Sometimes I just can’t even believe that a mere 150 or so years ago, to get across this massive country of ours, you’d have to hitch up your horses, pack up 3 months worth of non-perishable food, load up your rifle, pack up the family, and set off in a wagon. Made of wood. With no real roads and nary a town west of the Mississippi ’til you hit LA, (if you made it all the way), you were seriously on your own. With no rest-stops, no Panera and Quik-Check, and Iron Skillet guiding you westward, I find it hard to believe that people even made it. How did we manage to settle across such a gigantically freaking huge land mass in just 200-odd years? Using horses, and wagons?
I know people made it ok, like the Ingalls, my favorite family, and thrived and all, but not everyone was so lucky, or smart, or maybe just good at finding food. I’d like to think I would have made it, I’m pretty resourceful, and semi-tough, and despite my weekly rantings, not too picky about food. Not that pickiness would play any part in trans-continental survival. Eat or be eaten would be my motto. (still kind of is)
So why is it so hard for me now, in our world of endless-food-at-our-fingertips, to ever find something to eat when I’m on the road? The modern, paved, petroleum-fueled road lined with food options. Maybe because in that 150-odd years, we’ve turned our food into Foodiness, and I was really meant to travel by covered wagon, not by Subaru Forester or Southwest?