Thursday, September 11, 2014

Grumpy Bulldog Does America Day 10: Accidental Tourism

I really could have gone farther than Spokane today.  But looking on the map basically there's nothing between here and Seattle except a couple tiny towns.  With the time change (the last one since I can't drive to Hawaii) I actually got here before noon.

Here are the final pictures of Montana and my brief foray into Idaho, which seemed like a lot of winding through mountains.





























































When I got to Spokane I missed the Starbucks I'd targeted on the GPS.  I ended up going to this park instead, because I had to piss and I figured I could waste a few minutes until it was lunchtime.  So I got to see some of Spokane by accident.


























As you can see they have a pond with the laziest ducks ever.  If you had a gun it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel.  And for some reason a bunch of old people were there and they were playing oldies music.

Eventually I went out to Airline Heights by the airport.  I got lunch at Jack-in-the-Box to cross that off my list.  I've been to one in Arizona, but that was back in 2008.  You know you're in the west when Hardee's becomes Carl's Jr. too.  I spent a couple hours writing at a Starbucks until I could go to the motel.

Here are some pictures from outside.  By the airport isn't the ideal place for trying to capture a sunset.

































Tomorrow I should be in the Seattle area at last.  I could have been here already if I'd driven harder, but what's the rush?  I really can't say why I was so focused on getting there.  Maybe because I like Pearl Jam (but not Nirvana) and Starbucks frappes.  Or maybe watching too many episodes of Frasier or something.

Some people have wondered what the point is.  This is just the first leg of the trip.  For the next week I'm going to be around Seattle.  I got an extended stay motel for the week so I can maybe save some money cooking a few meals in the microwave and such.  Then I'm probably going south to Portland.  After that some other points south and east of here.  We'll see how long my money and willpower holds out.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I guess you didn't find Morris the Lion!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Don't judge Idaho by what you saw up north. That is the palouse, which is very green and mountainous. Southeast Idaho is very flat and a desert. And the "banana belt" of Idaho is where Boise is located (which requires going south through a lot of mountains and one hell of a scary pass called Whitebird Hill. You did pass through Wallace, Idaho which was where Dante's Peak was filmed and where the last stoplight on I-90 was taken out of commission some 20 years ago. They used to have a mighty silver operation there. I can't believe you just blew through Montana without stopping to see the huge smokestack at Anaconda... Well actually I can believe that. I broke down there once and had to stay the night while my car got repaired.

Maurice Mitchell said...

It's a beautiful park even if you got there by accident.

Andrew Leon said...

You've never eaten at Jack-in-the-Box?
And Carl's Junior is way better than Hardee's.
Man, you'd think I actually eat fast food for how much I know about them.

You know, you could drive up to Alaska and get another time change.

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