Late nights hanging out at Seattle's Dick's Drive-In are pretty much a required rite of passage for teenagers and young adults living in Seattle, where I'm from.
But it turns out there's another Dick's, under different ownership, in Spokane. The menu is almost the same!
I checked it out on Saturday after the Lilac Parade and thought the food was decent. Hey – a decent hamburger and small bag of fries for exactly $2 is worth coming back for.
It was a pleasure Saturday meeting Harold Lawton, a Ponoka, Alberta resident who had traveled to Spokane with his wife to watch the Lilac Parade.
I was struck by his "all-American" demeanor, complete with a lit cigarette and small flag sticking out of his shirt pocket.
"We're big supporters of the U.S. We support your troops, because they support us," he says.
"I wear all bright jackets. I grew up wearing them. I got my first red jacket when I was 8. I've got purples, reds, greens, blues, lavenders – you name it!."
The late gospel pianist Hovie Lister came to my church in South Carolina when I was 12 and I asked him, "Why are you wearing my red jacket?"
— Edward C. Cato, retired E6 in the U.S. Air Force, 75, Spokane
After so many days away from the city, I enjoyed people watching during Spokane's 71st annual Lilac Parade on Saturday. I was struck by the popularity of this torchlight parade and its heavy emphasis on honoring members of the U.S. military. Didn't have to look too far for patriotism, here.
This weekend in Colbert, Wash. (about 15 miles north of Spokane), I spent a few minutes talking with Ann Kirk about horse behavior. Kirk, a horse trainer and Elk resident, is working with 30 quarter horses for an upcoming event at a ranch in Colbert.
Her method focuses on teaching a horse to control its emotions so it will pause and face what it is afraid of rather than running away.
"From as far back as I remember, I always heard horses were just a money pit. I wanted to learn to make enough money working with them, to keep them," she says of getting into the trade.
The horse industry has been hit particularly hard in recent years, with increasing feed prices, among other things.
It's nice to see horse lovers can still make a living.
Saturday night a baby was born here, just before midnight. It was a full moon and the coyotes were howling.
He's already feeling pretty strong, walking around on oversized Bambi legs. Never too far from mom.
She's something else, too.
As some of you know, I'm into whole, natural foods.
It'll be fun to find all the cool cafes and restaurants across America. I'm thinking I'll have better luck in big cities and college towns. But you never know!
Sunday morning in downtown Spokane I got an organic latte from Natural Start Bakery & Espresso – a cafe with wi-fi that caters to students attending Gonzaga University.
For lunch, an "everything but the kitchen sink" omelet at Huckleberry's Natural Market, a chain with locations in eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
There, I tried yerba mate tea for the first time, with organic milk and raw honey. It smells like horses and hemp; I love it!
Anyone home?
There was a time
when I remembered
everything…
every face I'd meet
every doorway in every street
I was so open to
what life had for me
For the past several days I've been staying in Elk, Wash., near Rand and Becky Miller (pictured below, right) and four of their eight kids – along with other extended family, friends, nine Arabian horses, three dogs, four cats and a small batch of chickens!
The Millers are leaving at the end of the month for a 4 1/2-month trip to Meuselbach, Germany.
They've got a recording studio there and for years have been creating contemporary Christian music with and for the youth of Eastern Europe — a population they feel has been neglected by other Christian evangelists.
Becky was in Berlin in 1989 when the wall dividing communist and free Germany was torn down. She is still impacted by what she saw.
On the west side, "There were neon lights, flowers in buckets. Everyone was wearing Nikes. People were moving quickly. I can't remember one person wearing a coat," she recalls.
"But on the east side, everyone was wearing coats, dark wool coats… There was not one building painted. The walls were so worn down. The streets were completely potholed."
Becky believes spiritual and cultural echoes of that divide remain to this day.
To hear some of the music the family has created, check out:
www.myspace.com/loveshopefulsorrow
Becky paints, too!
www.arabianart.net
Described by friends as an "old hippie who got saved," Adrian Simila runs The Ranch, a men's recovery center just north of Spokane, Wash.
About 50 men, most of whom were formerly homeless, reside there on more than 20 acres, maintaining the property, caring for livestock and running a community food bank and other programs.
Housing is offered to anyone, with few restrictions, says President Darrow Burke. There is a heavy emphasis on discipleship programs for the residents, he says.
"We have a lot of guys who (initially) only stay a couple months," Burke tells me. "A lot of the time, they come back."
Brian Douglas (pictured left) graduated from a similar program 10 years ago, then met Simila.
Now he works at a lumber mill in Idaho and lives at The Ranch part time to preach and help out.
In the beginning, "I did not want to be saved. In fact I didn't want anything to do with God, because I was raised in such a religious family," he says.
Adrian Simila's wife and Ranch secretary, Janis Simila (pictured lower right), says funding for the ministry, launched in the mid-90s, has been down along with the economy. Expenses run about $5,000 per month, with an additional $1,000 per month needed for a newer women's facility located nearby.
"It's quite an interesting life, living in community here as long as we have," she says.
"We keep going by God's grace. It takes a lot of wisdom."
Burke was nice enough to show me around on Friday and hook me up with some salad from the food bank.
Here he's standing in front of a building that will hold classrooms, bathrooms and a sanctuary when needed money comes in to finish it.
This 1973 International Harvester bus is one of a motley fleet The Ranch has acquired over the years for outreach at events, such as barter fairs, says Burke.
(The white bus in the background has been converted to run on propane!)