Wenatchee, WA

Signs of the stressed American economy are everywhere - late-night ads encouraging you to sell your heirloom gold, admissions that neither new cars nor $100 jeans are not what people should buy, "free" 50" plasma TVs with the purchase of a doomed Chrysler product. But a telltale sign as to how difficult this economic New Deal will be to Deal with is the size of the air force base outside of Spokane. Two exit lanes are required for the presumably large week-time rush hour traffic. If the US is to pull back on the ill-advised military junkets abroad that it has become so known for, it will need to pull back on military spending. I am betting that in a time of mass layoffs, thousands of layoffs at military bases will not go over well. It's a catch-22 that echoes Eisenhower's farewell-address warning that allowing the miltary–industrial complex to rise unchallenged would result in an unchecked rise of the war industry. Well, that warning went unheeded, and here Obama is with a tricky choice a la Margaret Thatcher.

Anyhow, Wenatchee is a nice lil town and the antique mall just west of here in Cashmere is superb. Wenatchee is the apple capital of the world, or Washington, depending on who you believe, and it is also apparently the terminus of the first trans-Pacific flight from Japan to...yes, Wenatchee.

Spokane, WA

The drive from Boise to Spokane is windy, scenic, and long. Spokane is actually the third-largest city in the US northwest, after Seattle and Portland - we had no idea. At first blush it seems like a colder Boise. We're staying in the Davenport, which seems to be Spokane's answer to the Empress. It's a bit up its own arse and pretentious - thus can't really recommend it, but it's nice and central!

Boise, ID

CHICKEN DINNER ROAD ... FUCK YOU AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS

apparently someone named Joe Scarborough has said "fuck" on TV and this will not stand.

Boise is way cooler than I suspect most people realize. Plus there is a road outside Boise called Chicken Dinner Road. Boise is like a Victoria laid out on a grid, with no drug addicts. Exactly - pretty cool. The band The Noughties were very kind to us and bought us a coffee-flavoured tequila. BOISE REPRESENT

Winnemucca, NV

Well, I've just been told (not as a joke) that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and won't wear a flag pin nor put his hand on his heart. The same lady, nice as she is, also asked Emma if she speaks the same English in England as we were then speaking. We tried to explain, but naturally the urge to burst out laughing and/or run away was momentarily strong.

Winnemucca has about 7,200 people. We're staying in the Red Lion, which has a 24-h casino but it's real small.

We've decided not to go to Salt Lake, but instead to take 95 north from here to Boise. Trouble is, there is only 1 motel between Winnemucca and Boise, on the Nevada/Oregon border, and it's a 350-mile road or so. It's rainy etc so we are staying put here.

The road from Reno to Winnemucca is amazingly desolate desert surrounded by mountains. Next stop is famous potatoes.....

Reno to Salt Lake City

Today we leave Reno for SLC, Utah. Reno is as odd and full of faded glory as we imagined. Emma managed to win 5 times her stake in video poker - but the stake was only $1. It's cold here, around freezing, but seems warmer since it's bone dry. SLC is 8 hours drive, so we're not sure if we'll stay somewhere along the way.

The photo below of the Humboldt County Sheriff is for J!

Susanville, CA

MUTANT TROUT ... GIGOLO CHEF ... JUMPOFF JOE

Breakfast at the hippie cafe Keystone Diner (complete with "brindled" cat a la Irie) in Eugene, the "track city" (as in track and field, not tracks of your tears) was followed by a marathon drive through national forests to Susanville, CA, a close enough distance to Reno if you're sick of watching out for deer. Apparently Susanville's local lake contains a species of trout unique to the lake. Overheard at dinner was the chef clarifying to the waitresses that he was a gigolo (not a prostitute) in and around LA in his youth. Apparently only dinner and drinks was required, and anything more was "to his discretion."

Finally the prize for best placename on this leg goes to Jumpoff Joe Creek somewhere in southwest Oregon.

It's impressive how friendly the motel front desk staff everywhere we've been are - especially at $50 a night.

Reno tomorrow - for now it's Sierra Nevada pale ale in bed!

Eugene, OR

If you can't define "republic", don't vote. So says Uncle Sam on a billboard somewhere on the I-5 in mid-Washington State. Nobody told this to Bo, the night clerk at the Timbers Motel in Eugene Oregon, who freely admitted he voted for Obama without once referring us to his personal definition of republic. 99% of the rooms at the Timbers appear to be smoking, this one included, so if freedom to smoke in motel rooms is representative of the health (metaphorical, not medical) of a republic, then consider Eugene a shining beacon in the murky vast seas of would-be republics.





















We also went to the Kennedy School, in Portland, earlier, which is as awesome as Dave claimed it was when he raved about it before we left:



















It is indeed an elementary school converted to a pub, brewery, restaurant, and hotel.