The highlight of my stop in Ritzville was talking to the guys outside Tracy Jirava's auto shop. I stopped to look at a 1989 Camaro with its guts hanging out. (I own a third-gen. Camaro and have definitely been there!)

The car belongs to 19-year-old Eric Hille.

 
"It's probably the most boring town you're ever gonna find," he says of Ritzville. But he concedes it's a good place to be American, though the  current state of our economy "is kind of ridiculous."
"I hope Obama fixes it."

Also outside the shop was retired World War II veteran and Ritzville City Council member Barney Streeter, 85.

Serving in the sixth infantry division of the U.S. Army, Streeter spent time on the ground in North Africa and in Italy, including "five months of hell" on a beach in  Anzio.

"I fought for that old flag and I'm still proud," he says.

(Sadly, I'm not sure he'll be checkin' out my blog. "I'm old-fashioned. I don't go on the Internet," he tells me.)