Waking with More Questions Than Answers

I am a person of endless questions.  I want to know about stuff.  It is a driving passion. Why is the dirt red here?
What is our elevation?
When did they plant those trees?
Why didn't they ever plant trees?
What are those trees?
What is Devil's Slide?

How did they find the passes through the mountains? 
Why did Lewis and Clark use the Missouri and not the Mississippi?

Endless, all the time.  Discussion, and contemplation and Google searches.

So yesterday as I was driving into the valley, I was thinking about the last time I did this drive.
I was 22 years old.  The age of Mary-Elizabeth.  I was going to my first job as a Teacher in Dietrich Idaho.  I was to teach English 7-12, Reading and be the Librarian.  Salary of $8,800.00.   1977.  

I don't know the answers to so many things.  Where did I stay until my little trailer was ready? What did I bring with me?  Did I have my sheets and blankets?  How did I furnish the place? Was there furniture here?  
How in the hell did I do the job? I do remember a call to Dad and some tears.  I was worried and afraid and felt so alone. The call was from a pay phone in Shoshone. 

I am going to have to ask Amy.  She came to visit me.  

I do know the answers to some of the questions.  I learned to love it here.  To this day, I love the high desert with the vast horizons, the burrowing owls, the antelope, the storms, the sunsets.  I remember growing to love my fellow teachers.  James, John, Judy, Anne, Janet.  Each added something to my life in a different way.  Things I have carried with me all these years.  

Oh, dear, time is running out for this mornings musings.  I am meeting James and John for breakfast in Twin Falls before we make the final push to Seattle.  To our current home.  

I am so glad to have been on the road to Twin Falls more than one time in my life.