A Guided Tour Of Spokane

The Sights, The Holy Sites And The Excitement

My last tour was in the pre-Covid days of 2019. The Feeshko and I drove out to Spokane so she could visit her family while I rode around the varied landscapes of eastern Washington. I find myself in much the same situation for this tour. With Spokane as my starting point, I get to explore a different part of the Inland Northwest while she gets to spend time with her mom and her sisters. It's a pretty nice arrangement for a cycle tourist whose wife doesn't ride.

I've had a week to ride my bike around Spokane before the event that brought us out here -- ~~my big bike tour~~ our niece's wedding. I've ridden about 20-30 miles each day. It was either that, or sit around the house all day with the in-laws.

Using some pictures from my rides, I put together a photo album of the city and its holy sites. Now I'm going to share it with you.

After descending from the hills where my mother-in-law lives, I generally start my rides by hopping onto this very nice bike trail. I rarely see other bicyclists, but I usually see at least a couple of homeless people sleeping on the edges.

I can't say I've ever seen an Asian fire truck in any other city I've visited. I have to believe they're pretty rare, except, of course, in Asia. This one was parked on a residential street.

Like most large cities, Spokane has some historic buildings. This one is the headquarters of the Spokane Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Like most large cities, Spokane has tall buildings from which daredevils can rappel (abseil) down the sides. I would have ridden right by this building if not for a couple dozen pedestrians who were looking upward. Of course, I had to stop to see what they were looking at.

I admire daredevils. I hope they are able to escape the cops when they they get to street level.

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I have to admit that the sub-title of this journal was a bit of a joke. I never really believed Idaho was The Holy Land of Bike Touring. I mostly think of Idaho as the 70 miles that ACA Northern Tier riders are forced to cross in order to get from Washington to Montana.

And the phrase "Holy Quadrinity of Cycling Cities" was also a joke. That is, until I came across an interesting spectacle in downtown Spokane. A woman had set up a loudspeaker in the busy plaza of Riverside Park. She was shouting into a microphone about "sin" and the "graciousness of God" and stuff like that. There were a lot of people strolling by, but not one person stopped to listen. I didn't either.

A little later, I did stop to take pictures of some churches, including the beautiful Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes. Then I thought it would be a good idea to backtrack and get a picture of that one-woman church back at the plaza. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to that intersection she had packed up her stuff and was wheeling it away in a suitcase.

Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, blessed by a sunny halo.

Most of the churches in the downtown area were of the traditional Christian variety -- The Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the United Church of Christ all had their buildings.

In other parts of town, I found a few more exotic holy sites . . .

. . . like this Greek Orthodox Church . . .

. . . and this Buddhist house of worship.

Look at the expression of surprise on my face after finding this place. Apparently, some guy created his own church in his front yard.

As everybody ought to know, I invented my own religion. I named it "The Church of the Great Outdoors." Now that I've seen the flowery language of "Unity Center of Divine Love and Light," I have to bow down to the dude who invented this religion. I wonder how he came up with such a mystical name?

Ah yes, I think this might hint at the answer.

No tour of Spokane's holy sites would be complete without a visit to this Jesuit college. Gonzaga University not only has a funny name, but it's also a perennial college basketball powerhouse.

At the end of every ride, I get to climb this mile-long washboard of gravel. It's hard, but not as hard as trying to maintain control while riding DOWN that road.

And at the end of the day I get to worship at the Church of the Great Outdoors.

My tour begins in four days.

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