Spokane, WA
August 1st, 2008 by 
James
Rhonda and I are in Spokane, Washington right now. For those of you geographically challenged, Seattle is in the top left corner of The United States of USA, and Spokane is about 300 miles east of Seattle, a stone’s throw from the Idaho border.
We flew in last night on a plane that many people would simply call “a crop duster”, while I would call it an Embraer ERJ-145. Zippy little regional jet. We traveled with Rhonda’s parents; the look on everyone’s face when they saw the size of the plane was priceless; I wish I had my camera ready. For me, it’s another type of aircraft to chalk of on my “I’ve flown on one of those” list, and is the only direct service from LAX to Spokane, although it stops in September for some reason. Anyway, I found the aircraft to be quite comfortable.
The same can’t be said for our hotel. Whatever you do, if you’re ever in Spokane, don’t stay at The Ridpath Hotel. It’s less of a hotel and more of just a place to try and sleep. Don’t go there. We’ll just leave it at that for now.
We’re here for Rhonda’s cousin’s wedding, and we’re here until tomorrow evening, when we shall fly back via another “crop duster” (actually a CRJ-200) from Spokane to Portland, then from Portland on to LAX (on a 737-400). The wedding is tonight, so that means that we have tomorrow morning to find out exactly what Spokane does/does not have to offer the casual tourist.
And if I find anything of interest, I’ll be sure to let all ya’ll know.
Posted in All Things American, Travel | 
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Let me guess. You didn’t find anything interesting about Spokane
August 4th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Riverfront Park is nice. Ummm. Yeah. That’s all I got.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I flew one of those a few years back from Houston to Cincinnatti. We were told before boarding that the only restroom was out of order and that if you boarded, you wouldn’t pee ’til Ohio (which may be the title of a Public Enemy song). About halfway into the flight, a very intoxicated Japanese man that did not appear to speak engrish tried to use the toilet. The flight attendant repeatedly told him that it was out of order. So, of course, he won’t for the only other available door in an attempt to relieve himself. You guessed it, the front door. I don’t know if he was planning on letting it dangle or what. As you can imagine, though an exterior door can’t be opened inflight, there was a general sense of concern. The fast thinking flight attendant kindly suggested he go ahead and use the out of order toilet in the back of the plane. This made everyone (including the good citizens below not looking for some, shall we say, scattered showers that evening) very happy.