Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Sep 9, 2004

Wednesday 8th

Filed in Landmark-Hunting, Travel, Washington 2004

8th September

There. I might actually have found the most comfortable bed position for typing my posts.

Last night was good food and good conversation. Beyond that, not much else really needs to be reported.

This morning I headed off with LV to Olympia. We got in several snarfs along the way, then she had to do her session at the dispute resolution centre and dropped me at the historical commission for Washington. This is where I had arranged to meet Michael, the guy who sends me info about snarfs and who is my liaison for the state of Washington.

Went in, introduced myself to reception, then met Michael, who was a youngish guy, older than me but probably not by much, informal and friendly. Probably why he was so receptive to Markeroni in the first instance. He gave me a delightful behind the scenes tour of the stuff they do there; not only do they do National Register nominations, they have 1800 properties on a state register, help with local systems, and maintain a huge inventory of everything that could possibly be historic. He’s slowly working his way through every register entry to do a summary which can be used online, and they are going to do maps of every location and GPS coordinates if they can.

We headed out for lunch, went to a cafe a few doors down that does really good sandwiches and gives you extras that you didn’t ask for. It was good food and I was rather full, partly because we were both having a conversation and I ate very slowly for once. I was interested in what he did and he was interested in what I did, so it went well. He then offered to show me a few of his favourite places, so I jumped at the chance, and we went down the hill. He was amused by my penguin and the whole concept of snarfing, which I had to explain. There was an auto court which is a precursor to motels, and a big ostentatious building with columns that I forget the name of, only that it was impressive, and a hotel or two.

He was an architecture major at university, and seemed to have kind of fallen into this kind of work, but was also clearly enthusiastic about it. One thing we both have in common: too much to do all at once. ;-) The sheer quantity of historic sites and the sheer potential of what one could do with our projects given sufficient time is overwhelming.

I’m happy that they are improving their database of sites. I’ve been reluctant to enter full data for most lists of snarfs because it feels like stealing. Historic lists are created from much research, and it’s seemed wrong to just provide the addresses willy-nilly. I prefer to point people at the original sites, where the data is likely correct, and make them aware that these sites exists; perhaps from time to time there will be a useful match of skills or at least some help. I provide only the title, county and town of a place. If a member goes there and enters an address, that is just fine. I would rather support other people’s efforts than just take advantage of it.

It tickled me that I ended up showing him a couple of new places, based on info that LV had given me this morning. There was a park at the bottom of the hill with multiple snarfs: the end of the Oregon Trail, a monument, a gazebo…but he’s never seen the cute little drinking fountain that had a trough down the bottom for pets to drink.

Then we went up the hill again, and I got to see a really attractive Baptist church, and the women’s society, and a couple of Victorians…one had been repainted, and the paint was bubbling; one badly needed some work, but seemed to be slumlord type apartments these days, which is a pity. The Baptist church made me smile, and it had a big round stained glass window with a little tiny round Olympia plaque underneath it.

My impromtu tour guide â€“ and I can’t stress how chuffed I was to get this tour â€“ had to leave off round about the state capitol area, so then we parted company. I decided to go up into the capitol and explore, and it was fun because there were a great many memorials and monuments, including another moon tree and a very impressive story pole. (Not the same as a totem pole; the story pole shows characters from legends and each has a story attached. The totem pole is symbolic of the carving tribe’s religion.)

It was looking like rain, so when I noticed an info centre for the capitol I went in search of postcards. I ended up chatting to an elderly docent who had travelled quite extensively in the British Isles, and she told me there was a tour of at least part of the complex (the capitol is being brought into the 21st century). So I took the tour along with a father and son from Anaheim, California. We went into the supreme courthouse and got a pretty good explanation of how things work and even looked in the supreme courtroom, which literally drips authority. It must be pretty scary to be there.

Things I liked:

– The really lovely marble from Alaska, all over the place.
– The progression of photographs of judges: beard in one set, clean-shaven in the next, and women starting to appear in the one after that.
– The law library with copies of every supreme court case ever made.

By the time I got out it was time to head back to LV. I got mildly damp on the way. Washington is far too green for it not to rain regularly ;-). I was then able to add another treat to the day: watching LV and others at work in the dispute resolution office. Not actual mediations â€“ these are rightfully confidential â€“ but seeing the start of the process and the info-finding and how everyone works together. It would take much more patience than I have to make this work.

And that was my snarfari. I have over seventy snarfs from just these two days. It’s sort of crazy.

I’m going to go to sleep now. There is certainly more, but I need sleep molecules first. ;-)