When I offered to repay the generous help that you gave me, that kept my family out of a homeless shelter, you demanded that in return I pay it forward and I write.
Well, I can't do much about paying it forward yet, so instead I will inflict my writing upon you in what I hope will be a new weekly series with the awesomely unoriginal name of Red State Diaries.
This week's installment is below the curlicued whatever-it's-called that I still refer to as the fold.
Yes, we went to Disneyland. We'd already bought annual passes when things were better, and we figured to get one last use out of them. Unfortunately, pictures will be an issue as the Little's camera refuses to disgorge them.
Nevertheless, she had a wonderful time, which made driving to my parents' house much more "family vacation" and much less "Napoleon's retreat from Moscow". Kossack Homogenius put us up for a couple of days in Anaheim, so we were able to buy the Little a few things as well. Seeing three-fourths of our possessions destroyed or given away wasn't easy on her, though she isn't materialistic and most of her things went into storage.
So, yeah, Disneyland. If you've been on Star Tours, and you thought it was cool, you were wrong. Now it's cool. We also got to see the new Ariel ride, and see the work progressing on the revamped California Adventure park. We all went on our favorite rides as well to say goodbye, and Mrs finally got to see the new dragon in Fantasmic. Then, after a stop for free wifi and breakfast, we headed east.
There are stretches of I-5 and I-40 I'm very glad I won't have to drive again for a while. I-40 east of LA, heading out into the California desert, and site of the United States Government Strategic God-Damned Fucking Nothing Reserves, is probably the worst of them all. We saw scars from a small wildfire that had barely started before the crushing weight of a nation's indifference to this area's very existence stamped it out.
If you had to look at the landscape in Arizona and the landscape in New Mexico, and guess which one was where nuclear weapons were tested, I'm guessing most people would guess wrong. We tried to push through Arizona as much as we could - not wanting to spend even a little money there due to SB 1070 - but we had to stop at Holbrook. We did spend a little money in Navajo Nation. I'm sure you all can figure out why.
I have to admit, if I had to go live in the desert again I'd vote for New Mexico. I like the people, the scenery, and the activities there. Unfortunately I didn't get flashed by cute college girls there like I did last trip, but you can't have everything. This is the part where you tell me that New Mexico is unrepentantly red, and I have a sad.
New Mexico, just outside Albuquerque, is where the storm found us. It started off as scary dark clouds to the north and east and scattered light rain. The rains got heavier, the winds got stronger, and by the time we were in the Texas Panhandle the storm was this monstrous purple-lightninged horror, with a hellish orange glow and bright blue flashes from the core. Ink-black clouds scudded across the highway at freight-train speeds, dumping rain...at head height. I turned on the radio to the weather alert station, expecting to hear Denethor yelling "Drop your weapons! Abandon your posts! FLEEEEE FOR YOUR LIIIIIIVES!!!" but it was dead air. Either the storm ate the weather alert radio, or this is considered normal driving weather in that area. Yeah, I'm thinking maybe not New Mexico.
We finally lost the storm and went to ground in Elk City, Oklahoma. With five hours to drive, we took our time, though this being a holiday weekend not much was open. I thought that there was an Indian Nations information center somewhere on I-40 in Oklahoma, but we never saw it. We did have a little "almost there" party two hours out, we stopped by the "Welcome to Arkansas" rest area with "We apparently live here now. What do we need to know?" and we pulled up into my parents' driveway at 2 PM local time, July 4th, Independence Day. And it, of course, rained.
We've been unpacking, getting necessities taken care of like setting up the home network. Yes, we live in such benighted, primitive conditions here in the Ozarks in Arkansas that we're sharing a DSL connection.
So far, I've been...well, let me be blunt. Apparently they've been eating peanut butter and bread for two weeks because they couldn't make it in to the store and didn't have the energy to get anything else so we've been buying groceries, getting them fed, working out things that we can do to help. I'm thinking that if I do get something somewhere else - and I am still interested and looking - then we'd better hire someone to come out once a week and mow the yard, check the house, and make sure that they have food. If only there were some kind of nationwide organization that could do this, that we all already paid fees into, that could take care of people when they get old and/or sick. But I guess that's socialism.
We didn't go to the local Fourth of July celebrations. I'm not up to meeting the neighbors yet. Next on the to-do list is heading over to the Wal-Mart in Clarksville (I know, I know), getting the address change, car registration, and driver's license changed, and finding a D&D game.
Not necessarily in that order.