Politics, Skiing and the Methow Valley December 30, 2007
Posted by threadingwater in travel.Tags: Methow Valley, politics, skiing
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I’m just back from a three hour ski tour, exhausted and happy and a bit sentimental. Physical exhaustion tends to exacerbate that part of my personality, but really, I’m going to miss this beautiful valley and the past week of slowing down our lives.
No television. No cell phones. Even email correspondence has been limited by slow Internet connections.
Our meals are served family style in the lodge, giving us the opportunity to meet new people every night. Most have been from the Seattle area, and their ages and backgrounds have been as varied as one might imagine. Teachers, lawyers, retirees, technical professionals, a Russian Orthodox priest and his family, a young woman raised in East Germany, an older man raised in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Austria, former and present U.S. military personnel . . . it’s a very long list.
Our informal political poll report: Admitted Republicans – 0 (with the exception of one very vocal young woman whose entire argument in favor of Bush was to declare that the passage of time and the perspective of history would show whether or not he was/is a good President. I don’t think she is necessarily a conservative, just lazy-minded. The conversation was cut short when Greatest Husband declared her ideas “absurd” during cocktail hour in front of her boyfriend/husband who then felt obligated to defuse the situation while another friend led her away to a different appetizer table.)
Preferred Democratic candidate? The majority of our lodge guests seem to favor Obama, and no one we’ve talked to all week has a favorable opinion of Hillary Clinton. Edwards and Kucinich? Barely a mention.
I’m sure our results are skewed by a left-leaning, cross-country skiing Seattle crowd. We are not, after all, in a Montana mountain lodge surrounded by snowmobilers and ATV’ers. Still, the lack of support for Clinton has had a cheering effect.
Tomorrow, we leave for home, thus the sentimental feelings and regretful goodbyes to the Methow Valley of Washington until we find our way back here again.
Okay, you are on the short list of people I can tell this to might see the humor in it…
I ran into a former coworker at the library the other day and he showed me the books he was carrying. He said that he and his wife were sitting in bed reading the books that they had separately, without telling each other, checked out of our local library.
She had: Living History, by you know who
He had: Cheney, the Untold Story…etc.
Make the Methow your annual Christmas retreat. We’ve done it for four years straight. Oh, the laughs, the discussions, the weighty subjects of skiing, skating, aching and eating ! Oh, the variety of characters! One cold write stories. Ah… beware, an author was there. You might end up in one his. He promises to change the name to protect the innocent.
What could be healthier than exercising in cold crisp snow and then relaxing by a roaring Russian Chimney each evening.
I like to be a ski bum, alas, it is too late for me.
Actually, John Edwards has gotten several positive reviews here at the Mazama Country Inn, and I swear I did not badger anybody into saying positive things about him.
By the way, he will win Iowa. Won’t the New York media be shocked?!
I’d like to get one thing straight…Bush and Co. needs to be held accountable, sooner rather than later. If it isn’t going to happen then other presidents will attempt to do similarly pernicious things. If a guy like Huckabee wins the presidency I’ll consider leaving the country.