HWY 2 - Day 10 - Priest River, ID - Wilbur, WA
How many cords, chargers, batteries, memory cards...list goes on and on...does it take to be a photographer in this current age of technology. Biggest challenge on the road is to make sure each morning everything is rounded up, coiled up, packaged up, and loaded up before you saddle up. Let's see, sure don't want to miss any ups. Sweep the room. Triple check all the outlets for devices.
Light rain this morning gave me a reason to delay taking off early. Chance to do some laundry in the room. Conair works as a good dryer while sipping coffee.
Stopped in at AJ's Cafe in Priest for some breakfast. All the 6 AM regulars have their own coffee cup with name in this three calendar cafe. Reminded me of my grandfather's barber shop in Arizona where every regular customer had their own shaving mug. Nice to know these kinds of communities are still part of our country today.
The past two weeks have seen and stopped in a lot of small towns along HWY 2. Some are deserted, some just holding on, some striving to be renewed. Good to see a breath of new life along the way. Hope would be for the renewal not to be one which loses the original character which build the foundations of these communities. Time will tell.
Leaving Idaho HWY 2 becomes 150 miles of rolling farmland east of the Cascades. Dark spots suddenly appear from the side of the road. Ol' Sport and me sweep quick to the left and then to the right. It's a flock of wild turkeys deciding to cross the highway. A blip of the throttle and Ol' Sport has those turkeys rushing back into the wheat fields where they belong. Good thing. Wrong time of year for a Thanksgiving dinner.
Small-scale framing limped along here for over a century. The region underwent a wholesale change after WW II. Irrigation water from reclamation projects turned sagebrush plains into the proverbial amber waves of grain spreading to the horizon against an (almost) always blue sky filled with never ending clouds.
Handlebars straight. Not a curve in sight. Directly across the heart of this sparsely populated, nearly treeless region to Wilbur, WA. where an old service station has been brought back to life as a drive-by expresso stand. Must be getting close to Seattle.
Hoping for some relaxation after 10 days on the road...disappointed in Wilbur tonight.
Kickstand down Wilbur, WA - 165 windy miles (that's headwind windy miles)
be strong, be safe, Carlan
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