Nothing much was happening at my house Sunday afternoon. The weather was nice, and on the spur of the moment I decided to drive south and wander around the Palouse. I hoped I would be lucky and find some interesting places to photograph.
I drove from Liberty Lake to Pines Road, and then headed south on highway 27. About 15 miles south of Spokane I stopped at the old Freeman Store for a chocolate bar. That turned out to be my dinner.
Outside the store I met John who had biked down from Spokane and was about to head back against the wind. We chatted for a bit and I learned he works in Liberty Lake for an engineering company located right across the street from my old company. We talked briefly about cameras and I found that we share an interest in medium format film cameras. He uses a Mamiya RZ67 and I use a Mamiya 6.
As I drove south again on highway 27 the Palouse started to open up showing its rolling hills, early season mixed green and brown furrowed fields, and glimpses of old farms. My not-very-well thought out plan was simply to drive around in the huge area between highways 27 and 195. Without a map or GPS I was soon lost.
I drove more or less aimlessly on the gravel and dirt country roads – roads with names that had stories to tell -- Valley Chapel Road, Rattlesnake Run – and I even passed by a Muskrat Lake. I was lost for a good two hours, but it was an easy time and I wasn’t worried about my location. I always knew that I was somewhere between two big highways only 20 miles apart and I’d find my way out sooner or later.
The little “E” on my dashboard (which stands for East) eventually led me out of the Palouse’s back road maze. I headed north on 27 again and drove toward the small town of Rockford. That’s where my navigational luck changed.
Instead of continuing north on 27 back toward Spokane, I took off on the side roads again.
After wandering a bit I found myself on Chatcolet Road. I was more interested in looking at all the beautiful valleys and rolling hills to notice that my dashboard continued to show “E”. That evening I ended up in Worley Idaho.
