It seemed as though we had been getting ready to go to Utah for so long. I think we must have started our own little family count down about 25 days ago or so. Each morning the kids would run over to the numbers eager to take another one down. And then, finally, the day was here!
Each time we go, it seems we pack less and less. I find myself asking, " What do we really need?" Our time here is always about each other, nature, peace & quiet and just really slowing things down. So, really, what do we need~not what are all the extra things we think we should bring, but what do we really need? With that being said, packing up still seemed to take longer than I wanted. But off we went, the two of us, three kids, 2 cats and a dog full of anticipation.
We pulled out of the drive-way and we were all giddy with excitement. Hunter announced that this year he was not going to ask when we would be to Utah as much as last year. He actually did a pretty good job. And when he did ask, our answer was "in two days".
We got to the middle of Iowa the first night and just needed to be done. For the most part, Friday was an ordinary day; up early, Scott worked most of it, some other craziness thrown in there, so we were tired and decided not to push it.
We woke up the next morning, had breakfast but before we got to driving the cat started puking. Nothing like holding the cat's head over the litter box to start off your morning with an entire day of driving. I guess she was fine after that but we were certainly tempted to leave her in the Walmart parking lot for someone who had a much shorter drive than us!
The kids and I gathered around the table to start on a few projects while Scott drove. I noticed Hunter not quite acting himself, starting to lay his head down on the table, looked rather flushed....yes, you know where I am going with this. And then, all the color in his face was gone and I asked him if he felt like he was going to be sick and you know Hunter, he said nothing, but then just started puking all over himself. I did not even know what to do, try and catch it all in his shirt, have him do it on the wood floor, see if we could make it the toilet without leaving a fruit snack trail behind, hold HIS head over the litter box. Well, needless to say, we DID need to pull over. We gave him some motion sickness stuff and in no time, he was back to himself.
The cat not so much. She puked AGAIN the next morning. Luckily, it was on the floor mat but cannot say that Scott's pair of flip flops left on the mat were very lucky. They were deserted somewhere around Rawlings, Wyoming.
We stopped at a Pioneer Museum as we were traveling through Wyoming. It's called the Archway. It is approximately where the Mormon, California & Oregon trails all met. It is also 1,733 from Boston as well as from San Fransisco. Interesting. We seemed so far from Boston.
We went on a tour and learned all about what life was like if you dared to travel west in those days. Before the railroad was connected (which, by the way, took 6 years to do) the only way people could get out west was to simply walk. Many were not wealthy enough to afford a wagon and numerous families just took a hand cart. A hand cart was like a mini-wagon with two wheels that you just pulled. Imagine pulling your meager belongings into the unknown in search of a better life! Each person was allowed to take about 17 pounds. Everyone had to walk. If you had young ones, that you would have to carry, you simply could not go. One account was that while traveling, a herd of buffalo came, crossing their path, they waited 2 hours for it to pass. He estimated that there were 2 million of them! At one point, the Pony Express could travel 2000 miles in 10 days!
People who could afford wagons initially packed up all kinds of things~organs, fancy furniture, books~only to later leave them along the trail. It became known as the "Prairie library" because so many had left their books, which, at one point, were too important to leave behind, but later to realize they were worthless out on the trail. What good would they do to help save your life? So, in so many cases, by the time you did actually get to where you were going, if you were so lucky, you essential had nothing. You just started living that dream with nothing but the dream itself and the hope that the life you will now make would be better than the one you left.
Later as we continued to drive through Wyoming, I just could not help myself looking at the landscape and thinking about all those people. How spoiled we are to have had someone carve out a highway for us, how easy & worry free. Here, in a place where you do not see a tree for miles and miles, all these people just set out to cross this land vulnerable to the elements. It is just so vast! And there in the distance lurk these snow capped mountains which you will need to somehow get around. Or over. In one case, the men on a wagon train actually dug through instead of going around and that was actually faster!!
To never lose hope and be so determined to keep keepin' on, to hold onto whatever dreams you believed would come true "out west" and just continue on despite death, disease and extreme hardship truly amazes me. I just cannot think of anything comparable today to what that must have been like. Such a driving force.
As we drove out, I think Scott and I both pondered why we love it here so much. How can it feel so different than life at home. I am not sure if either of us came to any real conclusion about that, but do know that there is something about being here- together, some days only seeing and hearing one another- that fills us with a joy we have not experienced elsewhere. This, to us, is a place to become truly grounded in what we value most, to just slow down, to make the time to really look & see each other and what's around. Katie , Hunter & Ben wake up each day believing the world is at their feet, that anything is possible. And as the older, sometimes jaded adults, we cannot help but get on board with that. And so we all wake up feeling that way. It must just be something about the west~ that anything is possible.
We pulled in this afternoon and are unpacked and settled in. Katie already found a shed antler ~ something I have been looking for for years and she just came upon it, right in front of her, of course, not looking for it at all. But isn't that the way it goes? When you look too hard for something, it just may never come to you. And think of what you miss looking at in the meantime.
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