A Living Magazine - Day 72 - Goodbye Pacific Coast

We had to wake up and leave early to get to the bus station. I packed up my stuff and met Ellen inside the house, where we had some coffee, and then took off.

We pulled up to the station about 10 minutes from her house, but close to departure time. We had a good hug, said goodbye, and I got on the bus. 

I had known Ellen for years online, if only secondarily. But, being able to meet her in person and get to know her, represented another of those very special synchronicities that form long-lasting relationships.

We thought about things so similarly that it was hard to believe we'd only just met face to face. She had been very supportive and accommodating. It was like we'd been close friends for a long time. I will genuinely miss her and our long and rich talks.

It took less than a half hour to make it to Union Station where the bus dropped me off. The King Street Amtrak Station was right next to Union Station, so it was an easy walk there. I was about two hours early, having a reserved coach seat on Amtrak's Thruway Bus (Northwestern providing the wheels in this case) from Seattle to Spokane.

Knowing the downtown Seattle area pretty well now, I decided to go to Starbuck's on 2nd Street to have a coffee and get online. I was already fairly wired from Ellen's brew, so I got a half-decaf. It was much better tasting than I'd thought it would be. I might order those from now on. About 45 minutes before I was scheduled to be on the bus--around 8:05, I headed back to King Street, entered the large building and went to find out where the bus would arrive. A security guard looked at my ticket and pointed me to the lower level...

Pouring concrete on a new building construction site.

Marble.

There were only a few people waiting for the bus, which was about 15 minutes late. The driver pulled in and got out to take our tickets. She was a really nice lady, one of the best drivers I've had so far. Before long, we were on the road for an eight hour ride to eastern Washington...

A view from bus 8488, as we drove out of Seattle.

It is always a challenge to take pictures out a bus window, but I gave it the old college try...

Urban campers.

We stopped about every two hours for a break, also to pick up and drop off passengers. This was our first break (I can't remember the town, but it was not far from Seattle)...

Pictures from the railroad siding.

Then we were back on the road again, heading up into the mountains, and through and over Stevens Pass, where we took another break at a general store (the only one for many miles in each direction). All along the highway I saw lone campers, wet and piled high with their belongings. A few were trying to hitchhike. I could imagine, from seeing the landscape, just what an incredible challenge it would be to hike and camp in that region...

After the second break we were headed down into Leavenworth, where we passed hundreds of acres of pears, and then apples. The town of Leavenworth has really neat Swiss Chalet style architecture. Even the Safeway there adjusted the logo of the "S" to be scripted in the Old English font style. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the buildings, because I was busy eating my sandwich from the last stop, but I did catch a glimpse of the end of the pear tree orchards and the hills beyond...

Our last stop was in Moses Lake, where, surprisingly, half the people on the bus got out. There was a very elderly couple who were fun to listen to on the bus as they talked about their mundane activities, while cutting their sandwich and putting straws in their drinks for each other. He kept saying "I just told you that!" to her. And, then they'd both laugh. Nice to see a partnership last so long. They got out for this last break with the rest of the passengers to stretch their legs. The whole affair was presided over by a large water tank near the parking lot...

Northwestern Bus 8488. Not a bad bus.

We got back on the bus for the final leg. The seats had very little knee space. Thankfully we each had a double seat. There still wasn't much stretch-out space. Sleeping is not an overly comfortable prospect on this kind of bus. Also - even though it was advertised - once again, there were no outlets, and no Wi-Fi. When trying to sleep, one discovers after attempting each possible position a dozen times, that the most comfortable one is simply sitting up straight, with your head slunk forward drooling on yourself.

About an hour later we hit the outskirts of Spokane. I looked carefully (as I do now) at the structure of the city as we drove through it, from Interstate 90. I noted the McDonald's locations, a Dollar Tree, gas stations and other land marks I would need to find again. They were all there; all the places I use the most. It was (and always is) irritating that Amtrak Stations generally don't have Wi-Fi! Only in the very biggest cities have I found it, except for Seattle. Seems a bit out of touch with what customers need. And, only some of their trains and buses have it. Oh well! Rage against the machine! Ha!

Third Street, Spokane.

I got to McDonald's and used the last of my battery power looking at Google Satellite images for possible sleeping spots. While I worked, I noticed that a girl at one of the tables in front of me kept staring at me. She finally came over and asked my name. I told her, and asked if I looked familiar. She said I didn't, but that I looked sad. I told her I was just tired, after having an eight hour bus ride. She smiled and said, "Oh...OK...Well, you have pretty eyes." It really lifted my spirits to have someone say something so kind out of the blue. She left, and then as she walked by outside the window, she looked in at me and we smiled at each other.

Back to navigation...There were quite a few small park areas to the west of the city. I memorized the route, and took off to find one...

Spokane is a relatively small city, with some interesting features. There are many rivers and streams, bridges and waterfalls. I followed Third Street until it turned into Sunset Boulevard, which led over a tall bridge. As I began to walk over it, I noticed that the stream (Latah Creek) had plenty of green space on either side. It was obviously a park of some kind, but I couldn't figure out how to get down to it without half-skiing down the very steep slope. So, I sighed, rolled my eyes, and half-skied down the very steep slope.

I didn't tumble or anything (thank god), but I took the opportunity to skid onto a trail that led diagonally down to the bottom. That was a bit less precarious. Then I simply followed the creek trail away from the bridges area...

Looking back at the bridge, with the steep hill to the left.

Looking forward down the path, with the steep hill to the right.

I poked my head into various nooks along the way, and tried stepping down into a few open spots, but they didn't quite seem right. Then as I walked around a gentle curve in the path, I saw a good spot to my left, stepping down over a metal wire mesh that held the rocks in place, seeing this when I got to the open area...

This was a neat thing read.

A picture of the open space.

My instincts plus a bit of prior experience, told me that this would be a pretty sweet spot, but that meant it was probable that people have used it for years. I pulled off my rain jacket and IWALLK t-shirt, hanging them to dry. It was still a good half hour until sundown, so I left the tarp in the pack.

As I rested there waiting for darkness, I heard two boys - one about 15 and another about 12, years of age -walking up the path from the opposite direction I'd come. I caught some of their conversation and had to chuckle to myself...

Older Boy: "Yeah, so I guess this spot is used a lot." 

Younger Boy: "Is this the one that people go to have sex at?" 

Older Boy: "Yeah. I found a condom there a couple days ago. Wanna see it?" 

Young Boy (laughing): "Yes!!"

As they spoke their voices got louder until they slowed down right next to the place where I was sitting on on a rock with my backpack beside me. They didn't see me at all, even though they looked right in my direction a few times.

I didn't want to startle them, but I thought I should tell them I was there before they got too far into their condom search. I said, "Hey guys." They both stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me with very surprised expressions on their faces. I said, "It's OK if you want to hang out here, I just wanted to let you know you weren't alone." The older boy grabbed the younger boy's sleeve and pulled him back over the wire mesh and up the small bank to the path, where they continued on toward the bridges.

As I sat there, I noticed that a rough littler trail ran into a smaller, darker area with better cover. I explored it and found a more private spot that hadn't been used before. It was getting much darker now and I took out the tarp and laid the sleeping bag upon it. Then, there were the same tow voices, this time coming from the other way.

Being only about 15 feet from where I'd been sitting when they first passed by, I sat still. I heard the older boy say something about "Well, I don't know if that guy is still around. Let's wait." Just after they passed my new spot, the older boy turned his head way around back and looked right at me. We had eye contact, and he said nothing to the younger boy. They slowly walked off.

I got tired. It was only about 9:00 pm, when I lied down outside the sleeping bag. There was some mid-sized animal traipsing round in the leaves down by the creek. He was there for a long time, then wandered down toward the bridge area until I couldn't hear him any more. The next day I would find out what kind of animal it was. But, for now, I fell asleep on top of the sleeping bag.

I woke up around 12:30 am, thinking it was close to morning. But, after checking my watch, I was psyched that there were still about 5 hours to go. So, I climbed into the sleeping bag, which was nice and warm from my resting on top of it, and fell asleep again.

Spakane Sleeping Place.