DATELINE: Spokane, WA

I'm back on the road and will be in Eastern Washington for the next two weeks. Holy smokes my trip was long. Left the house at 5:45am est, flew 4 and 1/2 hours to Phoenix

and then switched planes and had a second, 3 hour flight taking me to Spokane. I arrived at my hotel in Spokane at around 5pm est. Lame. I didn't know very much about Spokane except for old prejudices against Eastern Washington (flat, dry, boring, lots o' hicks) but after driving around a little today I think it'll be fairly interesting. The town reminds me a little of the suburb of Seattle where I mostly grew up in that there were a lot of businesses and signs from the 1960's and '70's. In that suburb those things have pretty much all been replaced by new, fancy places in the last 10 years, but not in Spokane. There'll be some fun things to take pictures of, like the White Elephant Surplus Store and Toyland. It's so convenient to be able to buy all my model trains, guns, and close-out toys in one place.
I even have a view of a river out my window. The view is somewhat reminiscent of the Susquehana in Bingo, but it's better than a parking lot.

As ugly as it may sound I have to brag a little on my business traveling know-how. I always review seatguru.com to get a little edge when I check in. The website lists the configuration every airplane for almost every airline and let's you know where the best seats are (most legroom, power outlet, etc). Using my savvy business traveler insight I was able to get the most awesome seat on the flight from Phoenix - Spokane. The plane has two exit rows on each side, but unlike many planes the first row only has an aisle and a middle seat (no window). The second row has all three and I was able to snag the window, meaning that not only did I have an extra wide seat I got to stretch my legs out with no seat in front of me. I basked in the jealous stares for each and every of the 180 minutes in the air.