This was Snoqualmie Pass, elevation 5420 feet, on Monday, April 29..... and this is springtime in the Rockies??? Wikipedia explains that "The name Snoqualmie is derived from the Lushootseed name s•dukʷalbixʷ, generally interpreted to mean "ferocious people", a name applied by another Coast Salishan tribe in reference to the Snoqualmie tribe.[5]"
Well, it was a ferocious snowstorm on Monday I can tell you but I put my 4-Runner in 4WD and plugged on through with no problems. The big trucks were all lined up putting on their chains.....
The point Tika and I want to make today is that travel today is so easy. It's 400 miles from Spokane to Port Angeles and I was visiting with grandson after only an 8-hour drive. I reflect that it's so easy to visit family today no matter how far away they are. My friend Joan lives in New Jersey and twice yearly goes to Hawaii to visit her two sons. That is possible in 2013 but surely not never in 1913 and totally unthinkable in 1813.
My great-grandmother Magdalena Regner came to America as a 16 year old girl in 1866. She traveled all that time and all that way by herself. And she knew that she would never, never see her mother again. We say how hard that must have been, but they knew no different. Yes, it was hard but there was no choice.
Today we have a choice and all that keeps us from seeing our loved ones is time and money. But at least it is possible.
Had Tika been with me she would have burrowed in her travel sac and not looked out!
I can't imagine leaving my family behind! Our children all live in different states and I travel frequently to visit them. I returned home on Monday from visiting one daughter in Chicago and am leaving tomorrow to visit our other daughter who lives near D.C. In two weeks our son will be home from NC. If any of them left for another country, never to return I'm not sure what I would do.
ReplyDeleteHii great reading your blog
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