So, today (day 6) was our last stretch of the mini-roadtrip. It started out a bit stormy in Baker City, and it started out way earlier than I had hoped (about 3:30 am). However, it was a good day overall, and we got home by noon with plenty of time to get some other things done around the house. We began the day by going to McDonald's because Super 8 did not, in fact, have breakfast for its guests (understandable due to Covid but still, false advertising). I was definitely happy to get back home where I could start cooking my own food again and striving once again to eat healthy and try to reduce occurrences of gout. After breakfast, we drove around Baker City for an hour or so getting some more pictures to add to our collection. Baker City is a treasure trove of sculptures, old buildings that have been (or are being) restored, and interesting characters. I always enjoy visiting and looking for new things to capture through the camera. I look forward to returning after the pandemic is over so that I can capture more of the interesting people there without fear of getting sick. Oh, the times we live in.
Speaking of the times we live in, it was disheartening just how many reminders there are of the condition our country is in. All of the signage at places that used to be plastered with people that now can only serve limited numbers and for limited amounts of time. There are some positives, though. People are getting outside more and being encouraged to eat their meals in community but at 6 foot intervals. I also noticed while in Missoula how eager people are to communicate with others, and kids are very much the catalysts so much of the time. This is from previous days, but while in Missoula and getting our ice cream, a young boy of probably 3 or 4 initiated conversation with us by complimenting Noi on her colorful socks. Then, as we moved outside with our ice cream, he continued by giving us advice on the best ice cream to buy and other odds and ends. You could tell his family (of Asian descent) was also eager to join in conversation but also nervous about it because of the restrictions we are supposed to be taking. It was a great interaction and a sad one at the same time.
Anyway, back to Baker City, I really like the people there. I had a great mini-conversation with the young lad at the front desk in our hotel this morning about college/education and life ambitions. He was such a nice kid and one who has ambitions, but he just doesn't know what those are at the moment. He reminded me so much of myself at his age. I had all kinds of things I thought I wanted to do and know and accomplish, but I was also confused about where to go because I had no money and jobs in the early 90s were so difficult to get, especially on Grays Harbor. I was reminded of my younger self and the fears and nervous tensions that I felt any time someone asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. All I could say at the time was that I wanted to get the heck out of Deary, Idaho (a place I learned to despise over the years for a variety of reasons). I am less indignant about Deary now and sometimes even get a bit nostalgic about it; however, the conversation with the young man brought back a lot of those memories and feelings because the world is just as (if not more) chaotic than it was in the early 90s when we were on our way to war with Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries (conflicts which continue into today).
When we got to Walla Walla, there was one place that I absolutely had to get pictures at as part of my research project. It is kind of funny, but so many of my funniest memories of Walla Walla took part in the Starbuck's downtown. The most amusing of them all was when I was sitting and talking to a friend while eavesdropping in on a conversation between these four (I believe it was 4) ladies in their late 30s to mid 40s. They were talking about trying to get free rides on the bicycle taxis driven by these nice looking, buff guys in their mid to late 20s. Eventually, they keyed in on the fact that we were listening to their conversation so they shifted "tactics" and asked us where we were from. Michelle (my friend) said that she lived in Walla Walla but that I was a professor at WSU. The most vocal of the ladies piped up that they were Cougars too. There was a brief pause. Then one of the other ladies inserted that they were also WSU grads and that they were not the other kind of Cougars (although, there is still some question about that). In the end, they did not necessarily get free rides on the taxis, but they got a steep discount and came out the winners in the end.
My real story at Starbucks, however, happened when I was returning to Payette (my home at the time while teaching at Fruitland) and stopped off at Walla Walla to get some much needed caffeine before the final push down south. I sat at a table near the window to sort of take in the ambiance while sipping my black Pike Place roast coffee. Sitting next to me was a fairly large man who was interested in my WSU hat and UI sweatshirt (or was it the other way around...can't totally recall). To make a long story short, I had about an hour long conversation with this man who was an Economist who had very strong opinions about how English should be taught in high schools and college to yield maximum economic benefit. Prior to this trip, I had just watched a video about blueberries and school kids (it's on YouTube and worth watching) of which the gist is that you can't equate school with economic benefit because kids are not blueberries that can be culled if they don't meet the standards. I did my best to indicate how economic theories don't really apply when kids are struggling with so many issues that impact their learning capacities on any given day. In the end, however, we had to agree to disagree, and that was totally fine. He knew he wouldn't sway me, and vice versa. We were coming at education from different angles that were not really compatible. Years later, I had a student in one of my English 101 classes who had exactly the same attitude as that man. At home after the first week of classes, I looked up his major to find that, you guessed it, he was an Economics Major. That realization made a huge impact on how I approached that young man, and in the end (while he didn't really turn from the dark side), he did a great job. It just took me giving him the opportunity to disagree with me as long as he could back up his arguments. It's so amazing how we learn things about ourselves and our professions from the strangest of places. Anyway, I got some pictures at Starbucks but what shook me most today was the number of reminders that things simply are not the same as they used to be and possibly never will be.
After Walla Walla, we made our way back home with little to no event other than a bathroom stop at Dodge Junction, a stop to take pictures of (or tilt the camera at) the windmills, and a stop in Dusty to fill up with gas before making the 10 mile jaunt up the back roads to Endicott.
We had a great trip filled with new adventures for both of us. Noi got to see more of Montana than just the border, she got to see the Sawtooth Mountain range, and we got to spend a lot of quality time with each other doing what we love doing (traveling and taking tons of pictures). I don't even care that my diet got screwed up or that I had a bout with gout and had to make a stop to get more meds. In fact, that stop to see my friend Heather Stalworthy who is a nurse practitioner with her own practice in Boise was a highlight of the trip in that we haven't sat down and caught up in years. It was just great to connect with people in ways that make sense for the times we are in. I do hope that we didn't somehow inadvertently pic up the virus because that would suck after taking all of the precautions. However, I think this may be one of the best vacations we have had here in the states together. We are very happy to be back home, but we are equally happy that we took the trip. Yay Team!
Cheers!
David & Noi
