Intentional Overshoot
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Day 22: June 27, 2021 Intentional Overshoot Comment via blog |
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I naturally became a little restless after two night in the same place,
and decided to make a baby step to the west. Online reviews made me think
a small motel about 60 miles from Spokane would be OK, and speaking with
the owner on the phone made me feel even better about it. Early Sunday
morning, I was back on the road.
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Cowboys on bucking horses caught my eye at the east edge of Davenport, WA.
The cowboys, and everything else in the first picture, are there to draw
attention to the real motel in the second picture. Look like a place I
might like to stay.
The other two pictures are from road segments on the west edge of town. The first is unpaved, though not all that primitive, and the second paved with fairly heavy grass encroachment. |
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When this place in Creston, WA, popped up, I figured it would be a good
breakfast stop. I was right. The second
picture is an illustration of using all the available space for planting,
and the other two are illustrations of a road making more of an effort to
live up to its "PRIMITIVE ROAD" sign.
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This is Wilbur, WA, the day's destination. I knew I would arrive here way
too early to check-in but I had started out when I did in order to use the
cooler part of the day for travel. My plan was to cover some of the
planned route before temperatures climbed too high then return and hope
for an early check-in or a cooled place to hang out. Although I did not
know it at the time, the hamburger place on the left of the first picture
would be where I would have dinner. I did know that I would be sleeping at
the motel on the right of the second picture. People entering Wilbur from
the west on the old road are greeted by a pretty cool stone pillar bearing
the town's name.
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Sometimes the temperature readout in the car is right on and other times
it seems to be a little high. I suspect today was one of those times but
it is still a good general indication of what's going on outside of the
air conditioned interior. As I continued beyond Wilbur, it climbed to
98°. As I approached Coulee City where a dam forms Banks Lake, it
started to drop. It plummeted to 83° when I was actually passing the
lake but immediately started climbing as soon as I was off the dam.
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Beyond Coulee City, the scenery took on a more canyon lands appearance.
Roughly twenty miles west of the city, my plotted route along Baseline
Road was blocked by a closed (but unlocked) gate and
sign. I stayed on US-2, of course, and snapped
a picture at the other end of Baseline Road.
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Although temporarily closed, the 1903
Waterville
Hotel remains operational and photogenic. Without some prior knowledge
and real time help (both provided by Dave Habura) I might have shrugged
off the red and white square on the hotel southeast corner as meaningless
when it is actually a marker for another named auto trail that ran through
the area. The marker probably not only indicated the path of The Red
Trail, but that the hotel was approved by the trail association.
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Waterville was as far as I needed to go to get all the side road
excursions out of the way and benefit from an all US-2 run to and from
Wilbur, and it was farther than I had actually planned. Even so, a
turnaround there would have still put me at the motel way ahead of
check-in time, and things were going well so I continued on to Wenatchee
and the 1908 Columbia River Bridge. On another day with different
temperatures, I might have stopped to walk over the pedestrian only
structure, but today I was satisfied with a drive-by out-the-window shot.
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I finally turned around at Wenatchee and verified that all three digits of
my temperature display were working as I headed back to Wilbur. I was
still nearly an hour ahead of official check-in time but
my room was ready and so was I. Under normal
conditions, I would have walked the couple of hundred yards to
Billy Burgers for dinner, but today I drove. When I
got back in the car after downing most of my large
patty melt, it displayed a temperature of
116°. Officially it was only 112°.
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