Traveling the Trail

It has been a little bit of time, but I have made a goal to be better about blogging.  So, here I am once more, writing to the abyss.  Last Saturday, Caleb, my mom, Sarah and I loaded up the Big Red Suburban, named Zsa Zsa Gas-more, and set out on an adventure.  The summer was over, and it was time for me to return to, and Caleb to go to Brigham Young University.  We made our way through much corn, and paid many tolls as we traveled the trail.  Unfortunately, it did not come with snazzy music like in Oregon Trail II. It did come with music.  But not snazzy music.  On the other hand, no one got bitten by a snake.  On the other hand, we didn't gather any fresh fruit or vegetables.  On the other hand, we ate a lot of junk food.  On the other hand, we endured colds, lost voices and wisdom teeth removal. On the other hand, no one got dysentery, cholera or scarlet fever.  On the other hand, we didn't catch any fish or hunt any buffalo.  On the other hand, we didn't tip our wagon on the mountains.  On the other hand, we didn't get 500 acres of land at the end.

So, as you can see, it was a win-lose situation.  But we made it here.  And in some ways, that's all that matters.  And I'm ready for another year.

P.S. I think it would have been fun to start earlier and do the whole Palmyra to Kirtland to Far West to Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, since we have the perfect start point, but I had to work until Friday.

See snazzy music here:




Comments

cg.gwhatch said…
I'm glad for your new resolve about blogging.
August 28, 2012 at 5:03 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over-analyzing Disney Movies: The Little Mermaid--Why Eric is White.

Image
I have recently noticed a trend of just purely over-analyzing Disney movies.  In this category, I also include the fascination with photoshopping Disney characters to swap genders, races, or eras, as well as making princesses have "realistic" body shapes (which is something I could write a whole other post about, and it wouldn't be pretty.  Spoiler alert:  I find it to be one of the most unempowering trends of recent years).  However, I sometimes wonder at how much people are reading into Disney movies.  Today, I'm going to over-analyze their over-analysis. I recently read that the fact that Eric is a white prince is a representation of how we white-wash racial expectations for our children.  I'm not even sure what that sentence means.  It seems to have a lot of buzz words.  But I'm going to show you today, using evidence from the film, why Prince Eric is, in fact, the correct color. (I will, however, say that Eric is the only Disney prince wh...
Read more

Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean...
Read more

What does it mean to be a Russell?

Image
As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too. The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan: The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish." As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms: And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be." And in honor of that:
Read more