Speaking of vacations.....

14 years ago

None for us this year...but one I remember the most was the first trip Denny and I took to Colorado from here in Iowa...

I remember as we were driving when the mountains first starting to appear in the far distance...I was amazed..!!!

My thought went to the pioneers as they traveled in their covered wagons...what must have went through their minds as they got their first glimpse of them.

Today as I type this I realize they probably had seen mountains before...But I never had seen any and to me if I had been a pioneer they would have scared me to death.

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Comments (6)

glenda_al
14 years ago
One short trip THEN DH and I took was on a motorcycle to Helena GA and up.

I rode on the cycle behind him. Besides having to stop every 25 miles to stretch my back, that was one of the more memorable trips I have ever taken.

You are right out there in the mountains. I remember seeing a waterfall and the scenery was so panoramic vs being inside a car.

BTW I rode 500 miles on that cycle, and part was thru downtown Atlanta traffic. THAT was NOT fun!
joan_mn
14 years ago
I was amazed when I saw the Badlands the first time, we kept saying "what did the Indians and pioneers think the first time they saw these?"
And the Rockies...also amazing! First time we went to Glacier, we were crossing MT on Hwy. 2. We could see a small town in the distance, we kept driving and driving...the town got no closer...we finally realized it was Helena, and it was not as small as we thought. It was some vista, you could see forever, and the mountains looked way closer than they actually were.
This country is SO gorgeous!
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grammahony
14 years ago
I've wondered that a lot Patti. And Joan, the Badlands too. I wondered how hard it must have been to get through them. And what kept them from giving up?
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monica_pa Grieves
14 years ago
On one vacation...years ago, I remember going up a mountain in the Swiss Alps (Mt Pilatus) in a gondola, and passing through the clouds.

Looking out, as we slowly ascended, going from late summer weather,through grass and trees, into rocky terrain, through the clouds, and then getting off on the cold snowy summit.

It just took my breath away.
chisue
14 years ago
Monica's post reminds me of ascending the Jungfrau. I liked that, but can't do Space Mountain at Disneyworld! LOL. I'm too lazy to get up at 3 a.m., but visitors to Maui drive up to the crater at Haleakala to greet the dawn.

When flying from Chicago to the west coast I look down at all that 'empty' land in the Midwest and along the Rockies. There's almost always a road snaking along but the homesteads are so far apart and there are no towns for miles. Flying over at night there are just little dots of electric light and the lakes and rivers shine in the moonlight -- until you come across cities, especially Vegas! I think of my great-grandmother leaving cozy Pennsylvania to join her doctor husband in a rough mining town in Colorado. (I've visited the big brick home he built for her there; now it's a funeral home!)

I like to be awake when our flight from Maui makes land -- usually over Los Angeles. Last year on the outward leg we flew directly over San Francisco on a clear day, low enough to pick out some landmarks.
sable_ca
14 years ago
When we used to do our automobile trips around the West, DH and I would talk a lot about how the pioneers did it. Especially when going through the Arizona and California deserts. There is just no way to get to the West Coast without crossing one enormous desert or another (unless you snake along the Canadian border). Can't imagine the courage and determination required of those people.

Driving the I-80 through the Sierras and encountering Donner Pass is very sobering. Today it's so easy on that well-engineered highway, and yet even now it's closed to traffic during the many snowstorms. Poor brave people.

I love the West and cherish its many stories.

Speaking of vacations.....

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glenda_al

joan_mn

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