Day 160…
I am writing this morning from a blissfully quiet spot overlooking the Delaware river in New Hope, Pennsylvania. I am on my way to North Dakota.
That may be one of the more surreal sentences that I have written in a while. As I think about what we are all experiencing these days, though, perhaps it doesn’t even rate.
Of all of the states in the union, the single one that I have never been to is North Dakota. That is the sole reason that I am going there. The reason that I am going right now is that I have reached the point where have to go somewhere on my own or else I will lose my mind. “On my own” is the operative part of that sentence.
Traveling on my own has always been something that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I used to dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail solo when I was a kid. Two friends of mine are currently out there doing just that. They are heading towards each other from opposite directions. I’m looking forward, via social media, to them meeting up.
Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling with Michael and I have several friends who are excellent travel companions - one is great for hiking, another is great for temples in South East Asia - but I do love being out on my own.
As I got older, hiking the Trail slowly fell off my bucket list. I have never been camping on my own and I am not really all that interested in doing it. What replaced that for me is going to places that are as different from where I live as I can find. I love to see how people work and live in other places. Sometimes I meet people while I am traveling and fall into conversations, but most often I just keep to myself and watch.
The first time, I really went anywhere seriously on my own was in Greece. During one of our long semester breaks from my Junior Year Abroad college in London, a whole group of us went all around Europe. I started out with one friend in Marseilles, met up with two others in Rome, and then the four of us ended up on an island called Poros in the Aegean. It sounds fancy, but it wasn’t. At all. We all shared one room, I think, that may have cost us $10 a night.
After a few days, I left them and somewhat nervously went back onto mainland Greece on my own and traveled up to Delphi. I had no real plan, I just hopped on a train and headed up. I figured out how to navigate the local public transportation and found a cheap room to stay in. It was, of course, amazing, and I was hooked.
Last night was the first night of the Democratic National Convention. For the first time in its history, nobody physically gathered. Instead, it streamed virtually. It was a moving night with inspiring speakers.
In addition to speakers you would expect, four ranking Republicans spoke - Governor John Kasich of Ohio, Former Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, Former New York Congressional representative Susan Molinaro, and the CEO of Quibi, Meg Whitman, who was the Republican nominee in the 2010 gubernatorial race in California.
The evening, however, belonged to former First Lady, Michelle Obama. In her inspiring and moving 18-minute speech she hammered home the need for all of us to vote. Her necklace, that is apparently trending like mad today, spelled out the word “vote” in gold letters. For somebody who claims that they don’t want to be in politics, it was the kind of speech that launches a career.
She pulled no punches in her condemnation of the current President’s ability to lead. She excoriated him for how he has divided our country and for his inability to govern. "Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is," she said. That last line is a reference to the cavalier way he responded to the escalating death toll the virus has taken on our fellow citizens.
As if to prove what she was saying about his inability to bring us together, during the convention broadcast last night, the President retweeted a post that said, “Leave Democrat cities. Let them rot…. [Walk Away] from the radical left. And do it quickly.”
I’ve given myself four days to get to North Dakota and four days to get back. The quarantine rules in New York do not apply to people who are just passing through and are in a problematic zone for under 24 hours. I do not plan on staying anywhere for anything close to that. Mostly, it is going to be just me in the car or me in a spot like I am in now.
I am interested in seeing other parts of the country and how they are dealing with all of this. This is a unique time in our history. We seem to be as divided a nation as we were leading up to the Civil War. Neither side is willing to budge.I’m interested to see w hat is really going on.
On the car radio this morning, I tried to find some local news. Michelle Obama’s speech seems to have gotten under the skins of the conservative pundits as much as it did the President’s. Where the more liberal outlets were discussing the night thoughtfully, the conservative ones were offering little more than pro-right sloganeering.
As soon as I got out of the car here in New Hope, I started walking down the main street and saw two guys about my age and a younger woman across from me. As I turned to look at them, one of the guys said something to the others about people being so scared they couldn’t stand to be without masks even when there wasn’t anybody around. They, of course, weren’t wearing any.
I was expecting to run into this kind of thing the deeper I got into the country, but I wasn’t expecting to run into it in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
New Hope is about an hour and a half southwest of New York City. It was considered the half-way point between New York City and Philadelphia. In days past, travelers would stay the night and then be ferried across the river in the morning. Before General George Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware during the American Revolution, he is said to have spent the night here. He then destroyed the ferry so that the British couldn’t follow him.
These days it is a quaint little town that relies heavily on tourism. The Bucks County Playhouse is a well-known local theatre situated right on the river. I remember, years ago, seeing the front of it lit up for Fiddler on the Roof starring Adrian Zmed of Grease fame. I still deeply regret that we didn’t go to see it.
In the entire town, I've seen no Black Lives Matter signs and only one anti-racist one. That was on a side window of the bookstore. I also haven't seen a single person of color.
Of Pennsylvania’s two US Senators, one is Republican and the other one is a Democrat. Tom Wolf, the Governor is a Democrat.
I think that those people I saw on the street were from outside of the area because everybody else here seems to be following the rules. In Pennsylvania, everybody must wear a mask when they leave their homes. It’s mandatory in all public areas.
New Hope is a beautiful little town and today is about as perfect a day, weather-wise, as you could hope for. It is warm, not hot, and clear and crisp.
I kind of feel like I am taking all of you with me on this road trip, so buckle up. Aside from having North Dakota as my ultimate destination, I have no real idea where I am going.
For the next few days, I am just heading west. I’d say that I am enjoying the wind through my hair, but who are we kidding. The windows are up and the AC is on.
I’m looking forward to missing Michael.
Go to the ND Museum of Art on the campus of UND in Grand Forks. They have the relocated and reconstructed Westbeth studio of the late NYC artist Barton Beneš there, with his own work and collection. (Don’t know if there are any virus restrictions affecting museum visits.) ndmoa.com
❤️safe and wonderful trip
love to you and all your words
xx