Virtually Flying Over 5 Volcanoes With Madame McNutty

I have been seeing the above the past few days via Facebook. Even though this has been appearing for days the post has generated only one comment, that being...

"Very cool, must be view from Hurricane Ridge?"

Well, Hurricane Ridge is in Olympic National Park, at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. From Hurricane Ridge I think there are only two, maybe three volcanoes one might be able to see. Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, and maybe Glacier Peak.

When flying to Washington it is when you start seeing the whitecapped volcanoes that you know you are getting close to landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The view in the above photo is looking north, from Oregon. That would make the volcano in the foreground Mount Jefferson, with the next volcano being Mount Hood. Then we cross the Columbia River to Washington, seeing three of Washington's five volcanoes, Mount St. Helens on the left, Mount Rainier in the middle, with Mount Adams on the right.

I don't know if this photo of Pacific Northwest volcanoes fits with the theme of Washington scenes which make me and Madame McNutty homesick for our old home zone. Seeing this didn't make me homesick.

I prefer to see scenery from ground level, not the bird view...

Mount Saint Helens 39th Volcano Eruption Anniversary

This May 18, 2019 Saturday morning in Texas is reminding me of the Sunday morning of May 18, 1980.

Thirty-nine years ago.

This morning I am hearing loud booms, which I am 100% certain are not being caused by nearby Mount Wichita erupting.

A severe thunderstorm is currently raging loud at my Wichita Falls location.

This morning 39 years I was peacefully soaking in a hot tub when suddenly loud concussive booms began rattling the walls and windows.

I got out of the tub. A few minutes later the next door neighbor arrived to ask if we had heard.

Heard what, we asked?

The mountain has erupted was the answer.

There was no mystery as to what mountain had erupted. Mount St. Helens had been in active mode for months, with a large area around Mt. St. Helens with restricted access.

But, not restricted sufficiently. 57 people died in the eruption.

In the months prior to May 18, 1980 I had driven south to the north restricted zone to try and get a look at the suddenly active volcano. But that attempt to see was to no avail due to cloud cover.

That hot tub I was soaking in when Mount Saint Helens blew up was in Mount Vernon, about 150 north of the eruption, as a crow flies.

The eruption created a bit of a panic in the Pacific Northwest, with a rush on stores to get ash masks and, if I remember right, some sort of additional air filter thing for vehicles.

The initial eruption sent ash to the east, not north. One of the subsequent eruptions did send a small amount of ash as far north as the Skagit Valley. I do not remember ever feeling the need to use the ash mask I had ready to use.

Hard to believe that BIG BOOM was 39 years ago. Seems so recent in my memory.

Below is a Mount St. Helens video tribute to Pacific Northwest legend, Harry Truman. According to the video the song was a #1 hit. I do not remember this, but at that point in time I likely was not paying any attention to such things as what might be a #1 hit.

But listening to the Harry Truman Your Spirit Lake Lives On song it seems real clear that this was the first of the genre which was to become known as Seattle Grunge a decade later...

Spencer Jack Flies His Dad Over Mt. St. Helens On The Way To The Grand Canyon

Yesterday I blogged A Photo Of My Grandpa & Grandma Takes Me On A Detour Down Memory Lane in which I said something like "Jason if you are reading this you need to have Spencer Jack take you north to see if that Grandpa Porter memorial plaque still exists.

Well, Jason did read that and emailed that the going north to Lynden would have to wait til next week's agenda, because currently Spencer Jack is on Spring Break, which has Spencer Jack and my Favorite Nephew Jason flying to Las Vegas, I believe, unless the plan has changed since I last spoke to Jason.

From Las Vegas Spencer Jack is driving his dad to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Jason's dad, my Favorite Brother Jake, took Jason to see the grandest canyon in the world for the first time a month or two ago.

Jason was very impressed when he first saw the Grand Canyon. I remember my similar reaction a long long time ago. I can understand why Jason was eager to show Spencer Jack the Grand Canyon.

The email included a couple photos.

In the photo above I don't know which mountain is outside Spencer Jack's window.

Part of Jason's email said "Captured some great photos of two volcanoes on our way out of town. Apparently one of them erupted almost 36 years ago."

Well, I can tell the volcano in the foreground is Mount St. Helens. I don't know which volcano is in the distance. Adams? Hood? I don't think it's Mount Rainier.

How can it be 36 years since Mount St. Helens blew up? I recollect that day like it was yesterday. A little after 8 in the morning I was peacefully having myself a soak in the tub when I head loud concussive noise, like a bomb exploding. Soon a neighbor knocked on the door to tell us that the mountain had blown.

Today's 34th Anniversary Of The Mount St. Helens Eruption Has Me Feeling Homesick

This morning after I realized today marked the 34th Anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in my old home state of Washington, I blogged about this on my Washington blog in a blogging titled The 34th Anniversary of the Mount St. Helens Eruption on May 19,1980.

Thinking about the Mount St. Helens eruption which boomed over three decades ago got me feeling more melancholy than feeling even remotely nostalgic. How could anyone get nostalgic about a mountain exploding, killing a lot of people and doing a few billion dollars in property damage?

The melancholy homesick thing kicked in when I watched the YouTube video below, which I had used in an earlier blogging about Mount St. Helens and Harry Truman on my Washington blog titled Mt. St. Helens Harry Truman's Spirit Lives On.

Watch the video below and see if you can guess what makes me melancholy and homesick in addition to the woeful tone of the song.

If you guessed seeing mountains, rugged scenery and forests of tall evergreen trees you would have guessed right.....