(EXPANDED FROM 10/18/2023)
David E. Davis often wrote about his road trips when he was editor of Automobile. Jack Baruth (2011) suggested that the magazine’s motto, “No Boring Cars!” served as “an excuse, er, reason to demand an ever-greater variety of exotic machinery from the world’s press fleets and cross-continental promotional junkets. Hell, Automobile didn’t even bother to publish performance numbers. Why waste a day somewhere with a stopwatch, doing atmospheric correction like some kind of Bedard-esque nerd, when you could be tossing the keys to the valet and settling down for a long lunch at Detroit’s ‘London Chop House’?”
I decided to follow in Davis’s footsteps, so to speak, but with an escapade that better fit Indie Auto’s budget. So last year I drove 30 miles south of Olympia, Washington to the Delphi Valley. The photography was interesting enough that I have returned multiple times to capture the area’s different moods.
This is a sparsely populated area dominated by cow pastures and forests — and bisected by the Black River. Most folks typically speed down a two-lane road that winds through the valley. However, lately it has become a popular place to stop and take pictures of an aurora borealis (see banner photo).
Drive through here early on a foggy morning and you may be greeted by a regal owl. Go a little farther down the valley to the corner of 123 Ave. and LaFrance Road, and — if you don’t blink — you may notice a bridge.
When viewed from the road, this bridge over the Black River looks innocuous enough. However, if you venture underneath you will see a veritable Sistine Chapel of graffiti. One may also find artifacts such as a muddy pair of jeans.
This bridge appears to be located too far away from the city to attract the homeless. Instead, it draws adolescent partiers equipped with painting gear.
The graffiti contrasts with the bridge’s rather brutalist architecture. On a sunny day, the reflection of the water rippling on the slab ceiling of the bridge can result in glimmering light show. At least to my eyes, the mix of linear and organic forms makes for interesting photography.
Davis might not have been impressed by this destination because parking on dirt could have mussed his Ferrari. Nor are there any elegantly coiffed waitstaff to take one’s order. And if you forget that there isn’t enough headroom to stand up under the bridge, you could get a souvenir.
Even so, this bridge strikes me as being a monument to car culture. Generations of local youth have driven out here to display their artistry. Best of all, there’s no admission charge.
NOTES:
This photo essay was originally posted on Oct. 18, 2023 and expanded on Nov. 6, 2024.
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RE:SOURCES
- Baruth, Jack; 2011. “RIP David E. Davis, Jr.” The Truth About Cars. Posted March 27.
I can picture D.E.D. settling down at his usual table and us hearing the occasional “Haruumph!” from his direction at a passing waiter when his risotto was too cold or the Beef Wellington wasn’t done to his exact rareness. Meanwhile we’re happy when the McD fries are freshly made, hot and salty, and not the sad, tasteless toothpicks of regret they can often be.
We haven’t a prayer of owning some of his comparo losers, much less his winners, until they’re a hand-me-down worn out money pit. I haven’t felt a connection to Automobile or C/D in quite a while, but I liked the prose at Automobile a little more.
Road trips rock.
Well put. You got me thinking about the evolution of my reading habits. In the second half of the 1970s was when I started to drift away from car magazines. Car and Driver was losing altitude and in general the genre felt increasingly parochial compared to the political and cultural publications I was beginning to read. One big influence was Rolling Stone magazine, which in those days had some terrific profiles (maybe they still do; haven’t read the magazine in years). That helped fuel my interest in pursuing a degree in journalism.
Heh. Car mags… I started out with CARToons, the car-centric comic then went to Hot Rod and Car Craft in secondary school. I was preferring to read C/D (and Consumer Reports) by ’82. Motor Trend seemed to be more about who bought the most ads that month, with the occasional radar detector comparo where Escort always seemed to be the best, so I trusted them less.
Unfortunately my old copies of C/D are long gone, because I’d like to look up their famous sedan torture test to Baja in the early 80s. I imagine Dave E was on that trip (before he left to start Automobile), and that trip featured a lot of dirt and mud. I can almost imagine DED slumming over street tacos with a fork and knife.