Missoula, in many ways, reminded me of Ithaca… if Missoula were Ithaca’s younger wilder sibling.
I couldn’t really pinpoint exactly what it was. But we really enjoyed our time there. Jay had a few meetings in the morning. One of which was with Glen at the Missoula Insectarium. I’d never been to an insectarium before and really didn’t know what to expect… but Glen happily gave us a tour and introduced us to many arthropods.
Funny stick bugs, cool beetles I’d never seen…but I certainly didn’t expect to see THIS.
EEEEEeeeeeeeee! Don’t worry. It’s just a molt. But if you were to ask me, I still wouldn’t have touched it. This is a molt of Polly, the insectarium’s Goliath Birdeater. She’s a type of tarantula. I never knew tarantulas molted as they continue to grow. Let’s just say Polly is WAY bigger now.
I’m gonna go ahead and follow that up with a nice photo of a butterfly eating an orange…
I’m sure that helps even things out (unless you’re like my friend Amy who hates butterflies…then this may be a double whammy).
After Jay’s meetings, we drove to Bretz RV + Marine. Remember when I mentioned we broke one of the lids off the Airstream? So we purchase a new lid then went to Lowes to buy a ladder so we could install the lid ourselves.
We said goodbye to Missoula and headed for our next stop; the Bozeman Hot Springs Campground. Luckily we got there with enough time to hit up the warm pools before they closed up at 11pm.
