When we travel Miriam worries a lot about Lewis and Clark. Our trip along the Columbia was the same route they took a couple hundred years ago.
“What would they think about . . .” she asks.
It is my job to come up with the proper rejoinder.
And since we are traveling with our old friend Alz, the questions keep coming.
Still, she has a point.
What would my grandpa’s grandpa say as he traveled from Iowa to Walla Walla behind a team of horses, and later a team of oxen? We don’t have any idea of what he said, if there is a surviving journal, it didn’t make to my part of the family.
Miriam worries about that too: “What would your grandpa think if he showed up now and saw these roads,” or whatever.
It is a good question.
Grandpa made the trip from Iowa in 2 years, wintering over in Salt Lake City. There he traded his lame horses for a pair of slow oxen. On a good day he might make 15 or 20 miles, we do that much a few times an hour.
Distance is relevant. When we were 40 we did some long distance bicycle touring. We would travel in a day what you can do in a car in an hour. Still we went faster than grandpa’s oxen.
Miriam is right: “What would they think?
Gratitude #83 - Sweet Biddies!
11 years ago
4 comments:
I've always loved thinking about the times when people traveled by covered wagon. It must have been such an adventure.
and 1 in 10 died along the road. Adventure, but at a cost.
I'm impressed that Miriam comes up with questions about your travel and the difference from a couple hundred years ago. I often wonder what it would have been like to live back in those years. We truly have life easy with all its conveniences. What would they think of cars, paved roads, and computers? LOL
In Miriams case she asks the same question often, but the answer is fairly complex, so it give me a chance to round out the answes.
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