want on my terms doesn’t impact just me anymore.

So sorry DJ. That was a jackass move. And I’m glad, for both of us, that I made it home safely.