Washington Archives - Round America

Dirty in DC – Day 131

Day 131 — August 9, 2003 — Saturday

Dirty in DC

If you don’t appreciate that we are at war with terrorists, all you need to do is spend five minutes in Washington, DC. It was sad to see police cars and barricades everywhere — clearly there because of terrorists.

I spent another day in DC today. The weekends are a MUCH better time to see the sights in DC as all the government folks are nowhere around. I saw a lot.

When I left the hotel, I went searching for a tourist information office. I finally found one, and I picked up a bunch of brochures. I spoke with a woman there who was not particularly nice or helpful, but she did tell me about a roadtrip book that she had read.

I drove by the Pentagon again. Lots of police cars.

I enjoyed the Smithsonian 40 years ago. I didn’t have time today, but Bozzie Jane and I will be back to see it in detail in a few months. I did spend some time at the National Gallery of Art. I especially enjoyed their sculpture garden. I discovered the World’s Largest Typewriter Eraser there.

A Confederate Drum and Bugle Corps was playing outside the National Museum of American History.

The buildings in Washington, DC are impressive. The Environmental Protection Agency has one of the most impressive buildings while the Department of State has one of the least impressive. Perhaps they should flipflop. I would think we need to impress folks more when they come to visit the Department of State. The Bureau of Engraving & Printing is also very impressive. Perhaps we could move those printing presses to a suburban location and give that building to either the Department of State or the Department of Homeland Security. The hot dogs served by the Smithsonian Hot Dog Cart were excellent!

I enjoyed the FDR Memorial. He was elected to four terms. Thank heavens we didn’t allow that when President Clinton was in office. I might have moved to another country rather than endure that embarrassment for another term. The FDR Memorial is divided into four areas — one for each term. It was especially interesting to see that the original memorial did not show President Roosevelt in his wheelchair. A sculpture showing him in his wheelchair was added after the memorial opened and folks expressed their chagrin over the glaring omission. The Jefferson Memorial is very impressive. The Korean War Memorial was very effective — shows a platoon of soldiers walking across a field. The Lincoln Memorial is very impressive, and it seems to be the most popular. I’m glad some folks were taking a picture of the spot where Reverend Martin Luther King stood when he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech as I might have missed it.

I saw the Vietnam War Memorial when I visited DC on business 18 years ago. It’s definitely different. Just a big long black granite wall with the names of the dead inscribed. There is a sculpture of three soldiers looking toward the wall. A lot of people were tracing the names of friends or loved ones off the wall. Nearby is a memorial to Vietnam Women. It shows two female medical personnel caring for a wounded soldier.

The Vietnam Women’s Memorial sculpture was done by Glenna Goodacre. Glenna was the wife of Bill Goodacre and is the mother of Jill Goodacre. Jill is a famous Victoria’s Secret model who is married to singer and actor Harry Connick, Jr. Bill Goodacre was my financial partner in one of my student enterprises at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. I’m not sure if I ever met Glenna. Jill was born after I graduated and moved away from Lubbock. Glenna is an incredibly talented sculptor, and I definitely wanted to see this memorial while in Washington.

A new memorial was under construction — World War II. There was also construction underway on the National Museum of the American Indian.

I was surprised that Washington DC was as dirty as it was. I would say that DC would rank right underneath Detroit in terms of dirty. There was trash everywhere — trash that people had thrown on the ground. I did not see anyone cleaning, emptying trash barrels, or anything and I covered a lot of ground. We need to fix this. Maybe we need to put the people at Disney World in charge of trash in Washington DC, and then it would be as pretty as the way the Canadians keep things at our borders.

I left the Washington DC area a little after 5 pm. Boz and I are planning to come back to Washington, DC for a more in-depth tour in October.

I stopped in Williamsburg at 7:30 pm, but the hotel rates were so high that I decided to drive on. I met Pam at a hotel while I was trying to find a room. Her hotel was full, but she was especially nice and helpful. A little further down the road in Yorktown, Virginia at a Marriott Courtyard, Brandon, and Glynis didn’t have a room, but they somehow made one available for me.

My thought for the day is that we need to clean up Washington DC — physically. There should be cleaning crews on duty at all times keeping the tourist areas clean and attractive. Our founding fathers designed and built the buildings in Washington DC so visiting dignitaries would be extremely impressed. They would be ashamed to see the trash on the ground and how less than impressive the popular areas are as a result.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Washington DC — Smithsonian — National Gallery of Art — World’s Largest Typewriter Eraser — National Museum of American History — Environmental Protection Agency — Department of State — FDR Memorial — Jefferson Memorial — Korean War Memorial — Vietnam War Memorial — Vietnam Women’s Memorial — World War II Memorial

And a Garbage-Eating Goat Sculpture – Day 103

And a Garbage-Eating Goat Sculpture

Day 103 – July 12, 2003 – Saturday

Spokane, Washington. We decided to spend a leisurely day here today and complete the catch-up work on the web site photos. Spokane is a lovely town, and it seems like an especially nice place to live and raise a family.

The highlights in Spokane are along the Spokane River where Spokane has an exceptionally nice park called Riverfront Park. The Marriott Courtyard sits right on the river, so we just walked out the door and began our walk on the Centennial Trail.

Just across the river is Gonzaga University. Gonzaga gained prominence recently due to an exceptional basketball team. Back in 1887, Father Cataldo started Gonzaga University as a mission school for Indians. Gonzaga’s most famous dropout was local boy Bing Crosby.

The river is very pretty — lots of ducks, geese, and beautiful landscaping and bridges. The river flows through two falls that are used to generate electricity. Spokane has a wonderfully designed Convention Center right along the river and Waterfront Park.

Riverfront Park is home to a lot of great art — wonderful sculptures of all shapes and sizes. An absolute highlight was the World’s Largest Radio Flyer Wagon. It’s huge! The wheels are about 8-feet in diameter. Children of all ages climb the ladder in the back, and slide down the slide built into the handle.

Bozzie Jane did reconnaissance work on pies today. The Desk Clerk at the Marriott said Cyrus O’Leary’s was THE place to go — famous for homemade pies. It was just past the big red wagon, so we stopped for lunch and pie. Our waitress, Mariah, was just darling. She’s a senior at the University of Wyoming majoring in chemistry. She will either go to graduate school or law school. She’ll be a big success at whatever she does — sharp young lady and delightful to talk with. We also had a great time talking with Chris, the manager. Chris told us a lot about Spokane, the two big annual events, and he suggested some spots we need to see in Idaho tomorrow. Our lunch was great, and we really enjoyed the pies. We narrowed our want list to three, and we had Sizzling Skillet Apple Pie, Sour Cream Lemon Pie, and Boysenberry Pie. The Sour Cream Lemon won the best citrus pie in America in a contest last year. All were excellent!

We rolled out of Cyrus O’Leary’s and headed back to Waterfront Park to see the absolutely gorgeous fully-restored 1909 Loof Carrousel. It was originally located at Spokane’s Natatorium Park. We sat and watched children riding. Beautiful hand-carved horses and animals.

Right near the Carrousel is an incredibly unique piece of art — a Garbage Eating Goat Sculpture. Boz held a piece of paper under the goat’s mouth, and it was immediately sucked up. The trash passes through the goat and out its rear end into a trash compactor. What a hoot!

Chris told us that Spokane has two huge events. Hoopfest is the World’s Largest 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, and Bloomsday Run is the World’s Largest Individually-Timed Road Race. 43,000 people race in the Bloomsday Run. There is a wonderful sculpture commemorating the race in Waterfront Park just across from City Hall. It wraps a corner and features sculptures of perhaps a hundred runners. Very unique and impressive.

We visited the Spokane Falls, and we walked by the IMAX Theatre, and the U.S. Pavillion Entertainment Center.

The center of Waterfront Park has a beautiful Clock Tower. It was constructed in 1902 and was originally part of the Great Northern Railroad depot.

We walked the Centennial Trail along the Spokane River and Waterfront Park.

We thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing afternoon just walking through Waterfront Park. We took a late afternoon nap — perhaps the first such nap in 103 days, and we just relaxed in the room and watched a little TV and worked on the website this evening. A nice, relaxing day!

And a Garbage-Eating Goat Sculpture

The Daily Journal of Round America:

More Information on the Sights Visited Today: Spokane Washington — Riverfront Park — Gonzaga University — Cyrus O’Leary’s — 1909 Loof Carrousel — Garbage Eating Goat Sculpture

Look Mom No Trees – Day 102

Look Mom, No Trees!

Day 102 – July 11, 2003 – Friday

Very few people would look at the three photos at the top of this page on our website and guess that we spent the day in Washington state. Central and eastern Washington state along Highway 2 don’t look anything like what I expected — NOTHING like western Washington. While there were apple trees and cheery trees and your regular run-of-the-mill roadside and forest trees, there were also many miles of wheat fields without a tree in sight. There were even areas that looked like desert.

We drove half way across Washington state today — from Wenatchee to Spokane — almost to Idaho. It was a short, relaxing day — only on the road for about 8 hours.

The morning was spent catching up on some website work. We hit Dusty’s In N Out Burger for lunch, regarded as the best hamburger in Wenatchee. Dusty’s has been in business since 1949, and we enjoyed their “sloppy” Dustyburger. Traditional hamburger bun filled with a hamburger patty topped with mustard, ketchup, red relish, cheese, onions, and lettuce. We both enjoyed our goopy but good Dustyburgers.

In Wenatchee, we visited the Washington Apple Commission to learn more about apples. Beulah was very nice and very informative. Wenatchee is the apple capital of the world. Beulah advised us that we should have eaten that pie at the Cottage Inn or the Windmill. She looked like she would know. She’s lived there all her life. A little trim lady, but I bet you she knows her apple pie.

We stopped and saw both apple and cherry orchards as we drove east through the Wenatchee Valley. Orchards for miles. A huge percentage of the apples grown come from Washington state.

Reluctant photographer, Bozzie Jane, had her creative juices flowing as she took artsy photos of cherries growing on a Washington cherry tree. She got a good close-up, even though we didn’t have a lens designed for extreme close-ups. It’s interesting that George Washington cut down a cherry tree, and cherries are a big crop in Washington state, the only state named after a President.

We really enjoyed the scenery as we left the Valley and went up into the mountains. Then we were blown away when we saw flat wheat fields for as far as the eye could see. Wheat fields cover much of the area from central to eastern Washington. Later, we saw a deep gorge, and in the eastern part of the state, some of the terrain is desert-like. Boz and I competed to see who could get the best wheat photo; I think Bozzie Jane won. She was on a roll today.

We passed through a few small towns and saw some colorfully painted barns. I took a photo of a painted barn outside Waterville. I also took a photo of the homemade rest stop in Waterville. It is a tiny little town, but it had a drive-thru espresso shop. In the little spot called Douglas, we took photos of the Douglas General Store with classic old west architecture, as well as the Farmer’s Community Hall with not one but two outhouses.

The town of Coulee City advertises itself as “The Friendliest Town in the West,” so we decided to drive through town and see for ourselves. We saw very few people, and no one was friendly to us. We chalked it up to false advertising. Of course, it was over 100 degrees today, so perhaps all the friendly folks were inside on this unusually hot day in this part of the world.

From Coulee City, we headed for Grand Coulee Dam. The Dam is the biggest public works project in the history of the world and the largest concrete structure in the world. Very impressive. We met a delightful group of dam workers at the Visitor Center — Molly, Beth, Jeremiah, Clayton, Shery, Craig, John, and Allisha.

We learned that the visitors to the Cooley Dam are the strangest in August. For some reason, they come in with really stupid questions and do stupid things. People ask, how do you get electricity out of the water? Or they’ll ask if the electricity in the water hurts the fish or if removing the electricity hurts the fish…things like that.

The Dam folks gave us some interesting facts about the dam and how it works. When they added a power house back in the 60’s, it tripled their electrical power capacity. And prior to that, the water came down a cement fall area, and it was always a white…almost like Niagara Falls. It would cool, just like an outside air conditioner. It would cool the entire the town of the Cooley Dam area. No one had or needed an air conditioner. But when they added that other power structure, it reduced the need for so much water, and depending on the level of the lake, the level of need in the area for irrigation and just what they do in the power plants, it’s pretty much just a trickle down the cement right now. When the water is flowing over the dam, it lowers the temperature by 20 degrees over a huge area.

Between the Dam and Coulee City, we stopped in the town of Grand Coulee and saw the Gehrke Windmill Garden. The life’s work of Mr. Emil Gehrke — hundreds and hundreds of windmills and whirlygigs that used to reside in the yard of his home. Thank goodness someone saved this amazing collection. Grassroots art again.

Mr. Gehrke was really proud of his windmills and whirlygigs. He had them in his backyard and when he was getting quite elderly, he contacted this city to ask if they would like to have them set up in a park area for everyone to enjoy. Turns out that not only did they say no, but they said, “hell no.” The city had been trying to get him to remove them from his backyard even while he was building them enjoying them himself. After his death, there was some land donated and some folks voted to put his items all in one place for people to enjoy.

We hope Mr. Gehrke is looking down from heaven and realizing that his work is being appreciated.

A few more small towns, and then we hit Spokane. We checked into the Marriott Courtyard to grab some computer time and get to bed early. The next few days will involve longer drives than we’ve had lately — wide open spaces across Montana.

I guess the lesson for the day is that it’s hard to be friendly when it’s really hot. It’s also hard to write a lot about a pleasant, relaxing day when not much exciting happened.

Random Comments:

Boz and I were surprised by the temperature in Washington State. Bozzie said if anybody ever told her it would be 100 degrees in Washington, she would have told them they were nuts. We were also surprised by the diversity of the landscape from western Washington to eastern Washington.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:Wenatchee Washington — Dusty’s In N Out Burger — Washington Apple Commission — Coulee City Washington — Gehrke’s Windmill Garden — Grand Coulee Dam

Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure – Day 101

Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure

Day 101 – July 10, 2003 – Thursday

We drove halfway across Washington state today — heading back east.

Today was a big day for pie. First, we had Cherry Pie in the cafe made famous in the TV series, Twin Peaks. Then we followed up with Apple Pie in Wenatchee, the apple capital of the world and the home of the world’s largest apple pie.

We had a lot of fun today. We saw the Snoqualmie Falls, the various locations where Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure were filmed, the Bavarian village of Leavenworth, and more. We saw the world’s greatest cow statue in Carnation, and we visited Dick and Jane’s Art Spot in Ellensburg. We met some especially nice people today.

We ran into Ralph, sales manager at the hotel in Lynwood, Washington, and he gave us a ton of sights to see. The desk clerk told us we needed to look up Ralph before we left town. Ralph had seen the elusive billboard on Whidbey Island, though he too believed that it had been taken down.

The first sighting of the day was an especially nice totem pole in Fall City.

The Carnation Research Farm just outside Carnation, Washington was built by the founder of the Carnation Company as a dairy stock farm. This historic 817 acre farm has been transformed to accommodate Leadership and Executive Training for the Nestle Company. We visited because we wanted to see the World’s Champion Milk Cow Statue. During the 1920s, the cow named “Segis Pietertje Prospect” had a yearly yield that exceeded 16,500 quarts of milk and 1,400 pounds of butter — ten times that of the average cow! Can you imagine producing 45 quarts of milk a day?

We saw a sign that said, “Blackberries killed and removed permanently.” I guess blackberries cause a problem for some crops.

Twin Peaks was an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody and Golden Globe-winning television serial drama. Twin Peaks initially aired on ABC in 1990, and in its first season was one of the most successful television programs on TV. Declining ratings in the second season led to the series being canceled. Despite its short life as a TV series, Twin Peaks quickly became a pop culture hit. In addition, the series has been credited with influencing several television series in different ways, including Northern Exposure, Picket Fences, and others. These series have been referred to as “the next Twin Peaks,” either before their run or after popular success, and examine the human condition and the underworld of a seemingly perfect suburban setting.

Boz and I enjoyed the show, though we haven’t been Twin Peaks fanatics. Our reason for coming to the North Bend – Snoqualmie Falls area is cherry pie, the favorite dessert of FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) on Twin Peaks. After all, we are on a pie trip, and some of the most famous pie in TV history needed to be part of the trip.

While tasting a fresh piece of cherry pie at the Double R Diner, Cooper proclaimed “This must be where pie goes when they die.” The restaurant also made a “damn fine cup of coffee.” The Double R Diner seen on the series was actually the Mar T Cafe located at 137 W. North Bend Way in North Bend, Washington. The TV series was set in the North Bend area.

So, we made our way to the Mar T Cafe, and we had cherry pie and a cup of coffee in the same spot where Kyle McLachlan seemed to order a piece of “cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee” each week. We met Marissa and Heather at the cafe. They told us to go next door to a tourist information place, and we met Ed. Ed Stowie was an actor in several episodes of Twin Peaks. He told us all about the show, and he directed us to a number of locations that were used in the show. He also told us about people who come from all over the world to see the locations where Twin Peaks was filmed. We saw the mountains that are called the Twin Peaks. We saw the famous sign from the opening of Twin Peaks TV show. We drove to Snoqualmie Falls and saw the beautiful waterfall. This was the hotel and the waterfall featured in Twin Peaks. We also drove to Fall City where we saw the Colonial Inn. It was a roadhouse in Twin Peaks.

While in North Bend, we also saw the Train Depot, a railroad graveyard, and a giant log.

We then drove to Roslyn Washington. This town was the setting for the TV series, “Northern Exposure.” Northern Exposure was a quirky TV show about the cultural clash between a transplanted New York doctor and the townspeople of fictional Cicely, Alaska. It featured stories of how people of diverse backgrounds and experiences strive to accept their differences and co-exist. Plots revolved around the intricacies and eccentricities of the citizens of this small town. The show aired from 1990 to 1995. It was a Top 20 TV show for several years.

We took our 10,000th Round America photo today — looking down main street in Roslyn, Washington. This entire town was transformed into “Cicely, Alaska” for the TV show. We took photos of places we recognized from the show — Dr. Joel Fleischman’s window, the radio station, the bar, and some signs. We spent a little time watching a movie crew at work filing some scenes from a science fiction movie that was using some locations in town.

Dick and Jane’s Art Spot in Ellensburg, Washington scored high on the Quirk-O-Meter at first glance. I don’t recall how or where we heard about it, but we drove to Ellensburg to see it. It features a yard full of art — brightly painted wooden figures, bicycle wheel sculptures, and bottle cap decor. As I looked more closely, I realized this was not like some of the questionable art we have seen filling some yards across America…these folks really are artists.

Dick & Jane each received a BA in Art from Central Washington University, in 1971. Dick Elliott and Jane Orleman created the art site predominantly from their own play, but it is also a collection of the work and play of over 35 artists. Dick & Jane’s Spot is dedicated to the philosophy of “one hearty laugh is worth ten trips to the doctor.” They have been working on “the Spot” for 27 years. There are over 10,000 bottle caps and thousands of reflectors. The pieces in the yard are always changing. Old pieces decay and new ones are added. We met two tourists, Kathy and Tony, at Dick and Jane’s Spot.

When we were hundreds of miles away, we spoke to our son, Ryan, and we were distressed to learn that the first employee he ever hired for his business makes his home in Ellensburg! We were so very disappointed that we didn’t realize it and missed meeting Michael Stowe.

For some reason, I had on our list to go to Cashmere, Washington to Liberty Orchards to get some applets and cotlets candy. So, to Cashmere we went. The brochure says: “The blossom-fresh flavor of crisp Washington apples, the tangy goodness of ripe apricots, and the nutty richness of crunchy English walnuts have made our namesake Aplets and Cotlets our top sellers since 1920!” We were too late for the tour, but we bought some candy. Not my favorite. I wish I could remember why I thought we needed to go.

Cherry stands on the side of the road began to get our attention, so we stopped at one and met Josh, a fruit farmer from Cashmere. He was also a forest firefighter. Nice guy, and the best cherries we have ever eaten.

Leavenworth, Washington is a stunning Bavarian Village and a great success story. A small timber community, Leavenworth became the headquarters of the Great North Railroad in the early 1900s. The railroad relocated to Wenatchee in the 1920’s. With no easy access to the railroad, the sawmill closed in 1926, and the lumber company headed for more profitable areas. With the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s, followed by the war years, Leavenworth’s economy spiraled downward. These hard times plagued Leavenworth through the 1940s and 1950s. With little hope of an economic rebound, stores were closing and people were leaving as there were few job opportunities.

The city struggled until 1962 when community leaders approached the University of Washington Bureau of Community Development looking for ways to save the town. Out of this work came the idea to use the town’s beautiful natural surroundings and a Bavarian theme to attract visitors to the area. The town underwent an amazing transformation. The first six buildings were remodeled in 1965 and 1966, and the others soon followed. Two of the leaders instrumental in this effort were Pauline and Owen Watson, longtime residents of Leavenworth. One of the most impressive facts about this entire project is that it was financed with private money – no federal assistance at all. Simply dedicated people mortgaging everything they had! Leavenworth has become a premier destination for family vacations, holidays, recreation, and getaways.

Bavarian-themed shops are uniform in appearance throughout Leavenworth. It is as if you were in a village in Bavaria! Boz went shopping at the Nutcracker shop, because Ryan has received a Nutcracker as a Christmas gift every year. There are fabulous mountain views from Leavenworth — a beautiful area!

We even spotted the World’s Largest Suit of Armor in Leavenworth.

Smallwood’s Harvest is a tourist stop in Peshastin. Surrounded by fruit trees at the base of the beautiful Cascade Mountains, the farm at Smallwood’s Harvest offers attractions for young and old, including a petting farm, a maze, an enormous pumpkin patch every fall, shopping, and fun things to do.

It was well past supper time when we rolled into Wenatchee, Washington. We checked into the hotel and asked where we could get the best pie in town. Riley took care of us at the Comfort Inn. We took her advice and headed to Prospector Pies for dinner and pie. Ryan was our waiter. The Toll House Cookie Pie and the Dutch Apple Pie were both very good. Wenatchee is the Apple Capital of the World and is home of the World’s Largest Apple Pie.

The lesson for the day is to always take advantage of the assets you have. Leavenworth was almost dead as a town, and Pauline and Owen Watson knew something had to be done. They looked around and realized that Leavenworth’s assets were one of the most beautiful settings anywhere — a setting that lended itself to a Bavarian theme. So, they came up with the absolutely crazy idea of having independent businesspeople re-do their storefronts to have a Bavarian theme. The town took what it had and capitalized on it, and Leavenworth has become a significant tourist attraction and a thriving town.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today: Carnation Research Farm — Twin Peaks — Double R Diner — Snoqualmie Falls — Roslyn Washington — Northern Exposure — Dick and Jane’s Spot — Liberty Orchards — Leavenworth Washington — Smallwood’s Harvest — Prospector Pies