Spokane

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I finally convinced myself I'd done enough dawdling in Montana and was getting a little tired.  I kept driving and kept ending up back in Montana.  It was Sunday, and I knew I could not get my keys until Tuesday because of Monday being a holiday.  The prospect of being only seven hours from my destination once I was in Missoula gave me a second wind to cover distance.  So, I ate lunch and took a walk in Missoula, and made it to Spokane by the evening.

As has become a theme from here on out, the earth seems to touch the sky.

I ate lunch in Missoula but drove around a little trying to find a good place, got lost in University of Montana neighborhoods and thus found the very first equals sign sticker since Minnesota!  There was also a gay newspaper in the restaurant I ate lunch at.  Oh my, I found progressive Montana apparently.

Trout!

Some European tourists with little kids were feeding these squirrel things at a rest stop, just loving them.  Everything looks different from the outside.  Well, I take that back.. we do know someone in Flint who feeds the squirrels.  

I can't remember now if this was an Idaho squirrel.  I may not have stopped in Idaho at all except for gas once.  I briefly considered taking my extra time and going to Weippe, ID since that was a town where my grandmother has more memories- she was a little older.  But, it was a ways into the mountains and the road on my atlas looked pretty squiggly.  So, I kept driving right through the skinny part of the state, up and over the mountains.

Spokane- still light out.

The brick is the foundation from an old building there on the river.

Spokane.

Giant wagon.

Oh man, you know you've made it to Washington when... you go for a walk and find lentils, sprouted rice, and fruit for dinner in a place with beer, coffee and live music.  And the person next to you at the bar on one side shows off her bike helmet, and the person on the other side smells like anarchy.

And there is subversion on the walls... although a more critical reading of this image would not be subversive at all but rather Orientalist.  But I prefer the subversive interpretation.