A vehicle shaped like an oversized banana drew the attention of Montana Highway Patrol while traveling along Interstate 90 near Billings this week, resulting in a traffic stop that turned out to be more conversation than citation.
The fruit-shaped car belongs to a man who has built a life around the unconventional vehicle, using it to spread what he describes as a message about whimsy and human connection. Troopers who pulled him over reportedly ended up charmed rather than charged, with the stop becoming the kind of roadside encounter that gets retold at shift change.
While the incident happened well east of Helena, it's the sort of story that travels fast on Montana's long interstates — and it's a reminder that Highway 1, I-90, and the stretches in between carry a genuinely strange variety of traffic through Big Sky Country.