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Missed Connections / Barack Obama / Bars / → All Tags

Missed Connections in Montana: John Irving Edition

Before he made his triumphal entrance into the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama did a tour of Montana. But the city of Missoula got even more attention this week for being the site of a bizarre bear-bike hit-and-run incident.

This story has a happy ending because the bicyclist, middle-school science teacher Jim Litz, was picked up by his wife who happened to drive by the crash site. That's so romantic!

When we get married, we hope our spouses will rescue us from that moment when the bike hits the bear. Find that kind of collaborator at one of our hot spots:

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R2D2-Mailbox-Map / Cult Travel / → All Tags

R2D2 Mailbox Map: Drive By Droiding

Contribute your R2D2 mailbox locations by uploading your photo, with mailbox address to the Jaunted Flickr Photo Pool, or sending us the photo and street address via email.

Jaunted tipsters in Montana spotted an R2-D2 mailbox, pulled over, shot it, and sent it.

We were just driving by Montana's University in the city of Missoula & we saw the R2-D2 mailbox.

Go Straight To The R2D2 Mailbox Map

Related Stories:
· Star Wars Stamps Arrive [USPS]

Food / → All Tags

Missoula's Coffee Huts

If you've ever driven cross-country and are a coffee aficionado, forget it. You will get midway and begin to see that coffee found on the road tends to be everything from weak to sour to too bitter to sludgy.

Next time, make sure you hit up Missoula, MT, home to U of Montana and also filled with coffee 'huts'. Apparently, these folks haven't yet sold out to Peet's, Starbucks or Au Bon Pain. They are still true individualists:

a gaggle of cheerful, idiosyncratic, free-standing coffee huts. We found them on side streets, in mall parking lots, next to gas stations and grocery stores. They had distinct personalities and funny names -- our local favorite was the Grizzly Bean, though on the road we were charmed by Pony Expresso. Some had been creatively converted from old rail cars or trailers, and they were decorated for Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas

No one there thinks anything of them, except they've got awesome, inexpensive coffee and are roadside convenient with a whole lot more character than your average barista.

Related Stories:
·   In Montana, Bean There done That [Washington Post]
·   Missoula Convention and Visitor's Bureau [Official Site]