Well it feels like we have finally started our “Safari”. We left our home state of Oregon this morning and ventured into our neighboring state of Washington. The roadside landscapes were golden rolling hills, for miles and miles, and miles. Wheat, maybe? The intrepid travelers arrived in Spokane Valley in early afternoon. Camp was set up and we went into see what there was to see. Spokane literature bills it as the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, the gateway to the Rocky Mountains – “near nature, near perfect”. It is a beautiful little city, with an abundance of beautifully preserved old buildings, cool tree lined Riverside Park (complete with our 1st “biggie icon” a red flyer wagon), great walk ability, many interesting looking restaurants, and much to be explored. We took a nice walk, seeing much of downtown and having a nice afternoon break at the beautiful old Davenport Hotel.
The Wraight family of Spokane had a department store. It has been spoken of and even seen is some old family photos, but where was it? We started our search at the visitors’ center. They recommended that we try the library for more info. There we found some old phone directories that we scoured, starting in 1915 – finding Walt’s family and at least 2 other family members, uncles? The directories gave names, address, phone #s and a short description of the individuals’ occupation. After several minutes we concluded that Edward Wraight purchased the Culbertson’s Department Store (he had been the manager) and in approximately 1930, it became the Wraight’s Department Store. Off we went to see the old store at 600 Main Street. Not surprisingly it was not there; but Macy’s is – could we be part of the Macy’s empire? We continued our town tour with a visit to Aunties Book Store, a beautiful old book store, where we found a book with an actual picture of the old Wraight‘s Department Store. Feeling quite accomplished in our task to seek out some family history we had a nice dinner at the Steam Plant Grill. This is an interesting old building, built in 1915, still outfitted with a majority of its workings: pipes, stacks, and many interesting looking gauges. The ribs were very good, but the dessert a Vanilla bourbon stout ice cream float was amazing.
Lest you think that our Spokane visit was all fun and games, Mike also played plumber, complete with cussing, swearing and a couple of scuffed knuckles. We went to Home Depot and bought a new kitchen faucet, we had been battling a leak, with no success. Long story short, we had to have an expert come and help us extricate the old faucet out, so we could install the new one. Project accomplished. The “Old Bucket of Bolts”, A.K.A. the MoHo is ready to get back on the road.
Adventures to be continued.