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Holiday Letter 2024
What a year it’s been. The New Year found me in San Diego celebrating with my friend Steve from grad school. I always feel like, if I haven’t seen you for a long time when I do we’ll pick up where we left off and we did.
The La Brea Tar Pits have been on my list of things to do since I was a kid and they did not disappoint. I traveled on to the Bay Area where I stayed on another friend’s boat in the Berkeley Marina and also visited friends in Concord.
I was traveling in a Dodge Grand Caravan that had been given to me to support my homelessness work. During this phase of travel I started to work on my book The Practical Guide to Building a Better World. I began with an outline of each chapter and finished that in the first two weeks of the year.
After visiting friends I went back to travel, dispersed camping, hiking, seeing the sights and finding time to write. I had memorable visits to Death Valley and the surrounding area before heading East.
Chapter 1 was written as I more or less drive across highway 40 across Arizona and New Mexico. I stopped at a lot of ancient sites and took a deep dive into Petroglyph National Monument. I stayed a few days in Gallup which I’ve always liked and spent a day in Canyon de Celle which had also been on my list for a long time.
I stayed in more motels then usually because it was fairly cold for van sleeping. Between completing 28 days of stoic philosophical exercises and building in a routine of exercise and writing I accomplished what I wanted to on the trip.
Coming back through Kansas I visited Shae who I’d been talking to during my trip after starting dating before I left Leavenworth for an epic road trip last November. It went well and I returned for a Valentine’s Day date and she and the kids visited me in Columbia as well.
I had left my job to travel and write but I did some homeless outreach work and related case management in Columbia in the Spring for a couple of months with 4-A-Change. My brother John has taken over the business since I left Columbia but as he was between case managers I helped out until he could hire someone and I helped train them.
It was timely as I wrote my chapter on social service delivery doing the work. I had some modest successes and showed I could still do it. I also did training on case management for volunteers with CoMo Mobile Aid and Loaves and Fishes and later for the Flourish Initiative while I was steeped in the local resources.
Mostly though I was struck by the increase in homelessness and the difficulties at finding housing. I also noted a lot more seniors out there. It’s getting tougher and meaner every day with services increasingly strained.
My romance with Shae continued to blossom and we took a romantic weekend to Excelsior Springs. Our spending time together led me to staying over more until in retrospect we were living together.
Adjusting to family life was a nice transition and being a writer is a good lifestyle to relocate for your relationship. I kept on pace with the book and over the summer I found my voice for the book and began telling more stories versus technical details on building positive change.
We started to look for a property to buy but we struck out on finding the right live/work space for her photography studio. We did find a great historic home and we closed on it just before Thanksgiving.
I finished my manuscript and began to edit. A month or more of that and it was off to the publisher. We’re through the copy edit and initial cover design. We should be having presales together shortly after the holidays and should have books in the spring.
We’ve been packing and getting ready to move early in the next year. It’s very exciting.
I also reconnected with some old campaign staff and organizers who were excited about the book. Together we launched a political action committee called the New American Community to support my organizing and to promote localism. We’re claiming July 4th, 2024 as our born on date.
We supported some house candidates with fundraising assistance and built a digital fundraising operation. We have been preparing materials as well as doing some election advertising around the overall disappointing national election. Mostly though we’re building for the long haul.
Our goal is to identify, train, and support an organizer in every county in America, all 3,153 of them. We’re starting with the hard ones first. Our big campaign for 2025 will be to outreach and organize with county parties.
We believe that especially in very Republican areas organizing to win an election every 2 years is not the best strategy. We would like to see county parties organized as community benefit organizations working to meet the needs of their residents whatever that may be.
Think Nationally, Act Locally is our motto so we’re starting in Kansas where we received a promising welcome from the state party. We’re also talking to Missouri leadership and have been well received where we’ve been able to make contact.
Tomorrow Shae and I fly into Detroit to spend the holidays with my family and friends. New Years will find us in our new home celebrating a late Christmas with the boys.
On a personal note I’m down 62 pounds since my 2023 high. After returning to Leavenworth I joined a gym and hired a trainer to work on my posture and gait. I have been discharged from treatment for my liver and my sports medicine doctor who was addressing my knees.
Life is good and I’m excited to see what adventures 2025 brings. The move, the PAC organizing and book tour promise another year of consequence and travel. I hope this year your holidays are safe and bright. I will close with an important message from Batman.
Its not been a great year for blogging…so far
Hello faithful reader,
It’s been a long time since my last post. Sorry to leave you hanging. A lot has happened since my last post and I’ll use my time to try to get you up to speed. I was pretty new on the book writing project when I was still blogging in January. Today the book is being copy edited through my publisher Bread and Roses Press. Its a great feeling of accomplishment to have faced the blank page and been able to bring a concept to completion.
It’s taken a toll on my blogging for sure though, but for everything there is a season. As I turn from writing to editing and then on to marketing and promotion the blog is going to grow in importance. Every long absence from posting brings a commitment to post on the regular moving forward, but I am confident I mean it this time.
When I fell off on blogging I had turned Cookie Monster, the faithful minivan and short term housing vehicle towards point east. I ducked up behind the Sierras to get out of the way of another atmospheric river and ended up heading back to Death Valley. I had planned on camping just outside of the entrance after learning there is no more free campground camping there. I ended up just camping at a roadside park and then making my way into Nevada. After checking out the sites near Beatty I think I realized all the passes east were snow covered did I accept I had go back into Death Valley to get back home.
Once I got back on my journey to the east in a way that I could actually go I made a decision and found myself on 40. The blue highway stuff was too much at this point. I ended up traveling across 40 and mostly staying in hotels. There was a lot to see and I needed to make miles so that’s where I fell off on the blog.
Through my travels I had been talking to someone I was sweet on and dropped in for a visit on my way back through. Visits, turned to romantic weekends away, turned into living together and last week we closed on a house in Leavenworth.
In addition to writing The Practical Guide to Building a Better World I also formed a Federal political action committee called the New American Community to support my national organizing. The NAC’s mission is to identify, support, and train an organizer in every County in America, all 3,153 of them.
We believe in localism, pragmatism, pluralism, and the empowerment of every citizen to understand and improve their community. We believe that County parties can be multi-focal organizing hubs improving the lives of citizens everyday and not just knocking on a few doors every couple of years.
We have been raising money and building infrastructure as well as our work to impact the November elections. You can follow along at https://newamericancommunity.org
My goal for the blog is to be more substantive and idea focused but continue to be fresh and unfiltered. I plan to blog twice a week focusing on change strategies identified in the Practical Guide. These include lifestyle, organizing, politics, policy, the arts, mutual aid, social entrepreneurship, social services, and more.
Thank you faithful readers and new folks to the blog. Please comment, follow, and share when I put up something that grabs you.
East Bay Side Trek
It’s most likely my last night in Berkeley and I’ll be making the long slow way towards home tomorrow. I had planned to leave a couple of days ago but I had a warning light on the electric. Replaced the battery, still no good so swapped out the alternator today. Everything looks good on the meter and the rest drive for burritos.
I haven’t been in any kind of hurry. I’m staying in a boat in the Berkeley Marina. It’s a charming little efficiency apartment with teak wood everything and it rocks you to sleep when it’s windy.
Rich got the diesel heater going and it’s toasty. There was frost in the grass which is uncharacteristic for here, but it’s cold everywhere. Hence why I am in no hurry to leave. It’s only California cold here.
Since I’m writing this at water level I don’t have much signal, so no photos. It’ll be lucky to publish. If it doesn’t I’ll have added some pics. I’m going to turn in, but at least wanted to check in.
A Holiday Letter 2023
Today or tomorrow is Epiphany and if I see a Spanish bakery I’ll try to get the special loaf. If you get the Baby Jesus you are supposed to host the midwinter party.
I’m camped at an off road vehicle camp outside of Santa Clara. I spent last night here and it was great. All the off-roaders leaves before dark. Yesterday there was a class or group or something but it was a bunch of 4-5 year olds rising motorbikes and 4 wheelers around the giant parking lot. Pretty adorable.
I found some good hiking today and went on a heritage trail and a visitors center that had displays on the indigenous folks. Big time weavers. I also hiked to a little waterfall and also climbed up into the hills.
For the holiday season which is wrapping up now I often do an annual recap. I’ll do so now even though I’m way behind on my epic road trip narrative. I’ll probably abandon the play by play of campsites and activities.
2023 found me living in Leavenworth in an apartment in the old Jewish Temple and working as the Executive Director for the Alliance, a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter and program. In January I joined the Executive Board of the Leavenworth/Lansing Chamber of Commerce as the Second Vice Chair.
I submitted a corrective action plan for our certification site visit and the Alliance was granted provisional accreditation. We spent most of 2023 improving sexual assault services and staff training which. We had our targeted site visit in the Fall but we had not received a response before I left in November.
In the spring I slipped on my stairs and hyper-extended my knee. I also learned my knee was a mass of degenerative garbage. I was on crutches and missed a few days of work. It was a real low for me. I had gotten back to 280 pounds, what I weighed when I graduated high school but I’m not 17 anymore.
I started losing weight which accelerated when I learned I may have cirrhosis of the liver. It’s actually more common in obesity then alcohol use. I weighed myself in San Diego and I’m down to 239. I can definitely feel the difference.
I continued to go back to Columbia most months for the Columbia Men’s Book Club. We’re chugging along in maybe our 15th year. I also took a trip to Hays, Kansas because of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egv3IBkBH6Q&pp=ygUaNDkgd2luY2hlc3RlciBoYXlzIGthbnNhcyA%3Dwith with John but 49 Winchester cancelled their show 30 minutes before doors opened.
I went to Harry’s house for Easter and hosted Thanksgiving at John and Flow’s. After Thanksgiving I moved the last of my things to Columbia and cleaned out my apartment. I’d left the Alliance under my former Grants Manager who became the new ED, which made me proud as she is young and off to a great start in her career.
John and Flow and I flew into Maine and went to the Down East, mostly Bar Harbour and Arcadia National Park. It was cool but a lot of traffic and the color was limited.
I left on an Epic Road Trip and have been doing Van Life. I went to Big Bend NP and really enjoyed it. Saw my first javelina and bobcat and a ton of road runners. Great hiking and met Rey who showed me a pictograph and a mortar site by a tank. We heard a mountain lion yowl and found a ton of worked stones.
I also went to Carlsbad Caverns and camped a night with a traveling novelist. I visited Ray, who I met in my epic road trip 2 years ago for Solstice and had a great Yule fire. I also picked up a hitchhiker and took him to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
New Years found me in San Diego reuniting with Steve my best friend in grad school who I hadn’t seen in 25 years. Great visit and I have almost 2 more months for this leg of the trip as I work on my book. I outlined chapter 5 tonight. Going to turn in now and hike in a new spot tomorrow and plan on staying at a Walmart outside of Fresno tomorrow for the rain.
A Holiday Letter 2023
Today or tomorrow is Epiphany and if I see a Spanish bakery I’ll try to get the special loaf. If you get the Baby Jesus you are supposed to host the midwinter party.
I’m camped at an off road vehicle camp outside of Santa Clara. I spent last night here and it was great. All the off-roaders leaves before dark. Yesterday there was a class or group or something but it was a bunch of 4-5 year olds rising motorbikes and 4 wheelers around the giant parking lot. Pretty adorable.
I found some good hiking today and went on a heritage trail and a visitors center that had displays on the indigenous folks. Big time weavers. I also hiked to a little waterfall and also climbed up into the hills.
For the holiday season which is wrapping up now I often do an annual recap. I’ll do so now even though I’m way behind on my epic road trip narrative. I’ll probably abandon the play by play of campsites and activities.
2023 found me living in Leavenworth in an apartment in the old Jewish Temple and working as the Executive Director for the Alliance, a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter and program. In January I joined the Executive Board of the Leavenworth/Lansing Chamber of Commerce as the Second Vice Chair.
I submitted a corrective action plan for our certification site visit and the Alliance was granted provisional accreditation. We spent most of 2023 improving sexual assault services and staff training which. We had our targeted site visit in the Fall but we had not received a response before I left in November.
In the spring I slipped on my stairs and hyper-extended my knee. I also learned my knee was a mass of degenerative garbage. I was on crutches and missed a few days of work. It was a real low for me. I had gotten back to 280 pounds, what I weighed when I graduated high school but I’m not 17 anymore.
I started losing weight which accelerated when I learned I may have cirrhosis of the liver. It’s actually more common in obesity then alcohol use. I weighed myself in San Diego and I’m down to 239. I can definitely feel the difference.
I continued to go back to Columbia most months for the Columbia Men’s Book Club. We’re chugging along in maybe our 15th year. I also took a trip to Hays, Kansas because of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egv3IBkBH6Q&pp=ygUaNDkgd2luY2hlc3RlciBoYXlzIGthbnNhcyA%3Dwith with John but 49 Winchester cancelled their show 30 minutes before doors opened.
I went to Harry’s house for Easter and hosted Thanksgiving at John and Flow’s. After Thanksgiving I moved the last of my things to Columbia and cleaned out my apartment. I’d left the Alliance under my former Grants Manager who became the new ED, which made me proud as she is young and off to a great start in her career.
John and Flow and I flew into Maine and went to the Down East, mostly Bar Harbour and Arcadia National Park. It was cool but a lot of traffic and the color was limited.
I left on an Epic Road Trip and have been doing Van Life. I went to Big Bend NP and really enjoyed it. Saw my first javelina and bobcat and a ton of road runners. Great hiking and met Rey who showed me a pictograph and a mortar site by a tank. We heard a mountain lion yowl and found a ton of worked stones.
I also went to Carlsbad Caverns and camped a night with a traveling novelist. I visited Ray, who I met in my epic road trip 2 years ago for Solstice and had a great Yule fire. I also picked up a hitchhiker and took him to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
New Years found me in San Diego reuniting with Steve my best friend in grad school who I hadn’t seen in 25 years. Great visit and I have almost 2 more months for this leg of the trip as I work on my book. I outlined chapter 5 tonight. Going to turn in now and hike in a new spot tomorrow and plan on staying at a Walmart outside of Fresno tomorrow for the rain.
(epic road trip 2 #7)
It’s Christmas evening and I’m camped at the Cherry Creek Campground in the Gila Mountains. I had a room last night in Silver City and a night with heat and a king size bed got me to go back into the mountains which I hadn’t explored much traveling through them to go to the Cliff Dwellings and back out before dark.
I lounged in the hotel until checkout as is my wont. The travel and hiking and the cold has tended to wear me down so my hotel time is not as productive as I planned. I just want to watch some TV and enjoy the amenities.
I went to The Big Ditch which had been Main Street in Silver City but with logging and grazing big floods would sweep through and dug a big gulch through town. Eventually they built a couple bridges and stabilized it and are trying to turn it into a riparian area. Only 2% of New Mexico is riparian so it’s valuable habitat even in its half-assed form.
After that I planned to see the ghost town, Pinos Altos, in the foothills but there wasn’t much to it. It’s a going concern and ghost town is a misnomer. I hiked a short interpretive hike on early gold mining and grabbed a camp seat. After walking up the creek bed, down the road and climbing around on some rocks I dropped in on my neighbors camp.
I had loaned them my axe and it was 8 young Syrians. They were really gracious and pushed water on me and a nice seed/nut mix. We enjoyed the fire and hiked up the hill above the campground. They were nice young men and 55 seemed old to them which was funny.
The unexpected party and texts, calls and social media connections with family and friends made for a pretty nice Christmas. The full moon is a nice bonus.
I am still quite behind in my narrative. After Guadalupe, I camped at a BLM campground and went from there to Carlsbad Caverns. I met another traveler who was making coffee in the parking lot named Jon and he ended up being on my tour.
The Caverns are amazing. Mostly I stay off the beaten path but sometimes you have to dip into super mainstream country to see something amazing. The Big Room is the largest cave in North America and there are seemingly endless features. I’m writing this without a signal so I’ll add photos later.
I climbed out of the Caverns to get my cardio which I’m glad I did as their were lots of features still to see. Jon invited me for lunch at his camp on BLM land towards Carlsbad. Jon shared a couple chapters of his novel and it was a pleasant afternoon. Lunch was excellent, lentils with broccoli and sausage. We also smoked some of Jon’s mom’s weed and he sent me with a joint to go. It’s nice to be in a legal state.
Post Script: Back in Silver City. Going to hike the Dragonfly Trail to see some petroglyphs then catch the Mimbre pottery exhibit at the local university. Going to try and find some BLM land at lower elevation to camp, it was 19 degrees when I got up this morning.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Epic Road Trip 2 #6)
Tonight finds me at a roadside picnic area down the road from Sitting Bull Falls and the North Entrance to the Park. I may not get down to hike the Canyon There since I was invited to my friend Ray’s land in Alamogordo for Solstice. We are going to burn a Yule Log. You remember Ray from my last Epic Road Trip where we met on a hike in the Lincoln National Forest and have stayed in touch.
I woke up camped on some BLM land too close to a paved road with this epic roadtripper Jon. He is a cancer survivor taking some time to just be and be happy. I had met him at Carlsbad Caverns and he invited me to lunch at his campsite. He was a great camp cook and we had lentils with sausage and broccoli and it was delicious. He also read me the first couple chapters of his novel and I shared a few poems (Untitled #1, my Christmas Carol, and i am a pattern, you can find them in my poetry page).
I wanted to get an earlier start than Job but just as I pulled in a gas station to use the facilities and get a cup of coffee it started steaming. The first place I called couldn’t get me in until mid January but the next place got it in and replaced the heater control valve.
I walked some of the river walk and used their outdoor exercise machines. I also went to the thrift store and the library to read a bit and send out thank yous and post cards. Now I’m waiting for the Falls to open and getting my narrative closer to caught up.
A few days ago I camped at the Roadside park right before you get to Guadalupe. I went to the Ranger Station for info and a map. I walked over to the Butterfield Station Ruins. It was about the fourth or fifth Butterfield site I’ve seen on this trip. It ran a stagecoach from St Louis to San Francisco in 25 days. About 90 miles a day which is about what I average. Gives you a better appreciation for the scale of the country.
After that I did some backwards walking and hiked most of the Frijole Trail. Most people hike it from the Frijole Ranch and come back the ridge trail as a loop. I hiked up until I’d had enough and then hiked back. I didn’t really get into the trees much and it was mostly desert stuff. There were rock wrens and some towhe (sp ?).
After my bike I checked out the turn of the century ranch house where some truck farmers lived who served a lot of beans, hence the name.
I went back to Van Horn because I had forgotten something at a truckstop and couldn’t reach anyone. I got a keto pizza and a hotel.
My friend Kevin recommended the McKitrick Canyon Trail. At the trailhead is a nature trail which has some good info and is definitely worth doing. The McKitrick Trail is a really great trail. You hike through typical Chihuahuan Desert and then go into a woods of oak and Texas Mahogany. It’s a great tree with an edible berry in the winter.
About 2 1/2 miles there is a stone cabin from the late 20’s and in the Fall and Winter weekends they have a volunteer to answer questions. It was her first day but she had hiked the trail and had some recommendations in the surrounding area. Further up the trail there is a grotto with some formations and then another stone cabin from the same era.
PostScript: Definitely behind in my narrative. Currently in Silver City in a Motel 6 gearing up to see some sites in town and then head southwest for some desert camping. It’s cold and would like to get out of the mountains.
Meeting Rey (epic road trip 2 #5)
So I’ve fallen behind in my narrative. When I left I had planned on leaving Big Bend because all the sites at Rio Grande Village were reserved and I was overwhelmed by Recreation.Gov to look at other sites. I decided to hit the hot springs on my way out. The panel of pictographs I hadn’t been able to find popped out and the hot springs were hopping a bit.
There was a guy sharing a black bear video from earlier in the week and we struck up a conversation. I’ve been doing Stoic spiritual exercises for a week at this point and Rey was also a week into his spiritual journey so we hit it off more than a bit. He posts his stuff at http://www.us385.com
We ran into each other again and ended up going on a hike and I spent a couple more nights at his campsite at Cottonwood. Rey is a great local guide and he took me to an obscure pictograph site our first day and a settlement site with more mortero holes than I’d ever seen at one place.
While we were at the mortero site we found a sheltered ledge by a water tank that was a perfect spot for a mountain lion. There was some scat and we heard it yowling as we were leaving.
Rey was a great guide and we had some wild coincidences besides both being a week into our wilderness/spiritual journeys. We were both wearing green zipper pants and we had both sewed buttons on them the day before. Rey got me paying attention to my dreams. I’ve been aot more rooted in philosophical inquiry and practice/study and less into mystical experience but being dream aware has been a nice addition to my practice.
Walking back from the mortero site Rey showed me how to spot artifacts and we saw a ton of worked stones and some rocks set up as a base for wickiups.
I also saw some pictographs that had been degraded off of Indian Head Road with some better directions then when I couldn’t find them before. Then I explored the Alpine and Marfa area.
I checked out the Museum of the Big Bend and dis some hiking. After that I went up to Fort Davis, which was the best fort so far of the six I’ve seen. I finished up the area at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Center and cactus museum which is definitely worth seeing.
Epic Road Trip 2 #3 (4 forts in Texas)
Well constant reader, I have made it Great Bend National Park and have been here about 4 days. I made much better time than I planned and the trip has become more and more magical. I am in a campsite in the Cottonwood campground drinking a cup of herbal tea and winding down from the drive in before I turn in. I don’t have a signal so I will work in some photos if I get the chance, if I don’t please excuse the wall of text.
I believe I left off in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a lack of outdoor recreation that makes it really standout, not only in the West but nationally. The conservation area I camped at probably required a hunting permit. My second night in Oklahoma was in a Walmart parking lot.
The bright spot was the Seminole Museum. They have a number of very cool artifacts and their interpretation tells their story very well. I was somewhat familiar but definitely learned something. They had the longest campaign to force their relocation of any tribe. Basically in 3 waves they were defeated militarily and forced to move over 80 years I believe. A remnant was able to maintain in the swamps and that group ultimately received tribal recognition.
The British encouraged slaves to flee to Florida and they were taken into the Seminole Tribe. I also learned the Seminole were a composite group of remnant tribes decimated by disease that formed the Seminole fairly late in history. A lot of their tribal traditions, like dress, were based on trade goods. Trade cloth was a lot better than buckskins for the Florida heat.
They originally started more northerly in Alabama, Georgia and the panhandle but were pushed deeper into Florida. The museum had cultural artifacts and a lot of contemporary art. I did enjoy driving the back roads through Oklahoma. I found a conservation area to camp in after crossing into Texas.
I got an early start but backtracked back a bit to Tulsa and went to a park and botanical gardens that also had the historical museum. The Japanese maple were in all their Fall glory and it has been fun to turn back time to the leaves changing as I’ve traveled south.
I visited 4 forts in Texas under different arrangements and in different conditions. Fort Richardson is in a State Park and has preserved buildings and some recreational similar to Fort Scott. The state park has more buildings open but less interpretation and archeology than the feds but provided an overall better experience. The Fort
Fort Phantom Hill was ruins, mostly chimneys and some stone foundations. Fort Chadbourn was privately owned and run by a foundation, with like 4 people doing it. It has a little bit of ruins but mostly reconstruction. It also had the best collection of artifacts. Lots of guns including guns from the Little Big Horn.
The Comanche had killed a couple guys on a mail run, it was precipitated by one of the soldiers but it got them both killed. The Comanche were confronted and threatened with arrest so they seized an officers barracks and forted up. A Lieutenant kicked the door in and got killed for his trouble but the Comanche were defeated. You could still see the bullet holes. There was also soldier graffiti writing Tecumseh, Michigan about 20 miles from where I grew up. Warmed my Yankee heart.
I had a nice talk about running a nonprofit with my museum tour guide and met the ranch owner who grew up with the ruins and learned they were important in college and built the museum and led the reconstruction. His workman consulted on the stabilization of the chimneys at Fort Phantom Hill, which did have an existent magazine. Ammunition storage buildings are mad so thick they stand the test of time.
The last fort was Fort Stockton. It’s owned by the city and run by the local historical society. Not much to it. It was a Buffalo Soldier fort. Noticed it’s guardhouse had chains on the wall and it was the first fort without a bakehouse. They fed those fellows leftover hardtack from the Civil War in 1858. The chaining up was reflective of the harshness of Civil War discipline the interpretation said but I wondered if it wasn’t the fact that they had white officers and Black soldiers?
I got my first hotel a week into the trip at Fort Stockton knowing it was the last cheap city before Big Bend. I finished my tea and will take another trip to the pit toilet before calling it a night.
PostScript: I am at a McDonald’s in Alpine Texas enjoying access to a sink and flush toilet, a second cup of coffee, a couple of sausage biscuits (one would have been better) and crappy wifi. I’m going to slow track to Marfa camping at roadside parks unless I find something better. Researching on how to do Guadalupe Mountains National Park with camping full.
Epic Road Trip 2 #2
My free camping app took me to a conservation area in Oklahoma. The mapping function has degraded or I need to download All Trails because it has been consistently unreliable. I was able to take clues from the description and find it in Google Maps. There was a big camp of presumably hunters but they were quiet and across the campground. I had a nice campfire and heated up a can of spaghettios and toasted some marshmallows.
I drove up to the main road to get a signal and routed to a hiking area west and south. On the drive I stopped for gas and looked at attractions again and backtracked to Tulsa to go to Woodruff Park. It’s a rose garden park which December is not it’s best face. They had some other gardens and this great statue of Linaeus.
There was also a historical society with a museum. I walked through the herb society holiday market but it was all peopley and I’m opting out of Christmas this year with solo travel so it had nothing to offer. Hot cider was tempting but not in a Styrofoam cup.
The museum volunteer was nice and they had a room devoted to the Tulsa Race Massacre. Lots of photos and I learned the Black folks were put in internment camps after which I did not know. An Oklahoma task force examining the issue 25 years or so ago recommended reparations but of course they’re still waiting.
I learned Tulsa was founded by Native Americans, Cherokee I believe but it was light on artifacts. There was a big exhibit on Route 66 and I mentioned that some day car culture would be looked at similarly to the Tulsa Race Massacre, also acknowledging I’m on a road trip. I still took up the offer for a photo.
I also checked out the statuary of Native American ballerinas and finished up with a walk through the collection of the trees as I’d heard the holly was impressive. Not a lot of berries. The Japanese Maples were impressive and rolling back to an earlier stage of Fall is a nice benefit of traveling south.
My next destination was the Seminole Museum. I knew a lot of the history but learned a lot more. The Seminole were a collection of tribal remnants ravaged by disease and were in Florida panhandle and Alabama before being pushed south. Great history of resistance and had to be captured in waves to get sent west. Lots of Black folks fleeing slavery had joined up which drew the ire of the US.
The two newest bands were both Black Seminoles. Those sent to Oklahoma were first put on the Creek Reservation and had a tough time of it. Including Black folks they were threatened by slave owning Creeks. They split over the civil war but most backed the South and took a further beating during reconstruction. Others joined the Black regiments of the North.
The museum was cool, lots of artifacts and in depth interpretation as well as a growing collection of modern Native American art. I don’t have enough signal to post pics. I’m currently camped by the Brazos River Dam. I got in just before dark and enjoyed a nice campfire and had the free campground to myself. I’m going to hike the Brazos today and stay another night to get some time out of the van.
My last night in Oklahoma led me to a Love’s Truck Stop. It was a small car lot with lots of loud trucks so I stayed at a nearby Walmart Parking lot. I brought a sleeping mask and had a good night there. I went back to the truck stop for coffee and my morning constitutional.
It was heavy fog and cool so I read until well after sunrise. I took back roads and drove slow until the sun finally burned away the fog. I wish I could upload pics when I stopped at a graveyard. You can see one on my Facebook page. Mike Trapp Columbia MO, look for the personal page and not my professional page which is not really active.
I’m going to do my morning chores and go for a hike so I’ll leave Ft Richardson for my next post. Thanks for reading. Would love to see comments, questions or whatnot.
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