I stopped in the Lewiston Center Mall to kill some time before lunch. Plus I hoped they’d have better wifi than the sporadic, variable, mind-ragingly poor connections at my murder hotel.
Malls are dinosaurs, things of the 1970s, dying off ever so painfully slowly. Kinda like me. So you’d think I’d be right at home in them. There have been attempts at several malls across the economic landscape to go for last-ditch renovation efforts, attempts to brighten areas with skylights or even go so far as to make them open air, all in an effort to attract more foot traffic and buyers, all in an effort to be more inviting and less gloomy cavernous.
The Lewiston Center Mall has NOT seen a structural renovation in decades. Oh, sure, there has clearly been store turnover – at least five or six locations were vacant and on offer FOR LEASE. And maybe the floor was redone or the tables and chairs were bought at some surplus dealer. But for all intents and purposes, this place looks like I imagine it looked 10, 15, 20, maybe even 30 years ago. Only like me it is showing its age and its wear and tear.
Again, you’d think I’d be right at home. But confronting the realities of time, especially given my current state of mind, was not exactly what the unlicensed doctor using WebMD to self-diagnose should order; and yet, that’s what I did.
I used the time to draft and post the race update for this morning’s second running of Clarkston, WA. I also used it to sort through some photos I snapped scoping out tomorrow’s venue at Hells Gate State Park.
Yes, Hells Gate. Originally when I searched for the place I inadvertently typed in Hells Canyon, which is about a 2 hour drive from here. I now assume that Hells Gate is the Southern entryway into Hells Canyon. But I can’t be too sure about that, Peter, as I frankly couldn’t be bothered to google it.
But I DID google just what in the name of gibberish a “guberif” was. As I pulled into the state park, I was struck dumb, smacked gob-ly, rendered unto Ceasar speechless-like, but this road marking:
Eventually I would google search “guberif” and came across an amazing “lost” forest fire prevention character. Idaho… and apparently ONLY Idaho… sought in the 1940s to raise awareness of forest fires and thus created the guberif… which is “firebug” spelled backwards. Already I felt like I was falling into a Stephen King novel or a David Lynch movie… and that feeling only grew when I saw some of the ad copy/imagery/LIVE-ACTION CHARACTER(!!) work that existed:
I think I may know why the “guberif” was unable to unseat Smokey Bear on the national scene (And FYI For Your Information – it’s apparently just “Smokey Bear” and not “Smokey THE Bear.” There is no “the” in his name. I did not know that). I also think I may know where David Cronenberg got his creature design for The Fly remake.
As for the park itself, it’s located on HellsGate Road. So I had to snap a photo there:
There’s a fee for day use and I didn’t have any change to seal in the self-pay envelope but I could apparently also pay at the park station. Driving down to the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center, I thought to myself, gazing at the smoky horizons, what am I doing here? The Discovery Center looked small… maybe it’s amazing inside. But I already snapped what I consider something of the definitive L+C+S photo. That’s Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea, don’tcha know?
“The Pacific Ocean?” I imagine Sacagawea saying to the explorers. “Ah, yes. The Pacific Ocean. I once knew a boy who lived out by the Pacific Ocean. Long time ago, when I was a young squaw. Not a day passes that I don’t think of him and the promise that I made which I will always keep. That one perfect day by the Pacific Ocean. That’s, uh, five blocks up, two over.”