Missoula is an interesting town.  It’s population of around 70,000 reside in the Rocky Mountains and it’s more of a college town today.  During my time there a lot of Rainbow kids were around, so it really changed the feel of the area.

When my two Rainbow friends and I arrived in town, we went around town looking for people who might be driving down the Rainbow.  We checked out Wal-Mart, hung out around downtown, and ended up meeting a group of kids in Caras Park going to Rainbow.  There were six of them sitting in a somewhat huddled group.  The men were covered in canvas, leather, and heavy denim.  A lot of their garments were stitched together from multiple materials to keep it held together.  The girls were in interesting outfits resembling that of a gypsy.  The unrelated family sat on blankets and cardboard while one of them played on a beat up guitar.  A kitten only a few weeks old stumbled around the group.  It was owned by a gypsy-esque girl who went by Blue Moon.  They all had names like that.  A very obedient black pit bull-lab mix lay quietly by their side keeping an eye on me.  They were dirty and rough around the edges.  Their home was the road and they were content with that.  They were everything I thought Rainbow would be.  We spoke with them and as it turned out they had all been down at the Rainbow Gathering site up until a few days ago because a snow storm rolled through and dumped six inches of snow in the valley.  They were waiting until the weather cleared up to return.  They mentioned a caravan that was apparently rolling through town in two days around noon at this park, so now we knew about a possible ride to Rainbow.

We didn’t have a place to stay that evening when Jessie remembered she stayed at this one house behind a Safeway she came across the last time she passed through town she called the hippie house.  We made our way there and she was happy to see someone was hanging out on the porch.  She asked if they’d be able to host the three of us that evening.  In the past this house has many people passing through it.  It was a place for the traveling hippie to take shelter in for a few days.  That time had passed.  Apparently the house was taken advantage of heavily over the past year and travelers stayed for much longer than desired and left it trashed.  The home owners were working to clean it up and leave it with only 5 or 6 permanent residents.  Jessie was glad to hear one of the guys she met when she passed through was still living there, and because of this we were allowed to set up our tents in the back yard.  We were allowed to hang out on the porch, but couldn’t go inside.

The rest of the day was pretty lazy.  I was still tired from the all-nighter drive towards Missoula and it rained all evening.  Jessie and I ended up hanging out at the Safeway down the block and Giver slept all night. Jessie and I got some soup and sat and chatted for awhile.  We both utilized our online resources to look for rides to Rainbow.  We were throwing out the lines, but nothing caught.  After awhile Jessie went back to the house and I hung out while I charged my phone.  I found that the Safeway was also a place where the local homeless people hung out in the evenings.  There was shelter, air conditioning, and a nice area for sitting and hanging out inside.  I ended up striking up conversation with a few of them throughout the evening.

The next morning I got up and headed down to the Safeway to take a bathroom shower.  I was not alone.  One of the homeless gentleman from the night before was there and we bathed together in the bathroom quietly.  You could tell as others came in and out of the bathroom that they thought less of us, but there is nothing to be ashamed of when you desire to stay a clean member of society.

I went back to the house and returned to a splitting group.  Jessie wanted to stay in town and work on finding a ride that way and Giver was looking to hitchhike out of town.  I was torn.  After discussing each of their plans, I ultimately decided I’d rather stay in town and try hitching a ride that way.  Giver collected his belongings and we said our goodbyes and he was on his way.  I had a feeling I’d be running into him again soon.

Jessie and I walked into downtown Missoula and Jessie had a few ideas on places we might find Rainbow goers.  We stopped at a few coffee shops here and there and ended up circling around towards Caras Park.  On a corner we ran into one of the guys from Caras Park.  He was walking with the pit bull.  His dog had a harness on with a simple plastic coated metal leash that was wrapped around his owner’s waist.  As we started talking to him it started to rain and I handed Jessie one of my pieces of cardboard as I threw my raincoat over my head and pack.  We all walked together and talked about Rainbow for a bit.  Jessie and I ended up circling back to the main stretch of downtown and came across another member of the Caras Park party.  He was sitting and playing guitar on the sidewalk under an overhang.  We joined him and ended up hanging out there for a few hours.  Jessie asked if she could play his guitar for a bit and he happily accepted.  That’s when I found out Jessie has a fantastic voice and was quite good at the guitar as well.  She played a few songs, some of which were originals.  At the end of each song she was required to crank through the little melody of the music box on the guitar.

As time passed we talked to random passerbies until our friend Justin who we brought into town yesterday walked by.  We smiled big at one another and asked how everything was going.  He and Elan had a pretty great past 24 hours.  They got free chiropractic work and some sort of zen session.  They were hanging out down the street at the Butterfly Herbs and Coffee Shop.  Jessie and I thanked the musician for his time and I dropped a few dollars in his guitar case before heading off to the shop.

We hung out there for a bit and Jessie found a guy named Alex who had room for two leaving Missoula in the morning for Rainbow on Craigslist.  Perfect!  I quickly gave him a call and sure enough he could take us.  I asked if it’d be possible to stay with him this evening as well because we didn’t want to overstay our welcome at last night’s accommodations.  He was also only hanging out in Missoula for a few days at his sister’s place, but she welcomed us into her house for the evening.  He soon picked us up and after an evening at his sister’s house, we were off to the Rainbow Gathering.

See yah, Missoula.