Post #322989 by Sweet Daddy Tiki on Fri, Aug 3, 2007 9:30 AM

Day 10 - Seattle to Spokane

We bid farewell to Seattle and our gracious hosts (that's the trunk of my car in the foreground - we set our cameras on top and used the timers). We navigate the crazy steep streets of dogbytes's lakeside neighborhood until we're headed east on the I-90, then we can pretty much put a brick on the gas pedal until we hit Great Falls two days from now.

Two hours later (it would be less, but there's road construction), we pull into Ellensburg, WA to search for Dick and Jane's Spot which we've earmarked for a look-see after reading about it on Roadside America. We drive past several cool 50's motels with neon signs we intend to photograph on the way out (but don't). As we're gassing up the car we notice this A-frame building across the street:

Could this have been a full-fledged tiki establishment in the past? The tattoo parlor is closed, so we grill the guy in the Hawaiian shave-ice kiosk in the parking lot. He can only tell us that it used to be a rib joint most recently. The rootbeer shave ice is welcome refreshment in the punishing heat - it reminds me of the rootbeer Eskipops of my boyhood.

Downtown Ellensburg has many cool historical buildings. We lunch at a bakery cafe called Dakota Cafe. You must go there to try the lemon bars (the chocolate-peanutbutter bars are also worth the trip). We and ask directions to Dick & Jane's. It's only a few blocks away and we hoof it. It's a private house that Dick Elliot and Jane Orleman have turned into an amazing folk art palace.

We take many, many pictures.

Just east of Ellensburg the terrain turns from rocky mountain forest to "channeled scablands" - an arid landscape like the badlands of southern alberta or a mini grand canyon. A short while later the countryside changes again to verdant irrigated fields that look, on google maps, like a polka-dot crazyquilt.

Fatigue catches up with me and suddenly I'm very tired. Gary and I play memory-intensive games to keep from falling into a road-induced trance.

About 5 pm we're driving through Spokane, intending to whiz through and keep going for another couple of hours, when we spot this sign from the I-90:

It is a siren call that lures us off the road. We pull into the Quality Inn to get our bearings. The desk clerk makes us an attractive offer on a room (the price going ever lower the more we hesitate) so we decide to stay put for the night. After unloading our luggage we check out the Goodwill store we can see on the other side of the freeway, then make our way back to the Trade Winds. It's a little on the shabby side and the flags being used for curtains in some of the rooms tell us that some of the residents are long-term.

The sign is not as eye popping as it used to be (as seen here). We poke our heads into the front office to find this black velvet painting flanked by tiki heads.

We tell the clerk we're looking for tiki. He says he doesn't think he's in but he'll give him a call, so we're not sure what he actually heard, but we don't hang around to meet Mr. Tiki. We head downtown.

Like the Trade Winds, Spokane seems a little worse for wear, a little past its prime.

We could have dropped a bundle on books and stuff at this funky store but we arrived too close to closing time, thank goodness.

Dick's is a retro marvel. We pick up burgers ("buy the bagfull"), milkshakes and onion rings to take back to the motel

We kick back on our beds with junk food and classic tv.

-Sweet Daddy T.
Because crap doesn't buy itself.

My new blog

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki 2007-08-03 09:30 ]