Benson, AZ

Hello!  I'm back!  After hiding out in undisclosed locations for nearly a month, I can now safely share a quick update about our recent travels.  Why suddenly so secretive?  We had a big, nay, HUGE surprise planned for April, which involved keeping a level of secrecy around our whereabouts.  We wanted to get quiet with the blogging and posting and stuff, to minimize the possibility that certain persons would connect the dots and realize how close we were to southern California.  I'll tell more about that in a few posts, but the plotting worked and we pulled off a great surprise!

But before I get to that post, let me tell you where we ran off to after we left New Mexico...

Still working our way west, our next stop was for one week in Benson, Arizona.  When we were in Arizona in 2016, we stayed north, only taking a few day trips to Phoenix.  But we never made it down to this area.  Benson is a quiet little community southeast of Tucson.  The area is famous for Tombstone and the OK Corral.  At the advice of other full-time travelers, we skipped that attraction, but we did get out quite a bit during our week there.

This was the third stop that coincided with the Jacobs family's route, so we enjoyed hanging out with them during the week.  Afterward, they veered north, while we continued west.  We're hoping to meet back up with them in the fall.

During our stay in Benson, we visited the Tumacacori National Historic Park.  It's located about 25 miles from the border to Mexico and less than an hour from the park we were staying at.  This was a hot day!  I forgot my camera (again), so Jeff snapped a few pictures with his phone.

The ranger told me that several women take turns coming out to serve refreshments to visitors.  On this day, we enjoyed fresh tortillas fried on a hot rock and served with beans and salsa.  Without a doubt, they were the best tortillas I have ever had!

The kids and I drove out to Saguaro National Park one day.  Saguaro cactus (pronounced "Swaro") are the second largest cactus.  (The largest variety is found in Mexico.)  At first we were amazed at how many cactus there actually were on the hillsides, but then Jordan commented that if none of the trees in Oregon had branches, the hillsides there would probably look similar.  Smart girl.  I guess I had gotten used to seeing tree-less landscapes because it surprised me to see so many cacti!

We listened to a ranger talk and made sure to get a cool magnet for our collection.  The drive out there and back was really lovely.  We drove up a super windy road with lots of switchbacks, up into the mountains and down into little canyons.

Another stop was at the International Wildlife Museum.  This place was great!  It was another ASTC Passport museum, so admission was free for us.  The kids agree that this is the most impressive museum they have been to.

Basically, this is a giant taxidermy museum.  All of the exhibits have been donated to the museum and were, at one time, alive.  Nearly every kind of animal is represented here, and we were awed by the opportunity to get up close and examine the various species.  It was incredible.

I won't post too many photos because I think that you had to be there for it to make a real impression.  But just so it's known, Jordan had the camera for this stop and we ended up with 200 photos.  I wasn't kidding when I said that the kids were blown away!  We learned a lot at this museum.  It was interesting to learn not only about conservation and protection of wildlife, but also about the benefits of regulated hunting, both for humans and in the animal kingdom.  I felt that this museum did a good job of representing the balance that we have to keep.

You know how Jackson is super excited about life in general?  He was a 10/10 at this museum.  Lol.  Actually, Jordan was, too.  So maybe it was a too-much-sugar situation.  Who can remember?  All I know is that much fun was had.

Have you ever played the game where you say, "If you were an animal, which animal would you be?"  I always joke that I would be a musk ox because I'm strong and tough and, of course, very majestic.  The kids disagree and say that I would be a Canadian Goose because, "You're protective of your young, you have a great set of pipes, and you're sassy."  Ha!  

Anyway, we had to take a photo of me with this musk ox.  It really was majestic.

This room was completely insane!  When you first walk in, there are two giraffes standing there, and all of the walls are completely covered like this one.  Jackson took a video to show Jeff because he didn't want him to miss it.

So I guess I did post a lot of pics.  But I narrowed these down from 200, so I think I did alright.  Just one more?

This stop began the final leg of this year-long loop of the U.S., which has prompted lots of reminiscing.  About the places we've been and the amazing experiences we've had.  About how each person in our family has been challenged and stretched in different ways.  I thought I might touch on a few of the biggest things that changed for us during the past year.  On this blog, I feel like I've only posted the happy, photogenic things we've seen during our trip.  And now that I'm looking back on it all, I wish I had added in more of the other things.  So I think today I want to include this journal entry that I wrote about the "single stories" that this trip pulled us out of.  It's kind of about the way we thought things would be in different areas vs. the way things actually are.  And also how much we didn't consider or give thought to a lot of things before we saw them for ourselves.  So here are a few examples that we experienced during our year traveling the U.S.

Traveling, we saw real poverty.  Like nothing I'd ever seen in Oregon.  When you see people living in those conditions, you're forced to think about what it must be like.  What must it be like to feel trapped in a dilapidated neighborhood, where homeless people sleep on the sidewalk in front of your apartment and you have to walk to work because you can't afford a car.  Where the only places to work within walking distance are fast food restaurants, gas stations, and motels.  What's that like?  It's hard to judge someone too harshly when you're standing in front of their reality.  Those neighborhoods are not happy places to be.  It can't be easy to live there every day.  Compassion grew rapidly.

We've seen farmers and farm workers, whose daily grind is not something I had really considered.  People who are up before the sun and work until dark.  In the cold, in the rain, in the hundred-degree heat and surrounded by a million bugs.  Smelling like sweat and manure, with grease and dirt roadmaps drawn into the cracks in their hands.  That's hard work.  Not work that most people could do, I'm guessing.  Had we ever considered what that life was like before we traveled?  I'm so grateful for their hard work and for the fresh produce and eggs that we get to enjoy from their labor.

I hesitate to mention this because it's sensitive, but one eye-opening thing for the kids in particular, has been the regular lesson that people who look "good" are not necessarily good, and people who look "bad" are not necessarily bad.  I remember one day, when a rough-looking man seemed to be following us as we walked to the library.  He turned where we turned for a few blocks and I admit that I had my guard up.  It was the middle of the day and there were many people around, so we weren't in danger.  But the kids were looking behind them often and then over to me, as if asking, "What should we do?"  I whispered to them that they were safe, and to stay close to me.  We all felt pretty foolish about 15 seconds later, when we realized that he was only walking behind us because he was going to a business next to the library.  Conversely, we witnessed a surprising general unkindness from a few of our wealthy fellow travelers.  People can look nice and put together, but their hearts and the words that come out of their mouths betray them.  I think that made an impression on the kids.  I hope it did, anyway.

We have met struggling families, some of whom are RV'ing to save money for cancer treatments, to escape toxic mold in their homes, or to remain in their communities when the cost of living has risen to an obscene level.  It's the only way they can afford keep their jobs and stay near family.

And then driving along this southern route, we saw a lot of border patrol.   Seeing those kind-faced officers searching cars and waving others through, the kids asked about what kinds of things go on in those cities near Mexico.  I remember how quiet they got when Jeff reminded them that most of the people living on either side of the border are just like us.  We asked them how they would feel if they had been born in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico, where it's unsafe to be outside and horrendous crime is the reality of their daily lives.  Places where the question they ask themselves isn't, "What if?" but "When?"  How much time had we spent thinking on that before this trip?  Gratitude grew and our prayers for others have increased.

In a happier vein, we've also met dozens of people who took the time to share their amazing stories with us.  Some of the people we've visited with:

• One of the artists who helped to design the International Space Station
• A teacher who traveled across the country to Colorado, to secure a better paying job in a safe community
• A Georgia-born-and-raised traveler who taught us so much about his home state while we helped him get his truck running again
• A retired dental hygienist who was traveling to Mexico for dental work
• A Marine who spent a good deal of his service in the Middle East
• Rangers from Vermont and the deep south who are now traveling the country with the NPS  
• And believe it or not, we even touched bases with a family from our own hometown in Oregon!  

We have heard so many amazing stories during our travels!

These experiences have opened our eyes.  We talk about this thing that has happened in our hearts as we have met people where they were and learned more about where they have been.  But we didn't have the language to articulate exactly what that was. 

Then, about six months ago, we watched a Ted Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story."  I don't think any of us were as in the dark as the stories that Chimamanda tells here, but the core of what she is saying is basically what we have experienced as we have traveled.  Traveling has saved us from having a single story of what America is and who Americans are.  Now we have many stories from the different sub-cultures in America.  I know that the kids will never be the same, because they have seen all of this.  I included a link to the Ted Talk above--check it out if you are interested.  I think it's good food for thought.

Well, I guess there wasn't a way to say all that briefly!  Ha.  But I don't want to forget, and everyone agrees that this blog has become the most useful tool for remembering our travels.  So now it's here, oddly wedged in amongst the attractions we visited and our pool pics.  Oh well, it's just a blog.

The pool in Benson was heated to perfection and Jackson enjoyed it very much!

That was our week in Benson, AZ!  Stay tuned for our long-awaited arrival in California!