Thursday morning, Day #4. There remained still one segment of The Centennial Trail that I wanted to ride. The shortest and the most unique segment. It was my Urban-Poke-About. Downtown Spokane. Good for a couple of hours after checking out of the hotel.
Spokane's lushly landscaped Riverfront Park was developed from the city's old industrial/transportation center as the focal point for the 1974 World's Fair. Residents will proudly and perversely tell you that no World's Fair has never been held in a smaller city (!) The park features many public sculptures, a vintage carousel, an 'ice ribbon', a gondola terminal, and bridges & pathways aplenty, including a through route for The Centennial Trail. The impressive tower of the original Northern Pacific terminal is the only railroad vestige that still remains in what was once a very rail-centric downtown. Park and Trail signs give details of the short yet fascinating history of this frontier river town. It wasn't until the late 19th Century that the native population was cruelly displaced or dispatched by the fortune-seeking men who brought hydro-power and the Northern Pacific to the side of the river. Gonzaga University has a sprawling bike-friendly campus, just off the Trail; a pleasure to explore.
Sadly, Spokane was COVID-closed... so the streets were quiet, the people-scape was subdued. Even The Runner photographed here seemed stuck in his tracks. There were no tourists riding the gondola that dangles above the raging water works next to the Trail that passes by the Washington Water Power generating station. A lone Ice Slushee vendor was struggling to find customers on the very warm Spokane morning.
By noon I was done with my downtown Poke-About. So I folded up my clown bike and tossed it into the back of the BMW. And I began driving west.
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