Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Day 13: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to Tonasket, Washington


Another early start rolling into Spokane in search of the Patsy Clark house, which dates back to 1898. It is still in a smart neighbourhood, the house being opposite a park. We head into town to see the falls, avoiding fierce parking charges by taking a short walk. Spokane is pleasantly devoid of graffiti - we wonder how they have managed this. We take coffee at Atticus, a trendy coffee shop cum boutique, which is a study in retailing. We tour the thrift stores of which there are many. We track north west, taking lunch at Chewalah and visiting the excellent Mistequa International Car Museum, the project of Glen Hafer, 81, who shows us around. We reach Republic, but cannot stay as the bikers have got there before us. We continue on to Tonasket, where we stop at the Red Apple Inn, $58 a night plus tax. We have a fish and chip supper at Whistler's and are glad to have a bed for the night.
There is a groundswell of opinion in the US that big government has run amok. This has been expressed to us in many ways along the route. The mainstream media - Fox News versus CNN - are banging the drum ahead of the mid-term elections. The bias in the media, the bashing of BP for example, is sickening. America is completely reliant on oil yet loves to bash the (foreign) oil companies. If they put BP out of business who will pay the compensation? You can't have oil without spills now and again. Suck it up!

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