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Spokane

Days 36,37, and 38

The Clock Tower in downtown Spokane at their River park

          We find ourselves sitting in a nicely appointed suburban neighborhood of Spokane, Washington. The weather gods have forsaken us, and thusly abandoned us, in this seemingly far-flung locale.

          Spokane? Why here?

          The answer is simple, as we are visiting friends!                      One of the fun parts of this travel is winding and worming our route to include dropping in on folks that we know. And, since we carry our home on our backs, we are never a burden to those that we crash in on.                          Oops! I mean visit!                                                                         (Think Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation)

          We are here on East Handy Road parked in front of the home of Greg, Kim, Gavin, and Kaydence. Greg is a former Marine buddy of Danny’s and the families have stayed as close as they can considering the distance between Texas and Washington state. We, on the other hand, are as close as a fifty-foot extension cord running from the house to the street can allow!

          I have alluded to our weather woes in some of the previous posts, complaining because we are not experiencing the better-than-perfect weather that we had for almost a month.

          Please tell me to just shut up!

          Weather/shmeather, who cares? We still get to drive around and visit peeps and places!

Kim, Paula, and Greg

          Kim, Greg, et al, have been great hosts as we have been treated to many of the local sights that Spokane has to offer. A nice visit downtown to the Waterfall District is a good example of what a city can do when it puts its collective minds and efforts into a long-term project. They even have a nifty way to keep the area litter free.

          The Garbage Goat.

In all his glory….. The Garbage Goat

          I kid you not. Since 1975 this bronze goat-like effigy has been “fed” garbage and litter much to the delight of its “feeders” because at the touch of a button the Goat comes to life and sucks up the offending litter placed in its mouth.

          What self-resecting little kid wouldn’t scour the area for litter to feed the goat? I almost feel that you would be doing some young litter-seeker a favor by dropping an errant candy wrapper or two so that they could “find” it, do a good deed, and have Garbage Goat be fed!

          The Spokane River Falls were running nicely as evidenced by the photographs. The volume of water cascading down the cataract reminded me of Niagara, albeit on a smaller scale, these falls are just as dramatic in their own right.

And they do power a generating station just to my left

          Get a load of this Radio Flyer Red Wagon! You could be the envy of all of your friends because you could fit all of the neighborhood kids and their families in there and tow them around the block with your Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycle!

That’s our girl Paula, behind Door #1, demonstrating the size of today’s prize

          The Town Hall building began its life as the Montgomery-Ward Building. Constructed back in the late 1920’s it is a fine example of the Art-Deco movement that proliferated at that time. Its architects were none other than the Montgomery-Ward Design and Construction Department. Interestingly, they did it all in-house!

Good ole’ Montgomery-Ward
They have a Charity Run every year in the Spring when all of the flowers sprout. It’s called the Blooming Run and all of these bronze life-size runners are a permanent testament to its popularity. They extend down to the corner and up the next street. Wheelchairs included!

          After the downtown tour we went way up into the highlands and found ourselves at the Arbor Crest Winery. It is housed on the former estate of a guy with the unlikely name of Royal Riblet. He was not the inventor of the item that appears on the McDonalds menu from time to time, but he was the inventor of many items such as the square-wheeled tractor and a host of other innocuous contributions to society. Anyway, his family was successful in the tramway business, and he hitched his wagon (or tram) to that and parleyed that into a living of sorts.

Two flights of wine, one flight of beer. They had no flights of Chocolate Milk for me.

          The best part is that his estate sold this mountain top aerie so that it did not fall into disrepair. In the 1980’s it was purchased by the Winery, and they have transformed it into one of the best catering venues that I have ever seen.

          Take a look!

The Gatehouse
That’s the Main House (Cliff House) in the distance
The gardens are meticulous
Garden in the foreground peering down on the Spokane River
More of the Gardens

          After a watching and cheering at a thoroughly entertaining girls volleyball game in which Kadence was one of the best players, we had some great local pizza and retired to the curb-side seclusion of our traveling abode.  

An accomplished Kaydence plying her craft. Pretty good for 5th Grade! There’s nothing like going to a local school on a Friday night to get a feeling for a community and its inhabitants

Back at home……

Zzzzzzz…….

          Tomorrow we figure out where we aren’t going and try to patch in some destinations that are a little more seasonally-friendly.

          Stay tuned for further developments.