We drove north out of Pullman heading for Spokane around 5 p.m. and the drive was nothing short of magical in terms of weather and the play of light over the golden fields of the Palouse. I hadn’t made the trip from Pullman to Spokane in about four decades, so didn’t really remember much about it. That just made it all the more fun and practically a new experience, with endless miles of that open, rolling, hilly countryside spooling off into the distance, and most of the time not a tree in sight.
(Riverfront Park in Spokane, Wa)
As a place to live, I wouldn’t rate it very high – I like trees. A lot. But for a one-off drive through some very different terrain, it makes for quite a spectacle. You almost start to get a little of that Twilight Zone feeling, that you’re going to keep coming around the same bend in the road and seeing the same ribbon of empty highway and yellow stubbled wheat fields stretching out beyond it for the rest of your life, while waiting for that eerie theme music to start twanging in your ear and Rod Serling to appear in the back seat, smoking his cigarette and smirking at you.
(Bridge over the Spokane River)
Luckily, this didn’t happen and eventually the Palouse country did relinquish it’s hold on us, albeit reluctantly. More and more trees began to sprout from the hillsides while the wheat fields slowly vanished. Civilization returned in the form of small towns and billboards, and before long we hit the outskirts of Spokane.
