Back to the Palouse
July 4th 2019: Colfax, Washington. This was the special day I met my dear friend, Dennis Palmer, the Mayor of Oakesdale, Washington.
Sometimes I can’t quite figure out what draws me to a place I’ve never been. I love visiting places most people haven’t heard of and discovering a magic that few know. I love visiting the Yellowstones and the Eiffel Towers of the world, but there’s something especially fulfilling about embarking on independent expeditions to uncover hidden gems. It’s like being on a scavenger hunt.
Usually, a picture of a landscape or Main Streetscape lures me, but the force that propels me to map out a route, book travel, and go someplace new to take photos of my own feels almost cosmic. On my first Pacific Northwest road trip, Palouse country was my top priority. I was so drawn to the patchy farmlands draped over rolling hills in the great wide open that I mapped out a 3,427-mile journey that revolved around it.
Like Bisbee, Arizona, and Acadia National Park, this place was everything I hoped it would be and more. I took so much more home with me than I ever could’ve predicted, and I didn’t even buy a single souvenir there, which, for those of you who know me well, you’re probably in disbelief reading of this fact, but it’s true!
I was, however, gifted a light blue t-shirt I still wear with a smile. And I took the best intangible souvenir with me—a dear friend named Dennis Palmer. He’s the mayor of Oakesdale, Washington—a charming small town in the heart of those tumbling hills. It’s the gateway to the Palouse, and it’s magnificent. I’ve written about my dear friend Dennis and his wondrous home turf before, and I’ll write about them again, probably after my next visit this July.
I’m taking my mom and stepdad on an ArcticTumbleweed-style adventure from North Dakota to Oregon, and while we were mapping out our must-sees, my mom insisted that we make a stop in sweet little Oakesdale to meet my mayor. “Oh, of course! I’ve just got to meet the mayor!” It made my heart so happy to think that one of my stories moved her enough to want to visit a very special place and person. Dennis and I have stayed in touch since we met by chance on the 4th of July in 2019. We send each other birthday cards, chat on birthdays, and call to check in on each other now and then.
It just so happens that this next July road trip I have planned with my family will have us arriving in the Palouse the day after Dennis’ birthday. What are the odds?! I called him a few days before Christmas last year to give him the news. It made us both so happy we might have even shed a tear or two.
Dennis is an older gentleman, and I am not, and somehow that makes our connection even more special. I love him dearly, and I’m so excited to visit him again this summer. He’s never been to New York, but he’d love to. So I’m going to bring little bits of New York to him for his birthday—some Times Square souvenirs: maybe a big apple snow globe, a mini Statue of Liberty, an I ❤️ NY t-shirt.
It’s a special thing to find a friend when you least expect it and when that friend just so happens to be the mayor of one of the oldest towns in Washington State, in a place I was inexplicably drawn to and can’t wait to make another pilgrimage to, it ups the whole cool factor tenfold.
