Horseback Errand & Washington erupts (again)

1. At the end of a series of dreams Gordon and myself arrive at my parents' house in Suquamish. Something big has been happening in the news, so we turn on the TV to see the usual endless stream of reports whenever something major happens in the world. The reporter is blathering about some natural disaster, so I look out the window to see if a tsunami is coming. It's night, and I see a red glow in the sky over toward Seattle. Forest fire? No, a huge, Hawaiian style eruption is happening over on the Seattle side of the water!! West Point is a huge, wooded hill, and sheets of lava are fountaining into the air and flowing down into the water! We are horrified. Off in the distance on a further hill, similar activity is happening. Crazy...

2. We're now in Alaska on some kind of trip. We stop to visit some friends who have a ranch somewhere in the SE panhandle. Their place is accessible only by a long dirt road, several miles out of town. Somebody becomes gravely ill (or some such crisis) and somebody needs to go for the doctor. A horse is saddled and I volunteer to ride into town. (Why don't we take the truck we drove in with? Don't ask me.) It's a long ride, and I start in the dark on a big dun. Luckily there's a nice firm, sandy shoulder next to the road. When the sun comes up I see we're close to town. The girth is loose and the saddle keeps slipping back, so I "pull over" to cinch up. There's a spring right there, but the phrase "a spring of salty water" pops into my head. I taste it before letting the horse try it. It's not so much salty as "seasoned": sweet and salty. I let the horse drink.