Welcome signs are a welcome sight
We took our annual pilgrimage to Bert’s homeland of North Dakota to see half of his eight siblings and a bushel basket of old friends.
The first weekend of August is Grain Palace Festival Days in his home town of Ray and this year an all-class reunion was part of the festivities. The parade down Main Street is quintessential Small Town, USA, with vintage tractors being driven by vintage farmers, pony carts, classic cars and class “floats” which are flatbed trailers in various degrees of decoration sporting banners for the different graduating classes who ride and wave.
It was a wonderful week of feeling like you never left.
When we head east and cross into Montana there’s the state welcome sign at Lookout Pass with the Milepost 0 marker. Nothing fancy but you know you’re in Montana. Eventually we headed north to Highway 2 so entered North Dakota just before Williston.
After several hundred miles traveling across Montana it’s always a treat to finally see the Welcome to North Dakota sign. This year it was really a treat as the state had placed new signs since our last trip. They’re gorgeous, featuring a full-color sunset photo taken at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. "Welcome to North Dakota" is in large white lettering with the line, "Be Legendary."
So after a week we made our way westbound via I-90 crossing back into Idaho at Lookout Pass. The Welcome to Idaho sign is always a welcome sight, as well. With thousands of trees in the mountains behind it, it’s a beautiful visual.
Except after seeing the stunning new North Dakota signs the well-worn blue and white Idaho sign looked rather blah. At highway speeds it appears to have been riddled with buckshot but in reality there are hundreds of stickers that travelers have placed on the sign and the posts over who knows how many decades.
I did a little research and discovered that the Welcome to Idaho sign at the Nevada/Idaho border on U.S. 93 was auctioned off by ITD in 2019. It was similarly covered in stickers and needed to be replaced. The state figured it might make a couple hundred bucks selling the “as is/where it is” sign at public auction, but boy were they surprised. The high bidder paid $11,200 for the sign!
The state placed the new sign several feet higher and then placed a blank sign in the shape of the state for those who just feel compelled to place stickers. That’s a lemons into lemonade solution for sure.
But back to the design of the highway signs, which are the equivalent of a welcome mat on the front porch, I think it’s time to let creative Idaho minds design something new. There's no shortage of photogenic scenery in this beautiful state of ours to feature.
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My love/hate relationship with August is even more pronounced this year. Temperatures above the century mark blazed through back in June, not giving us our usual gradual introduction to summer weather. June felt like July and then July felt like August so I’m not quite sure what August feels like.
But we’re in the home stretch of summer and there’s a sense of urgency to cram it all in over the next few weeks. Lake time, river time, pool time, vacation time ... the seasonal clock is ticking.
This time of year we seem to be evenly divided into two camps; those eagerly looking forward to cool, crisp evenings, the changing colors of the foliage and a fire in the fireplace and those who cling tightly to the beach towels, sunscreen, toes-in-the-sand, aroma of fresh-cut lawns lifestyle of summer. Count me among the latter.
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Happy Birthday today to Ann Seddon, Phyllis Berry, Erin Valente, Lisa Bell and Edith Uhl. Tomorrow Joe Paisley, Stacey Berger, Jennifer Pitts, Ed Collins, Claudia Hurt, Deena Krobath, Roger Saterfiel, Ronda Nash, Mariah Silva, Julie Hunt, Jennifer James and Nevaeh Witherspoon celebrate.
George Gee, Mike Laverdure, Tery Garras, Michelle Coppess, Donna Flom and Bryan DeKeles are putting on their party hats on Friday. Bob Sandau, Erin Elliott, Elaine Damschen, Lisa Hutcheson, Peter Faletto, Erin Reasor, Melinda Engel, Marla Lewis, Kevin Flaa,, Annette Nolting, Melinda Frost and Gene Mann celebrate on Saturday. Tracy Christopherson, Wayne Longo, Rick Currie, Mary Richter, Anne Couser and Thomas Sorci take another trip around the sun on Sunday.
Aug. 16 is the date of birth for Jeff Drew, Susan Selle, Brian Kirk, Jennifer Ross, Cindy Wagner, Andrea Fulks, Kim Brown, Serena Carlson, Sarah McCool, Paul Sullivan and Brandia Young. Doing the birthday dance on Tuesday are Amber Malloy, Jenna Morrison, JR Conrow, Kristin Largent, Cynthia Rayner, Terri Seymour, John Gertenbach, Brandee Peacock, Linda Mannschreck, Christina Gardner and Lugene Broadsword.
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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.
