Kalispell

Hi guys !

The fortune cookie I had after lunch said "Now it is time to call loved ones at a distance. Share your news". I won't call you, but at least I can share the news.

21 hours after leaving Paris (thank you United Airlines for the standard cancellations and delays...), here I am, back in Kalispell.

For those of you who would not know where it is, it is in Montana, up there close to the Canadian border. But you would not be the only one to ignore where it is : the United Airlines employee who checked me in in Paris looked at me in a weird way when I answered Kalispell to the question "which is your final destination ?". Something like "poor girl, she does not even know the name of the airport she is flying to, this does not exist...". Yes it does, madam !
Same surprise in the flight between Chicago and Denver, when the crew announced the gates for the connections. People made a weird face when she announced "Kalispell, gate 93". A mix of "where on earth is that ?" and of "I didn't know that there was a gate 93 in this airport". Yes, there is a gate 93, the tiny one hidden at the end of the small corridor.

And there you get the feeling that you are getting close to the objective : in the airport in Denver, people start wearing cowboys hats, and the plane to Kalispell is the smallest one ever seen (I can hardly stand in it) with only a dozen of pieces of luggage checked in. But after 2 hours of flight, you understand why there were only a dozen of them : half of the luggage is missing, including mine. That will end with a free delivery at the hotel on the following day. They are lucky that I had planned to spend a whole day in town before going to the ranch, they would not have appreciated the 2 hours of drive from the airport to the ranch...

Gosh it is good to be back here : the taxi driver waving at me in the airport and shouting "Hey Marie, I am here !", the girl at the hotel reception welcoming me with a friendy "Hi Marie, how was your flight from Paris ?"... I haven't been here for 6 months, and I don't even need to give my name to anybody, everything sounds as if I had left a couple of days ago. It almost feels like I am back home...

This morning, it is 5°C outside, alternate spitting and sunshine, a standard Montana autumn, a couple of shops / restaurants have disappeared since last time, but as long as Murdoch's, Walmart, my favorite second hand bookshop and the mud pie at the restaurant around the corner are still there, everything's fine.

Something else has not changed : I am still the only pedestrian in town, people would probably be less surprised to see a camel or an elephant walking on the sidewalk than to see this strange human alien who is walking in the town. The advantage is that the pedestrian is treated and protected as any species threatened by extinction : all the cars start slowing down as soon as they see you, even if they are 50 meters away, wherever you are, just in case you might want to cross. One day, someone might make a picture of me walking in a small town in USA, and it won't surprise me...