Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sand angel

This is how vacation feels!!! Love that beach and the sand that gets everywhere! But alas...it looks like I only get a few hours on the Pacific this time. This little girl calls me "grandma". I must look like one. She lives in Phoenix and gets a little mixed up when it comes to "snow angels"!
Now for those who don't know "Longview" it is a town in southern Washington state that sits on the Columbia River. Since the town was built on logging and has several mills on the river it always has the odor of the mills. Well, it used to be worse way back when. We used to say: "Longivew and Kelso smell so." I have come here ever since my sister moved here way back in 1973 and got married. I moved from Minnesota in 1974 but went to Seattle.
My younger brother came out as did two more sisters. My brother married my sister's husband's first cousin and another sister married his brother! My other sister moved to Seattle where I was and lives there still. I married my sweetheart in Seattle and we lived there for nine years until we moved to Minnesota.
I didn't plan to tell my family history but now you know why I come to Longview as often as I do! And if you are confused, don't worry, so am I.
Now Longview is basically flat surrounded by these hills which my siblings decided to settle on. The three of them live on the same hill but there are not any roads that go across the tops of the hills.
To get there you first have to make a left turn into mid-air. It takes lots of practice and these natives manage to do it at about sixty MPH. It's kind of like bungee jumping only you are not tied down.
As you careen down the hill you make a series of turns up and down through the woods with a mountain on one side and a ravine on the other. You do all this and still maintain your speed of 60 MPH.
There is never anything stalled on the road behind each curve in the road.
To get to sister A you have to find a small dark opening between the towering trees. As you go up into the dark the driveway suddenly goes straight up. It is always a dilemma for the car. Should it keep going up or give up and go down? How much gravel is okay to spit out behind you? Should I add to the potholes or not?
Sister B lives above the clouds. On her part of the hill you speed upwards still at 60 MPH. But there are more bends that go every which way up, down, left, right, backwards and sideways until you level off and then try to decide which look alike driveway might be hers.
Brother lives not as high as Sister B. But you still have to go down each hill of Sisters A and B to get to his hill before you go up again. It's manageable because I never come here during an ice storm.
And they live here so I have to come here. And I am never sorry I came!
I am off to Seattle today or tomorrow.....

1 comment:

brittanyandbryan said...

Very accurate descripitions! Those roads are a little scetchy if you don't drive them daily...