Mount Saint Helens

Jul 8, 1984 Sun0National Parks

In the early 80's I traveled to a few places and kept a travel diary. I thought my sons would some day enjoy reading my diary so I have decided to put it in my blog. I will enter my diary here as I wrote it years ago when I was a much younger man. I was 24 years old in 1984. At this time in my life I was traveling to Toronto Canada every week and I got bumped from a flight. Delta gave me a free ticket to any place they flew in the 48 states. I looked at their route map and the farthest I could fly was Seattle, Washington. So I packed my bags, tent and sleeping bag and headed West. I drove around the North West for a week.

11:50PM I'm back in Cary, NC. Yesterday I bought a Mt. Saint Helens tee shirt and souvenir book. I stopped at a rest area to read the book. I then stopped at a Mt Saint Helens visitor center.

I had been told by a fellow at work that I could not get near the volcano, but I discovered that I could drive to within two miles of the volcano. However it was a 2 1/2 hour drive. I decided to go for it instead of camping early on Mt. Rainier. I'm glad I did. My pictures alone can't describe the destruction so evident even after four years. It was eerie. Something I won't soon forget.

Jul 7, 1984 Sat
Mount St Helens, WA. At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.

It was nearly dark by the time I got to Mt. Ranier. I was hungry so I decided to drive until I found food and then camp out. I ate at Godfather's Pizza near Seattle at 10:30PM. I'm now down to $6.00 following my instincts. I drove to Seattle, got off at the airport exit and found a KOA at 11:30PM where the man let me sleep in my car free. I was up this morning at 5:30AM taking a shower. I got the 8:00AM flight out instead of the 12:00. I got here at 5:15PM after what seemed like a couple of short flights.