How did you spend your New Year's Day? Napping away a hangover on the couch, pretending to watch football?

That kind of afternoon sounds foolish to the group of rafters who floated the Spokane River on Tuesday. The Northwest Whitewater Association celebrated the 20th Annual Only Fools Float the River on the First the only way they knew how – by eschewing a day at home and getting onto the water despite the air being only 22 degrees when they launched.

“If you're a boater, you take every chance to get on the water,” Bruce Bernhardt said.

More than 30 people attended the event with more than 20 boats on the water.

“This is more exciting” than watching football, said Pat Keegan before launching.

It’s been almost a year since local law enforcement moved into their property facility in east Spokane. Six employees are watching over about 150,000 items of evidence, stolen or found property at 4010 E. Alki. The venue is slowly filling up with items, but there's still plenty of room to last the region about 75-years of service.

There’s not much decor set up in facility except a stuffed cougar connected to an ongoing property investigation, but remnants of previous residents have left their mark.

The warehouse used to be occupied by Columbia Distributing until about eight years ago. They’re now located in Spokane Valley. The property facility was turned over to local agencies in October of 2011.

Their employees must have accumulated quite a collection of beer stickers because they left it behind near one of the loading doors. Recognize any of those beers?

Any former Western Washington transplants want to comment on this? For those of you that remember Almost Live over in the Seattle area, the crew is getting back together for a new TV show reports My Northwest. Their previous stint on the airwaves was cancelled in 1999.

This is fabulous news for those that grew up watching Bill Nye the Science Guy in his other gig and spend their sleepless nights watching clips of Almost Live on Youtube and dreaming of a similar show for Spokanites.

And then we read this:

Former star of Almost Live! Pat Cashman tells Dave and Luke he has the answer. The 'band' got back together, but under a new name: The 206.

"We briefly debated calling it 'Definitely not The 509.'"

Share: Is anyone else a little bummed they totally just made fun of Eastern Washington? In the meantime, we'll watch Pat Cashman scream at a "pack of reporters".