Spokane

Several of us have been on the road now for over two weeks and are getting disoriented. We keep wondering where we are, where we came from, which town that restaurant was in. Nevertheless, we are in Spokane, WA and from what we have seen, it is a lovely city with lovely people.
Upon arrival to the airport on Friday, people are waiting to tour the plane and to sign up for memberships. It is so nice to have the EAA facilities right there and we are inundated with offers of help of any kind that we may need.
The newspaper article was well written with a wonderful picture and there was a steady stream of visitors all day. The dynamic of the crew is changing again. David took George to the airport for work in Seattle and Jake went off on a shopping trip for supplies which left us with four people. We opted to go to lunch in two shifts, but as the first shift returned Jake and David returned with the addition of Jane Gorrell and her brother in law, Fred Gorrell. It was a beautiful cloudless day with a little breeze, but still in the mid 80's by late afternoon.
More people joined the foundation until we had 23 and so there were two flights at 5 and 6 PM. Shirt and hat sales were also steady throughout the day. Jake has come up with an easier storage solution for merchandise and we transferred our goods into dufflebags. Jane spotted Blake on the wing with a dipstick measuring fuel and promptly gave him the nickname of Dipstick. We were tired, but happy when we left the airport at sundown, for this may be the largest single day in sales that was not an air show.

We opted to walk at a restaurant called the Steam Plant Grill, housed in the former steam plant for the city. The name has recently been  renamed Stax, because there are two huge smoke stacks above it. The entrance is off an alley with no sign, so finding it was an adventure. The blue dot was right on, but I said, "Do I really want to walk down that dark alley?" As you can imagine, the decor was decidedly industrial. It as 9 PM by the time we were seated.  The food was excellent with good variety. Today was Blake's birthday so after dinner there was a celebration with singing, cards and gifts. The restaurant made a great dessert for him that featured either two faux candles or smoke stacks, depending on  your perspective.

Saturday morning we were back at the airport early where a Young Eagles meeting is happening. Fred's son, Neil, is now with us, having flown in from Seattle to take his first Flagship flight.  We had breakfast at the Skyway Grill and overheard the waitress telling people to be sure to go see that DC-3 down the way. This is a large facility for an airport cafe and at 9AM on Saturday is almost filled to capacity. We signed up two more members and had an active morning of showing the plane and selling merchandise. Just before noon we closed the plane, enjoyed hot dogs and hamburgers cooked by the EAA and went off to visit Addison Pemberton's hanger/museum. Addison owns the oldest Boeing airplane, a model 40, and he personally took the group on a tour recounting how he acquired and restored the aircraft.
Then we set off for Seattle with 9 crew and 7 new members on board. As usual, when members are on board, the flight takes on a party like atmosphere with the two stewardesses, Jane and Peggy on center stage, or should I say center aisle.