Our Travels

Mapping the Road

Well, I told you that the trip was long. Crossing five states, riding hundreds and hundreds of miles. All on one main road. 

Route 66. 

"66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, for the desert's slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness o the land and steal what little richness is there" (119).

Sounds daunting right? Well, in case any of you are planning on taking on this endeavor, I'm not gonna sugar coat it. It was hard lots of days. Long days. Hot sun. Little food. I swear some days I'm so exhausted I start seeing red.

However, there's moments of hope in all this desolation. We met some nice families along the way. The Wilson's, strangers who didn't owe us nothing, helped lay down Granpa out of the very goodness of their own hearts. Sometimes, I've noticed, the best people come out of the worst situations. You don't see no bankers or rich families back east helping all us migrants. It's up to us to help each other.

It became difficult to tell places apart, because after a while everything began to look the same. All shades of red and brown. The heat makes the land dry as dust. Rain and other signs of life were minimal on the lonely road.

Until we reached the government camp in California. For the first time, we was a little bit happier, or I'd like to think we were. Everyone living and sustaining a community. There was others to interact with, simple jobs where we all got to work together. We were still hungry and barely had any money, but the government home was a distraction from that hunger.

However time passed, and well I was done sick of being hungry. So we left. And then this huge storm tore through the skies, ruining any crops that may or may not have existed.

So that's where we are. Still on the road. Stick stuck in limbo, with no true destination in mind.

When we find a home, y'all will be the first to know.