The Answer is Always Spokane

Dear Shawn,

A few years ago, I began to play a game on line about my travels. I have always loved to learn more about the places to which I travel. One of the things I love best about my job is the chance to see and explore more of the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s Paris, Cairo, and Beijing, or Boise, Wichita, and Omaha, I always enjoy getting out to experience the local customs and foods.

I once heard that a few years of being a flight attendant can be the equivalent of a college degree. To ensure that this is correct, I always research the cities to which I fly. One day, I thought some of the things I learned were so interesting, that I started to post them on line, which is what lead to my game, “Where is Penguin.” I leave clues based on my research and hope my friends can guess.

My friends can be quite crafty, and some the of the responses could induce laughter. One friend always guessed correctly, but another always guessed the same city...Spokane. She had a good story behind it, too. Years ago, a friend of her mother’s, a travel agent, booked a flight from the West Coast to the East with a stopover in Spokane. She always thought it was the strangest place to have a stopover. Most people do so in Denver, or Chicago- maybe Minneapolis or Dallas. No, this flight routed through the mighty metropolis of Spokane.

A while back, I started to see the same cities over and over again, so I stopped playing “Where is Penguin.” Lately, with my seniority on the decline, I’ve been touring America, once again. I’ve been to a few cities, which I’ve not been to before, and a few that I’ve not been to in many years. The timing was right, as my friend, and a few others, have recently stated to me that they really miss the game. I’m really enjoying playing it again, even though not many people actually respond.

The best part of the game, and it’s only happened twice, is when I actually get a trip to Spokane. The first time I did so, I gave a bunch of bogus clues, things that made no sense at all, knowing that she’d guess Spokane and I’d have the pleasure of telling her that she was correct. This time, I was thorough in researching interesting facts and odd laws about Spokane.

Any time I see the airport code of GEG, I get excited about the chance to go, just so I can play this game. I don’t see these trips often, they may be seasonal. When I saw that I was awarded a line with this trip, I made sure not to try to trade out of it. It’s a nice place to visit, but it’s a better place for “Where is Penguin!”