Saturday, July 30, 2011

Route 66

  I will now "move" over to the Texas Panhandle and work northward from there. I had been in the Texas Panhandle about a dozen times, maybe more, I don't know the exact number of times. However, on this trip that I made last fall, I ventured into the eastern part of the Panhandle, which was new and unfamiliar territory to me. My trips in the past usually took me into the western and southern parts of the Panhandle and, occasionally, the northwestern part.
  After spending the night in Amarillo, I headed east out of the city, trying to follow old Route 66 as much as possible. I usually had to drive on Interstate 40, but at most of the exits, I got off the freeway and explored what I could of "The Mother Road."  Most of the legendary highway is still there, in varying states of repair or disrepair. In places, there is even more than one alignment of the famous highway. During the highway's heyday, it was re-routed several times as it was continually improved. The oldest alignments are dirt or gravel. These oldest alignments date from the days before 1937. That is the year that the highway was completely paved from end to end, from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. Before 1937, the road was paved in some places, gravel in some places and dirt in still others.
  There are some stretches where the old highway has completely disappeared and other places where it is now on private property and, thus, not accessible to visitors. Most of it is still there, though not all of it is in driveable condition unless a person has a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
  There are even some stretches where the former federal highway now serves as a state highway. Some stretches of it are even still a  federal highway, functioning as a business loop through several towns. It is known as Interstate 40 Business Loop in these short stretches.
 There are even two alignments of Route 66 through Amarillo, the original routing, which followed Third Avenue and then jogged south to Sixth Avenue, went right through the heart of downtown. The later alignment, known as Amarillo Boulevard, was built north of downtown and was much, much wider than the original routing.
 

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Town That Was Named Twice, part 2

 Walla Walla has a great, old, historic downtown area, one of the best downtown business districts I have seen in terms of century-old architecture. It is the county seat of Walla Walla County and the courthouse is Depression-era architecture that is a grayish color. There is a 13-story hotel in the heart of downtown. Most decent sized towns have a high rise hotel in the middle of town, some open for business, some not. They are a reminder of earlier days when downtown areas were the heart and soul of every city and town in America. However, this hotel seems to be overly tall for a town the size of Walla Walla. It is the Marcus Whitman Hotel. It was abandoned for awhile, but it has been re-opened.
  Walla Walla is also located in the grassy, hilly area called the Palouse that occupies much of southeastern Washington. An alternate name for the Palouse Hills is the Horse Heaven Hills because there is so much grass it is heaven for horses.
  Walla Walla is also the focal point of Washington's fledgling wine-industry. There are alot of vineyards in the area.
  Adjacent to Walla Walla on the south is College Place, which has about 8,000 people. Life in
College Place revolves around Walla Walla University. Most towns that are dominated by a university have a medium to large university in town that exerts its influence over life in the town. However, Walla Walla University only has about 1,900 students, and yet it is a commanding presence in the town. The university is affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In fact, about 85% of the residents of College Place belong to the Seventh Day Adventist Church. This creates the unusual situation where most of the town's businesses are closed on Saturday, but open on Sunday.
  College Place is home to the Walmart that serves the area.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Town That Was Named Twice?

  In  southeastern Washington is a town whose name has been ridiculed for years. It is Walla Walla
 One thing that has always stuck out in my mind about Walla Walla is a line from Looney Toons when Elmer
 Fudd was hosting a show where he got to interview Bugs Bunny and the announcer said that the show was hosted by "the Wishy Washy Washing Machine Company of Walla Walla, Washington."
  Walla Walla  has about 32,000 people and lies just six miles from the Oregon border. Adjacent to
Walla Walla on the south is College Place, which has about 8,000 people. The towns were founded three miles apart, but they have grown together. The southern city limits of College Place is only three miles from the Oregon border.
  Since I was in southeastern Washington on this particular trip, I just had to visit Walla Walla, since I had heard the name ridiculed for years, and I am glad I did. I really like the town. The Chamber of Commerce has a slogan that says "a town so nice they named it twice."
  Walla Walla is an agricultural town, with wheat being the predominant crop. Onions are also a staple crop and a special variety of onion is grown in the area. It is the Walla Walla Sweet Onion. Walla Walla also has two colleges, Whitman College and Walla Walla Community College. In addition, neighboring College Place
 is home to Walla Walla University.
  Walla Walla is also home to the Washingon State Penitentiary. The address for the penitentiary has alot of bad luck in it for people who are superstitious. It is 1313 North 13th Street. I am sure that was done deliberately.
  Walla Walla was slated to become the capital of Washington when Washington became a territory, but it never happened. The government was organized in Walla Walla and a Governor's Mansion was built, but Walla Walla was never officially named the capital. That honor went to Olympia instead. Two other serious candidates for the capital were Steilacoom, which is near Tacoma (not far from Olympia) and Ellensburg, in the central part of the state. Walla Walla is only 89 miles from  Lewiston, Idaho, which I blogged about extensively. Lewiston was the capital of Idaho for two years and if it remained the capital and Walla Walla became the capital of Washington, there would have been two state capital cities only 89 miles apart.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Heart Of The Palouse

  Eight miles west of Moscow, Idaho is Pullman, Washington. Pullman is another small town that is dominated by its university, in this case it is Washington State University. WSU has about 18,500 students. It also occupies a huge, oversized campus like its neightbor, the University of Idaho, does. It is on the northeast side of Pullman, but it seems like the whole east side of town is part of the WSU campus. A rather unflattering  nickname for the university is "WAZZU."
  The Washington State Cougars compete in what was known at the Pac 10 Conference, now known as the Pac 12 because of the addition of two more schools to the conference. Their football stadium, Martin Stadium, is big, but with a capacity of 37,500; it is the smallest stadium in the Pac 12 and one of the smallest in Division 1. Washington State and Idaho are two of the most isolated schools in Division 1.
  The university has a really neat logo that has the letters "WSC, " but the way the letters are drawn, it looks like a cougar with its mouth open. That is a very clever design. The cougar logo is painted on the pavement in the middle of many of Pullman's busiest intersections.
  Pullman is quite a bit hillier than Moscow is. Like Moscow, downtown Pullman contains alot of cafes, bistros, taverns and bars which is typical of college towns. Pullman has a population of about 30,000 people, so it is bigger than Moscow.
  Pullman was founded in 1871, one year earlier than Moscow, but Washington State University was founded one year later than the University of Idaho was--1890 as compared to 1889.
  The eastern part of Washington bears very little resemblance to western Washington  and there has been some talk over the years of splitting the state along the crest of the Cascade Mountains or maybe some point a short distance east of the Cascades. I don't think anything serious has ever come out of it, though.
  East of the Cascades is mostly farming and ranching country and sparsely populated while west of the Cascades is a rainforest,  is heavily populated and prime timber country. Tourism is also more prevalent in the western part of Washington than in the east and it defines the public conception of the state of Washington with its towering trees and dense, wet, moss and lichen covered forests.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Life On The Border

The main commercial strip for Moscow, Idaho is on the west side of town, along Pullman Road. This street, State Highway 8, runs along the north boundary of the University of Idaho campus. Every kind of fast food place you can imagine is in this area and the preponderance of Moscow's motels are in this area. There is a La Quinta Inn on the very western edge of town. In fact, the property line is at the state border and the rooms on the west side of the motel are only about 20 feet from the Washington border. This is where I spent the night on my one and only trip to the area. The motel is actually on West A Street, one block north of Pullman Road, but it is very visible from the highway. The access street to La Quinta Inn dead-ends at the state border and there are two large, concrete barricades just in front of the street's end, a few inches inside Idaho. Just to the north of the end of the street is a tall, metal, yellow pole that is about 8 feet tall. This pole marks the state border. There is no fence marking the border here like there is south of the highway.
  When Pullman Road crosses the state border, there is a building on the north side of the road that straddles the border. It is some type of agricultural association and half of the building is in Washington, half is in Idaho. There are many, many cases lie this all across the country and that must make for some interesting tax bills, not only when buildings straddle state borders, but also county borders and city borders.
  The view of the Palouse Prairie  and the dun-colored, grassy hills was very soothing to me. To me there is something simplistic, yet beautiful and awe-inspiring about grassland, especially an undulating grassland like the Palouse.
  When I was in Moscow, there was a Walmart on Pullman Road. It was  regular Walmart and not a superstore. I have heard that a new Super Walmart was built 8 miles away in Pullman, Washington and the one in Moscow has since closed, but there are rumors it will be renovated into a superstore and reopened, but I don't know if that is true or not. If the rumors are not true, I hope the town finds some type of use for this big, hulking brute so it won't just sit there abandoned right across the street from a university.