Enough with the personal financial troubles of the last couple posts. We have certainly been a bit distracted by the responsibilities of life, but we are still making Eastward progress. We have made it across the Heartland of America—affectionately called the “land we fly over” by some of the folks who live on the coasts.
While we have been in the Midwest we have not climbed mountains or tasted wine or walked the footsteps of movie stars. The scenery is subtle with rolling hills of endless cornfields. The people are hospitable and enjoy a sane pace of life. It was a good breather from our hectic travel schedule and life in the big city.
For me it is also a return to family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, a nephew and my dad. In my intermittent visits during and since college, I have taken snapshots of life in the Midwest but have not lived there for nearly a decade. What strikes me while reflecting on the past 10 years is that despite the steadiness and routine of the Heartland, it is not exempt from the involuntary changes that come with the passing years of life. When my mom passed away two years ago this summer, it changed daily life for my dad and brother at home and has altered the dynamics of our family visits since then.
We will experience much of the inevitable change of life from afar while we are away in the Foreign Service. Potential change makes me appreciate the everyday life that we share with friends and relatives on our visits. While every day schedules may seem routine and unchanging, one day they will only be relived through fading memories. It is these everyday activities and moments of life that make the fabric we weave together to form our most lasting relationships. We have appreciated our time with all of you along the way and look forward to more memory making in the years to come.
More than one state across the nation is in fiscal trouble, but their seemingly semi-random revenue generating activities can be frustrating. To cut through the verbosity, I got a speeding ticket. I hope it helps reduce Illinois’ raging deficit.
I suppose it doesn’t come as a surprise that we would meet a friendly State-trooper at some point in our journey, and I guess I should be happy we made it over 8,000 miles without handing over my license and registration. And I certainly can’t argue that I was speeding, but isn’t it frustrating to see those lights in your rearview mirror?
If you were hoping for some existential reflections, you’ll have to wait for a later date. Today my contemplations are about my legal identification.
My identity was stolen last week—credit cards opened in my name and our checking account drained of funds.
Although I will hopefully not have any lasting financial impact, my first few days of identify-theft remind me of coping with other tragedies like death. When someone else has a death of a family member or friend, I can be empathetic, but I do not know exactly how he is feeling, nor can I truly share his perspective. I always felt bad for folks that had their Social Security Numbers stolen, but never shared in their anguish.
I never before contemplated these burning questions: Who is this imposter? Does he even look anything like me? Is he at least good-looking? Why did he choose me? How did he get my information? Will he be caught? How can I ever rest easy about my identity security again?
Identity Theft is a very strange crime of which to be a victim. I happened to find out immediately due to fraud detection at my bank and a credit card. But the other new credit card I detected on my own by accessing my credit report. I could not have discovered the crime until well after it was committed.
These acts of fraud are a byproduct of our modern world. While my friends and family recognize my physical appearance and voice and know my character through our interactions, the rest of the world recognizes my SSN, address and driver’s license and knows my character through a compilation of recorded historical behaviors. It would be quite a feat (Mission Impossible worthy) to be an impostor in my personal life, but much easier to use my basic information to get credit in my name.
I hope my impostor had a fun weekend and enjoys his freedom before our legal system brings him to justice.
Many of the first settlers in the American colonies were seeking freedom from religious persecution in Europe. In the same way, some of the settlers of the American West were seeking freedom from religious persecution in the Eastern United States. Our Constitution protects our legal right to practice any religion, but that has not necessarily changed the way people perceive and interact with those who have different beliefs.
Mormonism began in the Northeast but resistance to these different beliefs led Joseph Smith to take the followers of this new faith to Illinois and ultimately Brigham Young led the followers to Salt Lake City. In the same way that the Pilgrims found freedom an ocean away from Europe and in the less populated colonies, Mormonism was finally able to put down its roots across the continent from its birth and in the isolation of the Utah desert. Visiting Salt Lake City reminded us of the diverse applications of freedom in the United States; the Mormon family-oriented, conservative lifestyle is a stark contrast with our previous urban desert experience—the hedonism of Las Vegas.
We took the opportunity to learn about Mormonism from the experts. We visited Temple Square and attended a movie about Joseph Smith shown in the memorial building of his namesake. It was insightful to learn about his journey and the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
We also enjoyed the modern day benefits of Salt Lake City’s location—the ski slopes! A little bit of powder and warmth reminded us we were not in the Northeast. It is a mystery to me how it can be warm enough to eat lunch on the patio of the ski lodge and then ski down the mountain on fresh snow—must be a miracle.
We will only comment on this for a moment, but I thought it was interesting to mention. On the east coast we hear about California being broke and their budget not being balanced, but I did not expect to experience the results of this. We stopped into a state park in Northern California to see the redwoods, we expected to find a state park with information and rangers…we saw one ranger. We walked up to the visitor’s center and were greeted with a sign reading “please note due to budget cuts you may experience reduced levels of service”…hmmm we thought. So we proceeded to get a map, and we tried to use the bathroom which we soon discovered was locked…reduced levels of service. We decided to try and do a short loop to see an old redwood, called “old tree” that was supposed to be 12” across, we found the path and soon encountered a fallen down tree, we walked on and found several fallen trees across the path…apparently more reduced levels of service…
We drove up Route 1 and 101 along the California coast, it is tremendous scenery. The rolling hills and incoming fog reminded me of Jurassic Park and yet we were right between two of the largest cities in America. We arrived late to Palo Alto and the next morning went running around the campus of Stanford University. It is unlike any other school, with Spanish influenced architecture and wide expanses of lawn. It is a school known for its tremendous scholastic ability and its business school prides itself on its entrepreneurial flavor.
Today we enjoyed the beauty of the Napa wine valley, we drove through the hills and stopped to taste the local varietals. The people are friendly, relaxed and encouraging. At one vineyard we ran into a gentleman originally from Wales who has become an American citizen and is a chef. He has decided to leave the wine industry and start his own business being a private chef. He said in this country you have to have a dream and a goal, it’s great to be an American but if you aren’t living your dream and you don’t have a goal, you aren’t living up to what this country stands for.
Driving from the city of human desires and imagination in the middle of the desert, we have now made it to Hollywood! Hollywood an American creation entirely different, a place where we create dreams, stars and stories.
We started our time in Los Angeles in Santa Monica, with a run along the beach and stroll down the 3rd street promenade. We noticed something truly interesting on the promenade, people like to stand out, here in LA they want to be individuals and be seen, become a star. In New York everyone wants to be an individual but you want to blend in. We walked down the promenade with our tea latte, which my sister told me I had to try, and listened to the musicians, watched the dancing trefoils (girl scouts dressed up as cookies trying to sell cookies, they were successful I should mention since my husband is truly a cookie monster at heart), and enjoyed the flavor of the evening. We made our way back to dinner to share in some good old family reunion time with all the cousins.
We continued our Hollywood experience by getting the specialized tour with a studio tour, and private viewing of a new film from my cousin Greg. He then showed us the walk of fame and the Chinese theatre, and we saw the red carpet being prepped for the Oscars the following evening. It was a true taste of Hollywood, and it was a great flavor of the excitement that is found in this industry of creating the uncreated and limitless possibilities that the human mind can come up with.
LA reminded me of the unique privilege we have as Americans to dream, to build and create intellectual capital.
After departing New Mexico we hopped back on the road and our next destination was Sedona, Arizona. As we drove through this area of the Southwest we found lots of open space, land formations and lots of Native American reservations.
There is nothing quite like the national parks, a place where we can enjoy the wide open space and natural beauty of our country without all the tourism and all the hustle and bustle of modern life. We decided to see what Arizona had to offer and made our first national park stop, the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.
The Painted Desert is truly fantastic, the landscape is a movement of color, beginning red and orange and becoming purple and blue as you drive on. Scattered throughout all this landscape are pieces of petrified wood from when this used to be a tropical climate. The petrified wood is both unique and fascinating; the trees crystallized and became stone.
We left the Painted Desert and continued down the interstate driving through the Coconino National forest. It’s amazing you drive through a beautiful national forest with several feet of snow on the ground, and then come over the ridge of the mountain and enter the desert. As you drive into Sedona it is absolutely beautiful with its red rock formations but it is a stark contrast to the wide open unobstructed views of the national parks. Sedona has become known not only for its red rock but also its spiritual energy and vortexes.
The town has become a center for retirement, tourism and spiritual growth. When you walk into the main strip in Sedona, you can find jeep rides through the red rocks, massage centers, UFO siting tours and centers for photographing your aura. Now I don’t know exactly what photographing your aura means or looks like but it appears to be a popular activity.
We took advantage of the red rock country and went for a hike up to Cathedral rock, the most photographed formation in Sedona. It was truly fantastic, and quite strenuous. After completing our on the ground tour we took to the skies in a helicopter ride. We spent about 15 minutes flying around the area and around the formations for a very unique view.
After departing Sedona we took off up north to see the most famous formation we American have, the Grand Canyon. We arrived just in time for sun set, and despite the cool temperatures it was still an amazing sunset. How do you really even try to describe the Grand Canyon, it is truly huge. We often make it larger than life, and I don’t want to do that, but it is difficult to put into words the canyon created by waterways slowly eroding the land and showing us the sediments going back 1900 million years ago, it is hard not to be impressed.
While staying in Cochiti Lake, New Mexico on the Cochiti reservation, we went for a hike up out of the desert to see the ruins of the pueblo. Several hundred years ago the tribe moved to the top of the mesa to protect themselves from the Spanish. The story goes that the Spanish had been quite cruel to the native people as we have all heard many times. Well the Cochiti got together with several other tribes in the area and drove the Spanish out of the region. The Cochiti than were afraid that when the Spanish returned they would be even more brutal, so they moved up to the top of the mesa. You can still find the ruins of the pueblo they inhabited up there. The trail is actually the trail that the women would use to go retrieve water from below. It was a fairly steep hike and it was especially challenging given the foot of snow that resided in some portions of the path. I thought that my hiking boots would be ok with a pair of smartwool socks, however by the time we reached the top my boots were soaked and my feet were sloshing around inside. By the time we came back to the car at the bottom and returned to the house, my feet were blocks of ice and you could ring the water out of my socks when I took them off.
