Eatonville to Toledo, Washington Saturday, May 4, 2024.
I was thinking more about mountains that were named for people that never saw them. George Washington never saw Mount Washington in New Hampshire, which was called Agiocochook by the native peoples. The very first entries in this blog where about the beginning of my journey to climb Washington from the ocean, I still need to go back and fill the rest of that story in, but here is the money shot.
Of course, Nutty George (that’s what my dad called him, after a Bob Newhart routine https://youtu.be/_Tk76aLOH0M?si=EVhdhZlhXB4sKuWy, see 1:50 and 4:27) never saw the state that was named for him either, it didn’t exist yet. Still, you can’t escape his profile, it’s on every state highway sign.
Seeing it so frequently struck a chord with me. Washington DC is my hometown, George Washington University was my medical school, and he was my first president. Most of the portraits of him make him look like my grandmother, but Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wildly popular musical Hamilton really brings him to life.
I listened to the whole soundtrack today, some sections were so poignant I almost choked up. I needed a distraction on this soggy day. The rain was back, the hills and headwinds unrelenting. My high-tech Gore-Tex gear eventually got soaked to the bone, although I was warm as long as I kept moving. The checkout clerk at the grocery store was very patient with me las I fished out my credit card without taking off my sodden gloves. My bare bones B&B had no laundry, so I draped my stinky clothes next to the space heater. Charming.
My destination was Toledo Washington. Not the beautiful city in Spain, nor the much maligned one in Ohio. It brought to mind one of the most memorable bits from Saturday Night Live. “We’re Mr. and Mrs. WHINE-er. We come from To-LEE-do, and we have diverticu-LIE-tis.”
Ohio was also evoked because of the date. The Kent State massacre was 54 years ago today, I also noted it in my blog of 5/4/21. So relevant now, with the recent campus unrest about Gaza. My hometown paper, the Washington Post, has an excellent long form article today, but restrictions keep me from posting the link here.
Instead, I’ll repost Neil Young’s thumping lyrics.
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Distance 67 miles, 413 total. Time 10 hours with stops. Elevation gain 3108 feet
The Ends of the Earth 