Mono Culture then Kansas City, MO

Traveling across the country through the same states for what I think is a third time is interesting as my impressions are different each time with the slightly different routes we follow, and slightly different towns we are in.   Bozeman was interesting for the obvious growth that it is experiencing.  All of the towns that we have been in are experiencing American monoculture in one way or another, possibly with the exception of Cascade, Idaho which I suspect has too low a population to interest the captains of monoculture.  The same big box stores are commanding commerce in almost all of the significant population areas these days.  You see Office Depot, Home Depot, Staples, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Lowes, Safeway, Walmart, Walgreen’s – you get the picture – everywhere you go.

Missoula and Bozeman Montana however are fully monocultural towns, although both of them have downtown areas with homegrown businesses that are still very much active.  I don’t know how much longer that will last.  They do have some charm in their downtowns though, and those parts of town seem to be the center of entertainment and culture that is unique to their area.  We thought that Bozeman in particular seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds.  There is much new construction happening, and there are mega malls galore done with an architecture that seems to reflect how Bozeman wants to see itself.

Unlike cities on the coasts these small cities have wide open spaces between them.  Missoula is the larger of the two at 69,000.  Bozeman has a population of around 39,000.  I would say that Bozeman is growing the fastest but that is an anecdotal opinion based upon driving around and seeing all of the new construction.  Both towns are college towns and have a lot of bars and entertainment.  We have always lived in the shadow of the megalopolis, with the exception of the years we lived in Alaska.  These towns probably have a little in common with Alaskan towns, the main difference being that you can just drive on out to a major city in a day or so from any of them whereas in Alaska there are many towns that require a plane ticket to get to anyplace significant (not that there are any destinations on earth that are truly insignificant)

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The other notable thought about our travel this time is that we followed I-90 to Sioux Falls, then turned right and took I-29 pretty much the rest of the way south to Kansas City.  The last time we made this trip we drove down through Kadoka, Valentine, Broken Bow straight south.  We drove through a much different part of the state of South Dakota this time.  Following I-90 looked a good deal more prosperous with large agro-farms, and tourist industry all along the route.

I know that this is all anecdotal and I wonder how much of my impressions are driven by weather, road conditions, what I ate the day we traveled, who is driving etc.  I know that when I’m driving I don’t see as much.  I am focused on the road ahead of me and arriving at my destination in one piece.  Last year we had Gen Obata with us who was quite willing to drive, and we were quite willing to allow him to do this.  That meant that I saw a lot more of what is alongside the road than I did this time, although for this last stretch Kristi and I traded off approximately every four hours.

Some years when we have had more time we have stopped at the tourist attractions (traps) along the way.  We have been to Wall Drugs, Mitchell’s Corn Palace (would love to see that again), and I’m not sure what else but surely there was something else along the way.   Mostly we have been rushing through from destination to destination.  Yesterday we drove out of the snow  completely.  It was the longest drive all the way from Rapid City, SD to Kansas City,  MO.  By the time we got to KC we were truly exhausted having played a two hour set the night before and getting out of Rapid City around 8:30 am.  We are at an America Extended Stay motel in KC.

We played at a couple of retirement homes while staying out in Red Bridge Extended Stay.  They were enthused about us, and it’s nice to get a little bit of money to augment our travel funds.  We have also gotten used to the grocery stores here and have kind of gotten a routine together.  It is interesting walking around in a neighborhood and not having any idea who lives in the houses, or if there is a difference between life in KC, or life in Tacoma, WA. 

Extended Stay America

Extended Stay America doesn’t provide maid service, so it’s a little different from the average motel.  Also the continental breakfast is truly as continental as you can get.  In the Red Bridge neighborhood the muffins were almost always gone, and if not gone there were few of them left  by the time I got to them, which wasn’t really all that late.  They always had lots of coffee though and they have these little packets of oatmeal that you just pour hot water in.  The first time I took the garbage out I was down by the front desk and I asked the receptionist where to put the garbage.  She said, “Put it in the trash room”.  I asked “where’s that?” and she pointed.  When I moved in the direction she pointed she said, no over there, I changed course and, “no over there” stress growing in her voice.  Then it was “see the sign?  Over there.”  I finally found it.  There was a closet with two garbage cans.  I brought towels down one day and the washer was on the fritz and they had no replacement wash cloths.  She said they’d have them later, but it was only about the fourth time we inquired, and late at night before we actually replaced our wash cloths.  We had never stayed at a “self-service” motel before.  They have kitchenettes with a hot plate and a microwave.  They usually have a regular sized refrigerator too, which is nice.  In order to get eating, and cooking utensils you have to ask at the front desk.  They’ll give you all the basic stuff you need to cook a meat and consume it.  Not any more than that though.  When we had more room when we traveled (in the “big white van”) we carried a full set of cooking implements and eating utensils.  We just don’t have the room to do that anymore, but we still improvise out cooking techniques to the equipment available to accomplish what we set out to do.

For the Folk Alliance International Conference we moved into an Extended Stay America just a couple of miles from Westin Crown Center.  The room has a bigger bed and a slightly different layout.  Everything else seems basically the same though.  It is reasonably quiet given the location (throbbing heart of the metropolis).  We had negotiated Westin Crown Center last year and so were fairly used to the layout.  We had gotten lost in the bowels of the parking garage early in the morning.  We simply couldn’t find the car and I think we walked a mile in the garage and were in a state of pure panic before we did find it.  We had some help in the end.  The help was semi-competent.  Kristi was absolutely terrified this year that we would lose the car again.  They close the mall off from the hotel late at night and when they do the most convenient access is also lost so you end up entering the parking area from a different location.  I really still don’t know how to exactly explain it, but it’s like a puzzle especially at 3 am when you are totally tired out from a day of doing FAI.

Billy Bragg at KC Folk Festival

I can tell you that everything worked out fine this year, but Kristi didn’t really want to stay around any later than she felt she had to each day.  I did it her way.  We did see a lot of great music.