Some Trips down Memory Lane

Tomorrow we are homeward-bound, but the last two days have been a lot of fun. Yesterday was a memory trip for Ken, and today it was for me.

I have been wanting to go fishing, so I purchased a one-day license, and we headed for Lake Roosevelt north of Davenport. We meandered our way there and back, and Ken pointed out the various farms and who lived or used to live there as well as the canyons and fields where he had shot deer or pheasant when he was growing up in Davenport.

We ended up at a little federal park called Hawk Creek, and after schlepping poles, tackle, chairs, cooler, and dog over a little path and then encountering a small seemingly harmless snake who wriggled away, we settled in on a little sliver of rocky shoreline. Ken did not even get a bite, and both of mine, one a perch and the other a shiner, were about six inches long. But it was still great fun.

On the way back to town, we meandered some more and took a look at the old Ft. Spokane as well as the nearby campground. Then across the bridge on the reservation side is Two Rivers Casino which has quite a nice RV park with full hook ups and lots of green grass. By the time we got back to Davenport we were hungry so we ate at the Mexican restaurant that opened about one year ago. We were pleased to see it is thriving because we thought the food quite good.

I can’t believe how beautiful the country and farmland look to me when I didn’t give any of it a second look when growing up here. The rolling stubble fields in Lincoln County were like undulating pieces of art dotted with the occasional farm or outcropping of trees.

Today, Ken wanted to attend a gun show at the Spokane fair grounds, so rather than pay admission for me of little interest, I drove out toward the valley in search of the Quilting Bee quilt shop. I poked around for a while, and suddenly came face to face with the owner, Jackie Wolfe, who lives at Liberty Lake and whom we knew when we lived there. In fact her husband, Jamie, was a Realtor when we moved to Spokane and he was involved in our purchasing the Liberty Lake House. So Jackie and I visited about our families and folks we both know. We tried to tell each other that it was just yesterday when we were neighbors rather than almost twenty years ago.

After retrieving Ken from the gun show (he spent no money!!), we decided we were hungry so made a beeline for North Division and the Steer Inn. When I was in high school, that was the closest place to the high school in Mead where we could go after a game or a dance and get something to eat. As I sat eating my hamburger which tasted as good as it did when I was a teen, I could even picture the stately white haired gentleman who owned the Steer Inn at that time.

Then on to Green Bluff which is just over the hill from where I grew up. Green Bluff was just a few truck farms back then, and now there are lots of “truck farms” all with their individual styles of promotion. This time of year the peaches and cherries are finished, but the apples and pumpkins and cabbages and squash are coming on strong. The Hansons are friends of Mike and Mary’s so we stopped, and I had a chance to visit with Rod Hanson a bit before making one of my purchases – the yummiest and juiciest caramel apple I have ever had. I have the drips of juice on the front of my shirt to prove it.

So yet this afternoon I want to go up the hill to some neighbors who sell fresh eggs so I will have a supply to take home tomorrow. The sun is shining beautifully in this part of the country and it has been a great place to sit and enjoy the beautiful surroundings over this past week. Ciao