It's done. The guy at the car rental place shook his head in disbelief that I brought back his car with so many miles on it. 3000 miles in two weeks! A whole lot of it was back roads and climbing up mountains and seeing the things that were not on the map. I learned quite a bit about the Pacific Northwest and the people there and I do love the place. Even the darkest times seemed to not be as bad as I'm used to. I did not really find people totally demoralized by the recession, although you could see the effect of it. How are people doing with less? It seems like most of them did not want that much to start with. They just wanted to live a life that was different than what you see in the daily news on TV. A life separate from the grim reality of the big cities and too crowded feeling we have at home.
If there was one thing I'd like to hang onto, it was seeing a young Japanese couple on the top of Logan's Pass in Glacier National Park in the Visitor Center. They were all excited, reading the poster depicting the plant life that could be found in the extremely cold location. I don't understand the Japanese language, and I truly wondered if anyone within a thousand miles could have translated anything for them, but they found us! This wasn't International Drive, this wasn't Disney World or Miami Beach. This couple wasn't the only one like that either. I was so happy to see that adventurous people from other countries were finding the beauty of America in the backwoods. We don't suck! We are not just what they see on TV and they are not just the people we see on TV.
I'm beginning to think that my people are the ones on the top of that mountain.
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