Where People Are Greater Than Waterfalls

Great Falls, Montana is not aptly named. The waterfalls in the town are few and far between, and none of them are particularly great.

Picking up the slack, their gas stations are awesome. You know how many small businesses like to be creative in spelling words in their names, or "wordz in their namez?" One gas station chain picked a rather unfortunate word to misspell. On the positive side, the station is very popular with truckers.

After filling up on gas (I swear that's all I did there), I follow my extraordinarily cheap GPS to Black Eagle Falls and it leads me straight to a private golf course. After further examination, I discover that Black Eagle Falls is now a dam, and a dam closed to the public at that.

This does not particularly bother me. I am just happy to be back on American soil. It's not that I didn't enjoy Canada, it's that for a few minutes, I didn't think I was going to be able to leave. Let's just say that border guards are not known for their congenial nature.

I thought crossing the border back into America would be easier, seeing as I am an American citizen. I thought wrong. One border guard was particularly nice and fun to talk to. The rest all seemed like they wanted to punch me in the face, clearly ignoring the "pledge to be courteous at all times" posted in the room I sat in while they tore my van apart.

I'm pretty sure one guy was mad at me because he lost a surefire bet that I was carrying weed across the border. The other guy was probably pissed because he had to search through the laundry bag riding on top of the van. That smells about as fresh as the box Kevin Spacey delivered to Brad Pitt in the movie Seven.

Fortunately, my faith in humanity was quickly restored in Great Falls, home of the nicest people on the planet. People approach me all the time on this trip, but it's almost always because of the van. In Great Falls, smiling coffee drinkers continually approached me while I was typing this blog at Starbucks, just because they happen to be genuinely friendly and interested in striking up polite conversation with complete strangers.

Gary, a tall man in a leather jacket, espouses the virtues of enlightening philosophical conversations, then graces the van with a poem he wrote while dealing with addiction.

Rodger and Tait, an unusual pair with a friendship defying generational boundaries, are as pleasant as anyone I've come across (and an "s" away from forming a country western band. Tell me "Rodgers and Tait" doesn't sound like a popular music act).

Rodger is a Vietnam vet with gray hair and a positive outlook on life. He does his share of charity work and isn't afraid to share his opinion on anything.

Tait is an eighteen year old business owner who dabbles in acting, modeling, hiking, mountain climbing, and high school. In his spare time, he cures various terminal diseases and brokers peace talks in the Middle East.All joking aside, Tait is the most energetic young man I have ever come across. His credo is that God has given us all the gift of human potential and it is our duty to fulfill that potential.

"Most people never give themselves enough credit," he says, hopping up and down.

Tait is so energized with life that he seems to have trouble containing his physical excitement. Rodger, on the other hand, is the picture of cool and collected.

That the two have developed a friendship based on intellectual conversations over coffee is a testament to the atmosphere created by a town like Great Falls.

Or as Rodger likes to call it, "Good Falls."