Appalacha and Home

We left Alabama and didn't arrive in Chattanooga, Tennessee until late in the evening. With Larry's help driving, we're able now to go longer stretches of driving without being too exhausted. We stopped for lunch in downtown Chattanooga that is a very hopping little city! The diner we had lunch in is owned by New Yorkers and we had finally arrived in a place where we could have vegetables in abundance. In Chattanooga we only had a couple of hours to tour so we chose to see Ruby Falls "in" lookout mountain. The falls are subterranean and include a walk in a cave.

Ruby Falls however is a bit different because of the lovely waterfall that comes from a mysterious origin, pools in the cave, and then makes its way to the Tennessee River. We were in the mountains though and my experience along the Appalachian mountains has always been positive. Eastern Tennessee is a rapidly growing place with replaced Northeasterners and the most tolerant Southerners I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. My dear friend Amy moved to Knoxville so I have been to see her a few times and met really nice people in Tennessee.

We drove to Knoxville with a happy heart knowing I would see Amy and her lovely family for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish New Year. Amy lives in a "castle"...seriously. Her home is like a modern day fairy tale home and Amy has a great decorating sense. She modeled the home after French castle and everything about it is warm and inviting. The best part is that her view is spectacular in the Smokey Mountains. Amy was once a New Yorker transplanted by her husband's work every few years but they have decided to plant themselves in Knoxville permanently even though her husband now works in New York City. He comes home for long weekends though and loves his home in Knoxville.

We all went to services together on Rosh Hashanah and enjoyed the time together. Our visit was too short though and we drove the rest of the afternoon up into Virginia and then stayed the night in West Virginia. We drove for six hours which was the longest drive but for the first time I had the pleasure of watching a DVD with Cole in the back seat! We also have never had to drive at night I realized. Oddly we were playing the 'license plate game' since July 30th and we weren't able to find ALL 50 STATES! We couldn't find Rhode Island or Delaware even in Pennsylvania (iPad has a great application game for the license plate game).

The next morning we wanted to head for home directly and we drove for 3 hours to Exton, Pennsylvania which is the town next to ours. We had lunch in one of our favorite restaurants and it was there that I felt like I was home. We live on the last stop of the 'Main Line' of Philadelphia and it is a very busy place of corporate businesses and suburban populations. In this Mexican restaurant there were people from all over the world, representing all races and creeds. We were really home in our melting pot where tolerance is taught as an important value.

What I realized upon returning home is that I really am a child of the newly named 'Megalopolis' of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC and I feel comfortable in this enormous corridor. I know how to live here and I value the intelligence, the tolerance, and the ideals of the American Northeast. I may never agree with Northeastern Republican ideologies but I can live with them as nothing is is as bad as what I saw in the South.

I also saw firsthand how our country is a collection of American Countries in so many ways. The Midwest, Utah, Texas, and the South are completely their own sovereign nations with the exception of their largest cities. I learned that Sarah Palin's 'Real America' concept is a thinly constructed longing for something that NEVER existed. The concept that America's small towns in the heartland is the 'Real America' is preposterous. There is a reason why people make a mass exodus out of small towns to live in larger populated cities and have done that since the beginning of the frontier movement (remember all those ghost towns and abandoned frontier cabins? There are no ghost towns along the Megalopolis corridor only some struggling cities). Small towns can be charming but my more frequent experience with them is that the inhabitants can often be fearful, ignorant of the world, and intolerant of anyone that doesn't look like they could be related to them. They are also super suspicious of anyone from the Northeast. These are the people that Sarah Palin wants to use as the perfect example of Americans. THEY are the ones that don't fit in to the majority of American philosophies as the election of Barack Obama proves. They are dull relics of an uglier American past.

In some small towns where progressive ideologies, new ways of looking at rural living, and sustainable economies in the new century are promoted, life couldn't be better. These communities in places like middle Wisconsin, southwestern Colorado, New Mexico, eastern Idaho, eastern Tennessee, and southern Montana all deserve a closer examination as they salute the future of country living.

I am home now and wallowing in the concept of "home". I feel so blessed to live here as we all do about our beloved hometowns. When pulling up to our house, it peeked through the trees and I was welcomed back. Fall had arrived to the mid-Atlantic and I was more than thrilled to get back to the busy life of teaching, schooling, dancing, playing, and being with family and friends.

I learned something about myself during this trip also. I never realized how fearless I was until going through the process of this trip by myself for 5 weeks with my young people. I enjoyed myself, saw things I never thought I would see, and learned so much about my country. I drove almost 8,000 miles and I would do it again. I also have a lot of appreciation for my little red caravan and how reliable she is. I saw the whole country through her tinted windows.

Western Pennsylvania

Northeastern Iowa

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Billings, Montana and our little hitchhiker

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Zion National Park, Utah

Black Canyon, Utah 'uses for electrical tape'

Mexican Hat, Utah sunset

Durango, Colorado

Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Oklahoma City's Barrio 18

Arkansas sunny day

Avery Island, Louisiana

The Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana shores

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Some of you have been reading since the beginning and giving me so much encouragement I want to thank you so much for all your thoughtful words and blessings. I won't make an announcement about one more blog that I am going to tag to this blog, but I will add a packing list and some ideas if you ever plan to do this trip yourself. Check in with this blog in about a week. This is a beautiful country, warts and all, and deserves to be explored by all people who consider themselves "Americans". To sum it all up, here is a highlighted map of our route on a free map of America that you can pick up in any lobby of Cracker Barrel restaurant (and you don't even have to eat there thank goodness!). It's been quite a car ride!!!