Stilettos in the Outback: Kalispell-Whitefish 2021

I think one more time-traveling post will bring us up-to-date as far as fire season 2021 goes! There may be a couple more, having nothing to do with the season, but we should be mostly linear from here on out this year.

Remember My Favorite and I had been sent to Missoula, MT and then the phone call came (although it's a great picture, right?) We were heading to Kalispell, MT ~ for now. But there was a chance we'd be reassigned before the day was out. Regardless, Missoula to Kalispell isn't even a 2.5 hour drive. Which, on the one hand, is great for me. Not having to drive all day is a good thing. On the other hand, when check-out from one hotel is 11:00 am and check in at the other hotel is 3:00, it leaves a gap. When I can't even check into the new hotel because we don't know for certain we're staying, that leaves a bigger gap.

Lucky for me, things are open again since last year's COVID lockdown. Means the libraries are open. And I love me a library. Air conditioning. Plenty of light. An outlet. Quiet. A bathroom. And they expect people to come and stay for a long time.

Plus, they had a cool carrel for me to tuck into and ignore the world.

Cool carrel

What made this library even cooler was this display:

Go ahead. Zoom in.

There at your left, first book, first row? Yeah. The financial one. That's mah friend. That's not just mah friend. That's MAH FRIEND!!!! I grabbed the book off the display, found the nearest librarian, and said “this is MAH FRIEND!!!" She was really excited for me. When she found out I was from Philly, Mac was from the east coast, and here we were in Kalispell, MT, she got excited for her library, too. It was a super cool moment.

Eventually, it was decided we were, indeed, staying and it was time to check into the hotel. I won't say where we started or post a picture, but let’s say… it wasn’t good. Everyone ~ including us ~ had something disgustingly wrong with their room. We were lucky because we only had dirty sheets, a single dirty towel on the hook, and no other towels. The guys were reporting full trash cans, dirty sheets, obviously dirty towels hung as if they were clean…. But the winner was the room with cum stains on the sheets. Yeah…. We found a different hotel.

First, we moved to the Best Western in Whitefish. I broke my own rule and didn't get a picture if the hotel, the lobby, or the view from the window, but I did get pictures of a visiting friend.

And some beautiful sunsets. That’s one of the things about fires ~ as devastating as they are, they make for beautiful sunsets.

But! As hard as the hotel tried to keep us there, the tourism in the area was insane post-COVID lockdown, and rooms were booked. It was so crazy that, where there was availability, rooms at Holiday Inns and Radissons and very ordinary hotels were going for $400, $500, even $600 a night. We thought we’d found a place willing to give us five rooms at the government rate of $177/night ~ but as soon as our mechanic with his very heavy Mexican accent called, his room was suddenly $350/night. My Favorite canceled all the rooms and we kept looking.

He finally found a Hampton Inn back in Kalispell willing to give us all the same rate ($225/night, which was a steal at the time, plus, clean sheets and no obvious racists. Yes, our bar is very, very low, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a great hotel! I love me a Hampton...).

My Favorite even got a birthday picture for Dr. Bella, posted here because look how handsome he is! (Although this may have happened in Yakima. He's still handsome, so I'm still posting.)