Post 056 - Breakfast Oasis

Day 50 Morning Continued

I rolled into the little farming community of Wilbur, Washington. It owes its existence to the intersection of two highways and a railroad line. It collects farmers and families like a dust ball on the prairie. It is a nondescript but welcome oasis in the wheat and wasteland.

At Main Street I have to decide on right or left in search of breakfast and warmth. No row of fast food signage guides a traveler here. A wide street with one-story, flat-roofed buildings and a grain elevator is all I see. The distance through town in either direction is short. It’s a coin toss prayer. I turn left.

The last building on the right before heading out of town has a high plastic Coke sign: Doxie’s Diner. It’s open. I park and see heads looking my way through the large windows. 

Inside, a long table full of retired men greet me. Doxie’s is a place where you go up to a counter and order then take your seat. The men have a large coffee pot in the center of their table. A voice says to grab a cup and join them. 

One fellow, Phil, takes the lead in conversation. He is interested in what I’m riding and why. After I tell him, he explains that he has a long motorcycle riding history. I hear his whole motorcycle life story from boyhood to present. He makes it interesting. I thaw out. Phil is a retired judge. He was a county prosecutor for 22 years before that. The county had very little crime and what there was could be solved in a few hours. As a judge however, the State placed him where needed and he spent a lot of time in Seattle. Now he’s retired and taking care of his ailing wife, that is when he’s not at Doxie’s with the boys. I also learned that Washington was escaping the drought and crop prices were good. 

It was a great breakfast experience. I left feeling warm inside and out. Next stop, the Grand Coulee Dam. I did not know the trip would end in a few hours.