As soon as the gas meter drops below half way it seems to evaporate from the car at a rapid rate. It wasn't looking to good. Only to get worse! I realized after a few markers that it wasn't kilometers that the signs were in. The bastards have switched to miles with out telling me! Shit! So 270 miles becomes 415 kilometers. Or round about that. That makes more sense but also screws me just a little! So there is no way I'm making it to Seattle. I must find a small town or village where I can earn a bit of cash money! Fingers crossed. The reason I am trying to get to Seattle for my first stop is because 1 it is the most northern point of the west coast and its a good place to start. But mainly 2 because my very very good friend Abbey's family lives there and if they are anything as awesome as she is then I can't wait to meet them!
So I have come across this little village called Ritzville. It has a service station with Mcdonalds and Starbucks etc so I will stop here and use the interweb and ask around for some work in the town.
After I used the internet for a while I decided to head into town. I got in the van as it was a minute or 2 away and followed the signs into the town center. It turned out that the town was just a road. The road was about 500 meters long. It was such a classic little old western town. I half expected to see people on horses and cowboys walking through saloon doors. It wasn't far from it in fact. There were hay bails and wooden signs everywhere, and even a big marquee set up with loads of seats. It turned out that I had turned up right on time. Everyone in town was preparing for big festival starting the next day. Apparently the event of the year. It was something to do with Memorial day I think. The event is a western art festival. Have a look at the sight.
http://www.ritzvillewesternart.com/
They have masses of stuff going on and it looked like there was a lot of stuff happening that I might be able to lend a hand with for some dollar. However after asking a few people, some guys putting up posters, some girls carrying wooden structures, some people setting up chairs, I found they were all doing this stuff for free. It was so nice. The whole town (all 6 people) had come out to help! Everyone was just lending each other a hand with setting up. Such a great concept. It was clearly such a lovely small community. So instead of looking for cash I helped out too. There was a few old dears that were setting up some stands for their work and they looking like they could use a strapping young lads help.
After that I decided to have an explore around the town. Like I said it was just the 1 road but I wanted to walk around and see the houses and stuff. I'm not quite sure how to explain the town. Everything was very classic and looked very old. But very well kept. Like it was from long ago but that it was newly built. Also everything was necessary if you know what I mean. There were no shops that you don't need in a town. Everything you need and nothing more. Like if a child had an old western play set it would have all the necessary places like a bar, a library, a town hall etc. But its not like you could pop a Blockbuster Video in there or a Route One. I quite liked it.
I then went down a tiny side street and saw this wonderful place. with a huge painting on the front. a striking print which looked like a coke advert. I went in to find this spectacular display room full of amazing colorful screen prints. I loved it instantly.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/49652084
They were all brilliant. the shop was so out of place I felt like it should have been in central London or new York. Anyway I spent a while looking round at all the prints wall to wall. The woman in the shop started talking to me about the artist and how he had done everything in here and about his print studio out the back. I got very intrigued and was asking lots of questions. I wondered whether I could lend a hand here for a few days. It seemed like he had it all set though. Then the artist barged through the shop with quite an unfriendly manner about him. I thought it best to leave him alone. maybe ask him tomorrow. So I spoke to the woman a bit more about the upcoming festival and things like that. We got on pretty well and she wouldn't let me leave the shop with out a wonderful hand made screen print. It is awesome!
After a while I wasn't really sure what to do. I was feeling pretty sleepy so I took a nap in the back of the van and on waking up I had a rather good idea for how I might make a few dollars tomorrow. I needed a big white bit of wood. Time to search. I walked around for a few hours with no luck. so I headed back to the Starbucks parking lot and on the way I passed a skip. Perfect found the perfect thing. it had got quite late by this point and I decided to hit the hay. I wanted an early night before the big day tomorrow.
Kilometers Traveled Today: 96
Kilometers Traveled Total: 882
Funds: $10 U.S
Petrol: Just under Quarter Tank
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