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I’m not a great writer but I’m just going to ramble on and share our trip.
Wednesday (8/10) I asked my 13 year old son if he’d like to go to Crawford TX. He said, uuhhh, I guess so. So I told him to hurry up and pack ;). I logged onto work and requested some really short notice time off. A co-worker friend that telecommutes from Mckinney TX offered us a place to stay on our way down to help save on hotel bills. Texas hospitality is great!
We left our home near Dayton OH about 5pm and by 2am we stopped for the night at a really icky super8 on I-40 just east of Memphis.
Thursday (8/11) We got up about 9am and headed for Texas. It was our first time crossing the Mississippi below 10,000 ft. About the time we saw the signs for Hope, Arkansas, Birthplace of Bill Clinton, we were getting kind of hungry so we stopped and ate at Ted’s Smokehouse Barbeque. The jalapeño cheese bread and pecan cobbler were both worth writing home about. Yummy. Thursday evening we arrived at my friend’s house in McKinney, TX around 6:30 and delivered some OH sweet corn. WOW! She lives in a 6300 acre ‘planned community’ of all humongous TEXAS size mansions. It was really beautiful there.
Friday (8/12)
About 9am we headed for Crawford down I-77. I’m happy to report that we made it through Dallas alive. The freeway entrance ramps seem about 10’ long and you have to merge into 75-80mph traffic sometimes from a complete stop. Yikes!
We found our motel in Waco, had some lunch, and then headed to Crawford. It was about a 30 minute (20 mile) drive from the motel on I-35. We arrived at the Crawford Peace house and were directed to an auxiliary parking lot for a shuttle ride to the camp site by a smiling volunteer standing out on the corner in nearly 100deg. heat with a sign. What a great bunch of folks at the Crawford Peace House. We caught a shuttle ride from a young man called Bronco that had just purchased a converted van that he was planning on driving back to CA. He worked tirelessly driving back and forth between the camp and the Peace house both days we were there—and wouldn’t even accept any money for gas. Thanks a million Bronco.
Friday (8/13) at the camp site
The land is really, really flat. You can see for miles. Way before you reach the camp you can see the rows of white crosses. They go on and on. Camp Casey is a little strip of land on the side of a road. It’s no more than six feet wide and it’s bordered by a row of scrubby trees.
When we got to the camp site there was a tent set up with plenty of cold water and snacks. We walked down the road and started introducing ourselves and meeting folks. We met people from all over and lots of Texans. There were mothers, fathers, grandmothers, Vietnam veterans, artists, traveling musicians, lots of people just like us who are really worried about the way the country is going. We got interviewed by the NY times. We met a woman that had driven to TX from CO in a camper van so that Cindy wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground every night. One man that made a really big impression on me was Bill Mitchell. He told me about how his son Mike was killed after eleven months in Iraq, while going out to help save other soldiers that had been ambushed in Sadr city. He showed me a collage of pictures of his beautiful son, washing a car, with family, and right in the middle sitting on a bus in his uniform with a kind of mischievous smile giving a thumbs up to the camera. I cried.
While we were still chatting with people, a line of police cars came and parked along the ‘no trespassing’ triangle of land. We heard that a group of ‘counter-protesters’ were being bused in. My son and I stood behind the line of police cars and helped hold a banner that read “Support the Troops Bring them home Alive NOW.” The ‘bush* supporters’ arrived in a fancy charter bus. They all got out waving little flags and started singing God Bless America-- we sang with them. Then, they listened to some right-wing radio host named Galleger(sp?—I’d never heard of him) give a short speech—we couldn’t hear what he said. At the end of his speech they all started waving their little flags and chanting “WE DON’T CARE, WE DON’T CARE, WE DON’T CARE…” . We were all just floored--- The lady next to me looked around said ‘What did they say?’ – We couldn’t believe what we were hearing!!! How could any HUMAN BEING stand across the street from a group of parents who have lost a child and say something like this??? These are some courageous folks that are suffering through the worst thing I can possibly imagine.
NBC was there and they filmed it…WHY DIDN’T I SEE IT ON THE NEWS? HUH, NBC, HUH?
After chanting, the bush* ‘people’ filed over to the memorial of crosses and planted the flags next to the crosses. Then they got back on their air conditioned charter bus and left--They didn’t even stay long enough to break a sweat or muss their hair.
After the bush* supporters left, one man stayed. He had parked his pickup truck underneath the two big flags that marked the * supporter ground. He had signs with pictures of the son he had lost. It was really sad seeing him sitting over there by himself. Bill, who had lost his beautiful son Mike in Iraq, (and some others) went across the street and sat and talked with him for a while. What a difference, huh? We DO care.
Friday 8/12
We briefly stopped in at the peace house on the way back to the car. It was a hubbub of activity. We were both so beat we didn’t stay but a couple of minutes. We got some t-shirts and bumper stickers and my son turned our car into a liberal mobile.
Sat 8/13
I got up and watched the news at the motel and got really angry. It really steams me when they act like ‘telling both sides’ is reporting. Nora (who I sometimes even like) actually showed pictures of the ‘counter protesters’ and showed one file picture of the folks at the camp from the day before. CNN headline news was even worse. GRRRRR.
We headed out to the Peace house about 10:30 AM and parked in the auxiliary parking lot. We asked the lady standing at the corner if there was anything that we could do to help and she asked us to help direct cars into rows in the unmarked parking area. As people drove in, I got a chance to chat with people as they came in for the rally. One older gentleman in a pickup that was there with his wife gave me some curly fries from Arbys. NBC filmed and interviewed me while I was parking cars--- I told them to tell Nora I was mad at her. The interviewer told me hey we’re not all bad guys.
The rally was awesome. I was really glad that we had gone out to the camp the day before. My son had especially connected with a lady named Sue from NJ who spoke for military families speak out at the rally. We had picked up a lady named Lietta that told us about the fire-ants--- they’d eaten her up and she spoke about her sons that have already spent over a year in Iraq and are still serving in Germany due to stop-loss policies. Beatriz gave a moving speech about her nephew and his fatherless children and how the bush* policies are CAUSING the insurgency. We heard a *great* folk singer
It’s the sound track of one of the videos posted by BeTheChange but I can’t remember her name…if anybody knows it please post.
After the rally, we stopped and took pictures of two cars that were completely covered with the names of every soldier that has died in Iraq and then joined the car caravan out to the camp site. My son estimated that there were 400 people at the rally and there were a lot of cars. The police said that you had to have all 4 wheels off the pavement which meant parking in a ditch. I was afraid we’d get stuck so I drove back to the peace house to catch the shuttle.
My constantly growing boy, who was already aggravated because I wouldn’t park in the ditch, was dying for a hamburger and air-conditioning so we walked over to the local diner for a meal. We weren’t sure how well we’d be received wearing our Paul Hackett for congress shirts and Hey Bush, talk to Cindy buttons, but it wasn’t a problem. The servers were very nice and the food was great. Fried pickles are my new favorite food. There were two older couples at the table next to us and one of the men had a shirt that said “I retired to Florida and all I got was this lousy president” ha ha!
After lunch, Bronco gave us yet another ride out to the camp. This time I met a lady from Ohio whose son Jeremy is expected to deploy to Iraq in March. I met an old country boy from right outside Birmingham, Alabama who had driven out by himself and was camping in his car. I also got to meet Cindy who looked *really, really* beat. I chatted with two middle aged (like me) ladies from Atlanta who have actually practiced crossing the border into Mexico “just in case”—and sadly, it made me feel better to know I’m not the only one who is really, really, really, seriously worried about our elections and our ability to take back our country.
Saturday night
When we got back to the motel we found our room keys didn’t work. We chatted with a man out on the balcony. He said the motel had given him our room by mistake. He saw our “Wage Peace” sign and ask if we were for Bush or against him. He said he didn’t vote. *sigh*. We got our room keys fixed and then fell into bed so that we could get up by 4am.
Sunday&Monday (8/14-15) On the way home, we only had one guy try to cut off the “liberal mobile” to show us is W04 sticker-- I was afraid it might be worse. We stopped in Memphis for dinner. We parked at the welcome station and the receptionist suggested a trolley ride through the downtown to Bealle Street for barbeque at Memphis City Blues. It was a great idea-- the ribs were delicious and the city was charming. Our little side-trip took about two hours and then we pressed on for another five hours and made it to Bowling Green KY and then stopped for the night about 10pmCST.
Monday, we only had a five hour drive and I made it back for my 3:30 shift with an hour to spare.
If you can go to Crawford, Go.
I’ll try to get my pictures developed and posted this week.
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