We woke up early on Monday the 25th both deciding to skip breakfast nursing anxious stomachs. Leaving home for an extended amount of time causes both elation and anxiousness.
There’s always that little bit of worry in the back of your neck when you leave your own home to try out someone else’s for a week or even a month. In today’s climate that has magnified ten-fold.
When we left that morning, George Floyd was still living, businesses weren’t gutted, courthouses weren’t burned out.
As we traveled west across this great nation, I saw signs of hope and solidarity. People fighting to keep each other alive, nurses and doctors were healing, everyday residents were going out of their way to help a stranger, and people were supporting our front line workers like no other time in our history.
That was before Monday. We spent the day driving through North Carolina (past my bend in the river)[LINK TO BLOG POST] and Tennessee just stopping along the way for breaks and gas.
We met up with our traveling companions off of an exit just West of Nashville and together we ventured to Memphis before stopping for the night.
When we woke up on Tuesday, the world was different. There was anger, racism, hurt, and heartbreak although they weren’t new feelings they were more visible for the first time in a very long time.
As we drove across Arkansas and into Oklahoma we were blissfully unaware of what was going on in the world.
We stayed in Bartlesville, Oklahoma for the night visiting my cooking idol Ree Drummonds Mercantile.
I wish we could have spent more time there but when you’re traveling from state to state you have to prioritize what is most important to you and outdoors is where we wanted to be.
We drove across Oklahoma into Colorado stopping in Pueblo for the night. We visited the stunning Royal Gorge Bridge and Pike’s Peak. The architecture of the bridge and the date it was built continues to fascinate me. I’m a sucker for a pretty bridge.
We kept it short and stayed just outside of Denver. The rioting had begun and the world turned into this ugly place reminiscent of the 1960s all while fighting a pandemic.
It’s a perfect recipe for chaos and lawlessness that we’re witnessing. In Denver, the rioting began, and lucky for us because of the COVID virus we were already social distancing ourselves and stayed safe.
Driving through Denver on our way out of town the next day we saw the scars from a night of violence. Let me make this clear I have no time for racism. It’s ugly, it’s disgusting and I know that we can do better.
If people would just follow that golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do to you”. It’s simple.
I also believe in protesting, our country was founded on it, but what I don’t believe in is destroying someone else’s life and/or property. It doesn’t help.
My husband and I have had many conversations over the last few weeks. Most around racism in this country the damage that has been done and how can we work together to get this accomplished.
I don’t have the answers, but I’m ready for change starting in Nov 2020.
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As difficult a time as this was to travel, I hope that the beauty of this country, reflected in your pictures, fed your soul a bit before returning to the reality of what’s going on.
LOVE THE PHOTOS!!!!
OF YOU AND HUBBY!!!!!!!!
THE OTHERS TOO BUT THOSE WERE A GIFT!!!!
I CANNOT WAIT FOR NOVEMBER EITHER……..by the way HE is behind NOW by 14 % says CNN LAST NIGHT!THANK GOD!
WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY IS SHAMEFUL NOT TO MENTION THE OVER 60 CROWD!”OH IT”S JUST A FLU IT WILL GO AWAY!”
They are saying 200,000 in the USA will die by SEPTEMBER!That comes from a HARVARD DOC!
I have NEVER been into POLITICS nor want to be BUT from the GET GO I Knew he was a BAD SEED just by his lack of speaking skills.
Let’s get off this subject………..
YOU had a nice time seeing part of the country with the HUBBY by your side what could be BETTER!!!YOUR still young enough to do it AGAIN!
XX
What a time to be on the road!
Love the fact that you guys are talking and enjoying each other’s company.
Great pictures, too!
I’m ready for change as well. Bring on November!!!