I found a place to stay in Missoula through the couch surfing project - a social network where people offer their extra space to travelers and then are able to find accomodations for themselves when they travel. It's an international program and I'd heard nothing but good stuff about it. So I decided to try it in Missoula. There were almost 100 people offering their couches to visitors in the Missoula area, and I contacted Jeff, who had set up something of a traveler's haven on his 8 acre property outside the town. I arrived really late at night but Jeff came out to meet me on the street and was very welcoming

Jeff had 9 guests staying when I arrived. Anybody is welcome to stay for a few days, and if someone needs longer-term accomodations he sometimes is able to work something out. In the morning he made me a great breakfast and showed me around. It's a really cool set up, and he went out of his way to make me comfortable and welcome. He's also got some pretty great views:

I sat outside and wrote for awhile, then went to town to visit my friends at Rocky Mountain Biologicals, where I used to work. It was great to see Joe, Elon, Suresh, Maggie, Suzie, Adam, and the new folks. RMBI extracts different content from bovine serum (cow blood minus the blood cells). They've made a lot of progress since I left. Afterwards Joe took me out for a couple beers and we got to catch up. I owe him next time.