On the Road Again - Adventures from an Empty Nest

We're in the southwestern corner of New Mexico, stalled by heavy winds and cold weather to the east of us. The town of Jal (originally JAL, after the cattle brand of the ranch that used to be here) is a good place to be stalled. Just south of town is a lake, shaped like the original JAL brand, and a beautiful park where RVs and campervans can plug into water and electricity and stay for up to three days for free. The lake has a nice trail around it, and is full of migrating birds who flit among the cattails and tease the resident ducks. Nash has discovered the pastime of birdwatching. Unlike human birdwatchers, he makes no effort to identify the species he is looking at; he just watches, rapt.  Actually, we were already in a kind of holding pattern. I am flying out of Oklahoma City Friday morning, so we need to be near the airport on Thursday night, but we don't want to get there too early and have to spend our last days of travel together in an urban Walmart parking lot. So we...

It's been a week (and a few days) of awe and wonder in the Szakos household. We started the week at the Grand Canyon. We'd been there before, when the girls were in middle school. We had camped on the North Rim, and it should have been amazing, but there were forest fires to the west of us, and the entire canyon had filled with smoke. In three days, we never saw anything below the rim. This year, the North Rim campground was closed - for fires, again - so we went to the more visited South. We'd been experiencing a bit of canyon fatigue after all the national parks we'd been visiting. Majestic towers carved from the earth by time - amazing, yes, but we'd seen a lot of them. But now we know why this canyon is called Grand. Wow! Up to 18 miles across and a mile deep, stretching for 277 miles, it really is awesome. Pictures can't begin to do it justice, and mine certainly don't. We ended up staying for three days, hiking the various parts of the rim and camping ...

When we planned this trip, I admit I was unprepared for how deeply our government would have decended into authoritarianism. Although I don't overestimate the impact of the individual impact of my resistance in Charlottesville, I still felt guilty for checking out for almost two months as federal troops began brutal operations in American cities and ICE continued arresting and disappearing people. Shouldn't I stay home and support those fighting for democracy and standing up for vulnerable neigbors? Possibly. But this trip has been an opportunity to visit little-known parts of this country and be reminded of its diverse cultures and history. Traveling to National Parks during the federal government shutdown has reinforced the importance of the work the federal government can do when it isn't busy terrorizing its people. Visiting the grave of farmworker organizer César Chavez reminds us of those who have fought long and successfully before us. Someone said that opposing auth...