The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I drove with trepidation toward Walla Walla on Friday morning, waiting for the inevitable back-up of cars. I knew I would have to carefully thread through the line of young hipsters in their cars at the airport exit waiting to get to their camping spots.

I brought walking shoes with thick socks in case I had to park somewhere beyond College Place and hike back to downtown Walla Walla.

As I breezed through town on Highway 12, the cluster never appeared, (though all the left turns were blocked). The streets surrounding downtown were virtually empty, and I found a parking spot two blocks from the entrance into one of the biggest events in the history of Walla Walla.

So, okay, the part taking place downtown wasn't the "main event," and Friday morning wasn't prime time. But I wanted to see what the less publicized part of the big Gentlemen of the Road Stopover in Walla Walla was like. Despite the lack of congestion surrounding downtown, I wasn't disappointed.

At the entrance at Second and Main, an exuberant young man checking tickets told me that he was a college student, and that he and a lot of his friends had gotten jobs at the show for the weekend.

Tickets to see the two big shows on Friday and Saturday Nights – featuring Foo Fighters and Mumford and Sons, respectively – were $200 a pop. But for a five-spot I got a day pass which allowed me to see more than a dozen music performances and wander the carless streets of downtown Walla Walla, along with hundreds of other pedestrians.

To me, this was one of the most amazing parts of the GOTR event in Walla Walla. The 20,000 or more visitors to town for the two big shows needed something to do during the day. And two groups of locals – businesses and musicians – wanted a way to show off what they could do.

The GOTR organizers did an amazing job of creating a venue downtown where visitors to town could see local and regional performers and experience the wonderful downtown ambience of Walla Walla and its downtown merchants.

Cars were eliminated from Main Street, and side streets a block in either direction, from Second Avenue east to Park Street. Two stages were set up downtown, one on South First and one on South Spokane Street.

Shortly after 11 a.m., I walked down First and watched a group called bIG fONT perform. bIG fONT is a trio from Walla Walla featuring singer/guitarist Thacher Carter and bassist Bob Johnston.

The group's name is a nod to the reading needs of people their age. These two guys seemed to be close to my age, and the group's third member is a washboard player named Val "The Don" Valiente, who is 93 years young. (So much for the image of GOTR being an event for young hipsters.) According to the GOTR literature, bIG fONT's members met during jam sessions at Sapolil Cellars.

An hour or so later, I watched a local group called Rogue Lobster perform what they call folk/bluegrass/Americana-style music. Their members include singer/guitarists Adam Kirtley and JR Van Slyke, accordionist Libby Arnosti and violin and mandolin player Jerry Yokel.

Kirtley and Yokel were original members of the Irish folk group The Rogues, who performed in Waitsburg and Dayton numerous times a decade or more ago.

Several other local groups (who I didn't get to see) also performed downtown during GOTR, including Touchet Valley area favorites FrogHollow Band, along with Shop Singers, Whiskey Creek Band, Coyote Kings, Bizzare Love Triangle and Shanks Pony.

Ken Graham

A carless Main Street was filled with pedestrians near First Street.

These are all performers who are well known to local music enthusiasts. (I don't count myself among that group, but I've heard of most of these bands.) Being able to play in front of thousands of visitors to town had to be a big thrill to all of these musicians.

Storefronts throughout downtown Walla Walla were decked out with GOTR logos and British flags – a salute to the limey origin of Mumford and Sons.

After wandering the streets and taking in music for at least three hours, I headed back to my car and drove out of town in very light traffic. The air was full of dust and smoke, and the Veterans Memorial Golf Course was filling up with tents.

The music was just beginning, but I had my fill, and spent rest of the weekend at home doing chores.