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2.26.03 Day Three
It’s a big sky day, all blue with big puffy white clouds. Just like yesterday.
With the noise from the muffler and Dee’s rancid radio that gets basically no non-static channels, I have designated a Morning Music Hour for myself. I was wise enough to buy a personal CD player before we left. This morning I am choosing Norah Jones. I brought some other stuff too…Wilco, American Hi-Fi, Bjork, Woodstock, Bob Dylan, and Natalie Imbrugia. I have asked Dee if he wants me to sing to him. He says, “Maybe later.”
Every night we watch CNN to see if the world has blown up yet. So far, so good.
Today we are still running the Bitterroot Mountains. I think we passed over the Continental Divide this morning. Or maybe it was last night.
Things kind of smear together and I am not sure what day it is. I admire Lewis, or was it Clark, who did that detailed journal of their journey. At the end of the day, and ours is an auto drive, we are tired. I have tried to journal on this crazy old laptop, but it is too slow for my thoughts. Perhaps pencil on paper would have been better.
Like I said it is a wonderfully beautiful day and I have discovered something interesting. If you look out the windshield that is like a still photo. If you look out a side window, it is like a movie. And if you flip down your visor, you have a view of what you just drove through. So if like in this case you were driving east, well that is what you would see. Three views from one seat.
Right about now we came down into a big valley. There was a turnout, so we stopped and, well Dee looked but I couldn’t walk over there. Didn’t want to fly off the mountain. This is a deep gorge that is part of the Columbia River Project. I would guess it is for power plants and irrigation. It certainly is dramatic.
I am keeping my eye out for Mt. Rainier. Still don’t see it. I did pick up some rocks for my Lucy-Desi Long Long Trailer Collection. Got one in Montana too.
Oh Coeur D' Alene is nice. Evergreens sprouting out of the mountains and the most gorgeous lake, named after the city. People are out and about, kids playing, men fishing, women walking around. It seems like a lovely place to raise children. It has a midwestern aura. I can tell you that if I had navigated out here via the route we took on a buckboard, I would have said HERE, I'm putting my roots down right here. It looks THAT good.
Spokane (pronounced Spo can like in tin can) is really a BIG surprise. It looks so eastern…lots of brick and just an eastern feeling of integrity and deep roots. I am impressed.
We stopped here at a pharmacy so I could pick up hair bands and emery boards. As I was checking out I noticed a package on the counter. It was a blister pack of a tube of cream that said MY LINES ARE CONSEALED on the top in red. There is a sketch of a woman with major lines on one side of her face and a clear complexion on the other.
I want some. Do me up! I asked the checkout woman about it. She said she was holding it for a woman. “Does it work?” I asked. “The woman said she has been using it for twenty years.” So I am thinking this must be terrific stuff and it is dry here and I could use it. “Do you have more? And what is the cost?” The woman scans it and it is $3.69. “I’ll take one if you have another.” Right as I am paying a bent-over woman arrives. She is about 85 and has possibly the wrinkliest face I have EVER seen. Haha on me. Now I am thinking this product is Elmer’s Glue and I am a big goof.
We are coming down into a fertile valley, an irrigated valley. So much of the land out here is arid. It makes one wonder why all of the rich, fertile farmland that doesn’t need irrigation back in the Midwest is being built out by massive housing developments. All of those $400,000 mini-mansions don’t sustain a planet. No one seems to talk about that. We are losing our breadbasket.
Whoever owns this land has done a nice thing for curious travelers. A sign says, FOR THE NEXT 14 MILES CROPS WILL BE NOTED IN THE FENCELINE. Dee and I are competing to read the signs. I am driving so it isn’t fair. Alfalfa, wheat, alfalfa, beans, alfalfa, potatoes, beans, beans, carrots, potatoes, alfalfa, (haha! I had Dee write these down for me. He added sorghum (made that one up) He’s a goof too!)
We stopped in Seattle East and bought expensive gas and I went for a new hat…one of those knitted numbers with a tassel and strips that tie under your chin that you actually don’t tie. I overheard a woman telling another women that she lost her state job. No money and she won’t be called back. 9.11 did a lot of damage all over this country.
I-94 spits you out right into Seattle, at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium. It is 3:30 so we went to Pike’s Market. I showed Dee the fishmongers. We have that in Chicago too, but it is less public. Basically the restaurant people go there.
Seattle is nice with all of the water (it’s Puget Sound though, NOT the ocean) And one thing you will notice right away, well two things actually: Seattle is very stylish…simple grates and banisters are art-designed, and it is GREEN…even the overpasses have plantings, and there are massive amounts of apartments, and even though the city is stylish, the people dress grunge, and the most polite drivers in the entire world reside here. They leave space for you to get out and they let you in to long lines of traffic. This does get a bit ridiculous though…you go, no you go.
These people would not make it in Chicagoland. It took me nearly a year to learn how to drive aggressively. My brother helped. He said just put your left tire right on the line and people will move over. It worked. Still he doesn’t understand while I live where I do.
Dee and I took a room at a Traveler’s Inn, watched dubya make a plea for democracy in Iraq. This world is getting more bizarre by the minute. The caught part of Barbara Walter’s interview with that Baretta guy. Oh man! He is out of it. But the really funny thing is that if you live on the west coast life is different. These shows run at 7 for us, it is only 5 here. Most people are still knee-deep in their commute.
Back in the growling pick-up we tried to turn down on Mercer Street (Avenue?) to get to the Space Needle and the Frank Gehry-designed Music Experience. That took at least 45 minutes because at the end is one of those porcelain-tile tunnels, a very curvy one. There were scary long scratches in the tiles like some car/s had MAJOR accidents in there.
We walked around and I did get a great pic!
From there we found our way up to Capitol Hill where my cousin lives. I stopped at one of those cool stores and bought new shades! She and he husband Alex took us down to Elliot’s on one of the piers for dinner. WowOwow! What a nice place…casual and upscale. All windows too so you can watch the big glittery vessels come in port. Elliot’s specializes in oysters. From the menu I came to understand that there are three major types of oysters, then there are many subgenera below that which are denoted by a certain bay. I had no idea how to order. The special menu offered 13 different kinds! Hama Hama, Little Skookum Pacific, Snow Creek, Emerald Cove, Thorndyke, Cortes Island, Westcott BayFlat, South Sound Kumamoto, and Quilcene! Those are just the ones I can remember. Alex took over and ordered eight half-orders so we could sample. Dee tried the halibut and we added salmon too. We washed all of the food down with beers from Alaska.
Seattle is Seattle. When Dee asked where the restroom was, the matre' d took his hand and ushered him to a back area. I was laughing so much. Even the waiter was flirting with him.
The dinner lasted so long I didn’t have time to call Jake. He is my best friend’s brother. He offered to take us out to the gay bars. I think it would have been too much for Dee. He is still limping. Sometimes I need to protect him. Damn, I would have loved it though.
On the road you get a lot of time to think of weird things, most of them revolve around truckers, at least in my head. Tonight’s BIG question? How many semi loads of lumber does it take to build a modest house? My guess…3.
Yesterday my burning question was about truckers and prostitutes. Ha!
Word for the Day: Irrigation
End Destination: Seattle, WA
Total Miles: 521
