As enthusiastic as I am about the National Infantry Museum, I think the IMAX movie of The Lewis and Clark Expedition was for me the most meaningful part of today.  The movie was beautiful, but it's the amazing coolness of the adventure   capturing my interest. Tonight we watched a program on Hulu about the trip ... now I see that there is a trail ride along the Lolo trail and it's easy to see why folks would want to retrace a path through a portion of the country side.  In the movie today seeing the Pacific Ocean was just really cool ... I could begin to imagine their joy at accomplishing the objective ... collecting treasures of information along the way.  It was a magnificent demonstration of collective human spirit.  
I have to learn more about these individuals and their journey.  So much of it seems remarkable ... admirable ... maybe even noble.  
i can only imagine the hardships encountered ... many which must have gone beyond distasteful or extremely difficult to   seemingly insurmountable.  I wonder did they despair?  I can imagine climbing to the top of a frozen mountain only to view an expanse of ... ice ... and bitter biting frost gnawing at their extremities as hunger gnawed within.  What fed the spirit to move forward deeper in to the unknown?  That ... and how amazingly cool is it that a key points "things" went miraculously well?  How did that happen?

  
I am going to learn about the lives of these people.  It's interesting from an historical perspective.  More so to me though are the personal stories of fortitude and courage.  The movie said Lewis noted that he was never happier then when he was blazing this trail ... I can easily imagine that.  What he was doing was so much bigger then the lives that we get rutted in ... and I wonder how is it possible, because I intuitively believe it must be, to live a life at this scale.  Not the names they made for themselves, but the reward of a stack of days well spent.