Miracle Mile #7: LaunderLand

Evergreen Shopping Center anchors the south end of the Main Street Miracle Mile, with a supermarket, a general thrift and drug store, and other odds and ends, including storefronts converted to offices. Popular because it always has an onsite attendant, LaunderLand hums into the night (last wash, 8:30). It was here that I saw my Blog Sister, Petrea, looking groovy in designer wear, a couple of months ago.



(Hope she doesn't mind!)

Miracle Mile #6: High Speed DSL

Another one of the typical motels on the southern strip of Main, the Holiday Lodge offers two amenities often demanded by travelers: a swimming pool, and free DSL connections for computer users.

I'm having computer problems, including browser function that comes and goes. If I don't get back to you, it means I've slipped out of cyberspace for the time being.

Miracle Mile #5: Gribaldo's

I'm not sure how long Gribaldo's has been in Willits, but I would guess decades. They have an old fashioned steam table, all-you-can-eat buffet including scrambled eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, french toast, biscuits and gravy, if you're really starving. If you're looking for cowboys, a lot of them eat here. This also used to be the Greyhound bus stop, but it looks like the stop was moved across the street to McDonalds. I seem to recall that too many bus passengers were making the dangerous crossing to the fast food places on the other side, and getting hurt. At least the public telephone here has a dial tone.

Miracle Mile #4: Les Schwab Tire Center

This is a automobile tire chain store, found in most western US states. I confess, I used to watch some of those TV shows involving complete and outrageous renovations of junker cars, and would fantasize about choosing decorative modifications for myself. But no more such ideas for me, unless they make Green Freedom™ a reality really soon. Apparently the physics all checks out, but they haven't figured out how to make sure a few private entities get filthy rich on the research funded by public dollars yet. I'm sure they'll get that licked just as soon as all vast profits from every possible drop of oil have been concentrated in a few pockets first.

Okay, sorry. It's just a retread tire store. And it looks neat as a pin.

Miracle Mile #3: Lark Motel Neon

The Lark currently has the best maintained neon on this strip of South Main. The single story building of rooms is in the long, shoebox form running back from the street, typical of the 1940s and '50s heyday of "motor hotels".

Miracle Mile #2: Willlits Buffet

Bless their hearts. They got an extra "L" in their sign.

Miracle Mile

I'm not exactly sure how to proceed with this one. I've largely ignored the southern half of Main Street through Willits, but it is what it is, and I should just face facts. I don't know what this stretch of road looked like before, but sometime in the middle of the last century, it was decided to widen Main to four lanes, with a center lane for turning. Along with the widening came automobile oriented businesses, including motels, drive-in fast foods, and auto supply and sales. It was laid out in an age when cars were "king of the road", and the wide unshaded swaths of hard pavement extended deep into the lots on either side of Main. Today, some of the heat and hard edges of cement and asphalt are mitigated with trees at odd intervals. But pedestrians are not what the developers had in mind, even though more recent attitudes have changed. The US flags line the street because it was Labor Day.