Our Pop-Up Adventure
Well, it’s like this see. Our plan was to slowly make our way home from Santa Fe. Stay a few weeks at home. Then head up the pacific coast to Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada. The plan was to get out of the Arizona summer heat. Neither of us had been north of San Francisco on the west coast, so it seemed like a perfect plan.
But then, we got a call from Maria’s sister. She and her husband had won a trip to Italy. When they originally told us, we had offered to come out and stay with the twins and to watch their dogs. She said she had it covered. The boys would stay with the grandma, and a cousin would look after the dogs. That would work, but it seemed easier to keep the boys at home with the dogs.
Her sister called while we were on the road to ask if our offer was still good. She offered to fly us out. We decided that we would rather make it another adventure. After leaving Miami, we will head up the east coast and see where we end up. It’s a pop-up adventure. The opportunity popped up and we said “sure, why not”!
Deja View
The view from my window is so familiar. The I10 doesn’t change much. We’ve made pretty good time. Maria has done most of the driving. We stayed in Fort Stockton last night. We did get off the beaten path for a bit. The locals were very curious about us.
Random Stop
This morning we stopped in Fort Stockton because we passed another roadrunner statue. They claimed that it was the largest roadrunner in the world, but we know that’s not true (refer to last post). While at the statue, we noticed a visitor center. It is a railroad depot that was built in 1910 and opened in 1911. It is in incredibly good condition considering that it’s over 100 years old. The doors and windows are all framed out in wood. The attention to detail and quality of workmanship is obvious. The building has really stood the test of time.
Politically Awkward History Lesson
One thing that caught our eye was that there was a separate waiting room for women. There was also a waiting room for “coloreds” (the original plan wording, not mine). The women’s waiting room was marked by a wall plaque. The “colored” waiting room was accessed by an outside door, so that it was not accessible from the main station. The welcome center had decided not to mount a wall plaque for this waiting room. They felt it required more of an explanation than they could achieve with a simple plaque. I guess they didn’t know how to do it without seeming offensive. It was offensive though. There’s no getting around it. It’s part of the ugly underbelly of this country’s history.
A New Name
We’ve decided to rename the van. She will be known, moving forward, as Daisy. It’s a bright and cheerful name. We feel like it invokes a more free spirited essence.