It Takes Tremendous Skill To Go East And West In Missoula

Denny Bedard asked if someone could give him a ride from the radio stations, located at 3250 South Reserve, to the Adams Center on the University of Montana Campus. I volunteered to be his chauffer. I had it mapped out in my head which way I was going to go, because getting across this town going East and West is not an easy task, to say the least. One of the things that makes this town so difficult is the almost impossibility of taking left turns.

I try to avoid traffic and go on back streets if I can, but I also try to go as direct a route and I don't like to backtrack if possible. I took Clark to South Avenue, to avoid Reserve. Right turn on South Ave which used to be a direct route from Reserve to Arthur in front of the University, so that would have been a direct and simple route, but since they took out "Malfunction Junction", that's not an option. It also wouldn't be Missoula if it was easy. From South Avenue left turn on Johnson to North Avenue took a right, then to Russell then left, then right on Mount.

Mount is where we discussed which direction we should go as we approached the Stephens Avenue light. Denny suggested going through Stephens to Brooks and then take left on Brooks, past Hellgate High School then right on 6th Street straight to the Adams Center. I was more daring. I continued on Mount past Stephens, past Brooks, and continued to East Beckwith. Denny asked if I was going to go through the "Roundabout of Death" where East Beckwith and Higgins meet. With a glint in my eye I said, "Yes". He just wanted to know when it was all over. Exiting the roundabout continuing on East Beckwith, I used my turn signal, I know that isn't very "Missoula" of me, but sometimes I go against the grain. I then turned left on Arthur and right on 6th to get as close to the Adam's Center we could get.

This is how it is to get East and West in this town. When you have the "Slant Street Neighborhood", the end of "Malfunction Junction", difficulty taking left turns and roundabouts it is a tremendous undertaking and that is without rush hour traffic. The crazy thing about this town is that there are way more ways to get there than the route I took, but still none of them are direct. Another thing that makes Missoula "unique", is that I took an entirely different route back to the station, but I will save that route for another day.