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June 13
We didn’t even cross the barriers of the city of Austin, Texas, our hometown, before our three-year-old daughter announced, “I’m done with this trip, I need to get out of the car!”Fifteen minutes later, 70 hours earlier, it sounds intimidating.
This is our first path with our two young people, and we made the decision to go far, driving from Texas to Montana for two months amid a global pandemic that did any kind of risk. Our circle of family and friends thinks it’s crazy. But since our children were born, we’ve spent part of each and every summer in an outdoor mountain hut in Missoula, Montana, to escape city life and the oppressive Texas sun. Now it looks like we’re escaping the virus. And as a photographer, I’m in a position to create a document about what’s going on in America right now.
The first thing we see is that there are more recreational vehicles on the road than usual, however, traffic in general is declining when we cross Texas. A stop outside Amarillo’s gates is strangely almost empty. a 500-mile day doesn’t take us out of the state. We warned in Palo Duro Canyon National Park, a charming position that impresses when you suddenly sit along its edge after driving for hours across the flat plains.
We did our best to plan our night stops in a lovely and attractive position for children, who notice that cacti and a snake are too close for their comfort.
See also: Food Guide to Austin, Texas
June 14
After ten hours of speed across Texas, however, we succeed on the state line and enter New Mexico. This component of the state is quiet, but when we cross the border, we may feel like there is a replacement. Perhaps component, the other people in a fuel station have masks, however, in New Mexico, other people are more careful, with symptoms along the road ingesting others to take protective measures. Then, in Colorado, things are busier. There’s more traffic and things sometimes seem more lively and lively. Plates from all states to the east and south of this outstanding mountain destination fill service stations and rest areas.
June 15
This morning, we were informed that Austin is undergoing a new blockage, with mask required everywhere in public and equipment limited to two other people for sensitive populations, like my parents. We were hoping the scenario would get worse, but not so fast. We did our best to think about every scenario imaginable and security issues that travel with our young people can entail, but we feel fortunate right now to be out of town and in the autonomous world of our travel caravan. in the icebox in advance, so we don’t have to prevent to eat, and we have a bath in the trailer. We warn in empty parks so that young people can burn some energy and never have discomfort in locating places to run or have lunch with anyone else in sight.
We wonder if we are too careful, because obviously we can see that the component of the population seems to take those things into consideration, but it also seems difficult to take precautions and make our component to stay away from others.
We feel lucky to be on lonely roads, spending some other car maybe every 15 minutes. We camped on Lake DeSmet, where there are only seven other trailers around a giant lake. Young people much longer in front of the screen than usual, so they don’t even notice when we park at the campsite.
See also: 6 tactics in which luxury will replace after the Covid-19, as predicted by experts
June 16
You can hear the turkeys devour at dawn. At home, headlines announce, “Texas has moved on to a pandemic plan”It’s their responsibility. “In Wyoming, one of the least populous states in the country, it turns out that the user can stay smoothly at a social distance of about a mile. .
We hit the road knowing that we would be successful in our destination before the end of the day, which is a very intelligent feeling. Crossing Montana, we stop at little bighorn Battlefield National Monument to explore the remarkable history of General Custer and Crazy Horse, however, the park is closed because of the virus.
On the other side of the road, we are placed in a laughing tourist trap called Custer Battlefield Trading Post and soon meet the character who runs the post, his call is Putt Thompson and could not be friendlier, opened the post in 1985 and says he had never noticed anything like this this summer. Sales fell to a third of normal. He obviously recognizes the lack of tourist business when more visitors would bring nothing but problems and illnesses. Many of his painters are Native Americans and are afraid to come and paint because their communities have been hit hard by the pandemic. As we say well, he takes off his mask to reveal a warm smile, which I suppose is partly due to the fact that my wife and children have just bought one of them because they were so excited to be in a store for the first time in months.
We managed to get into the cabin last afternoon with the car so covered in empty packaging, spilled cereals and scattered toys that he would find it difficult to distinguish the seats we know are still buried underneath.
See also: 7 places to see the sunrise in Hong Kong
June 30
We have been in Montana for two weeks and feel that, despite everything, we have adapted to a comfortable routine. The youngsters spend their days playing and swimming in the small river that passes through the property, and I check to escape for quick fishing trips with my fly cane when I can. Most nights we go out to appease a campfire and spend the afternoon exploring a nearby lake or hiking trail. My wife and I can make some paintings here and there when needed, and we rarely keep up with the news happening in the rest of the world.
Texas gets darker throughout the day. Now we have friends and a circle of family who have tested positive, and some friends have even lost the family circle. It’s a very strange feeling to hear other people in Montana communicate about the pandemic as if it didn’t even exist.
See Also: 6 Hong Kong Heritage Hiking Trails To Explore
fourth of july
The annual Lincoln Open Rodeo, held on July 4 in Lincoln, Montana, is the center of summer care for this small mountain community, however, it did not appear to take place until citizens insisted that local fitness officials allow for safe progress. protective precautions. It only takes a few seconds to arrive to realize that even those commandos have been thrown out the window. There is virtually no distance among other people, and no mask in sight, however, other people seem so satisfied to be outdoors. I admit it’s great to be a part of something general for a change.
See also: Unmasked waste: how Covid-19 masks affected the environment
July 22
We had planned to return home at the end of July, but with the case explosion in Austin, we decided to stay there. But even here, the virus has become a more visceral problem, with the passenger instituting a mandatory rule of masking in closed public spaces.
July 29
My wife and I have been looking to see Glacier National Park for years, and we can make a last-minute camping reservation, which is usually not very easy. Only one front of the park has been open from the Blackfeet Nation Indian Territory to close everyone who crosses their lands, so even though the number of visitors decreased, they all headed to the same area. This is our first meeting of tourists from other countries, and they seem less involved with social estating than even locals.
See also: Hong Kong Social Distance Rules for Covid-19: What You Can and Can’t Do
August 9
After much debate, despite everything we made the decision to go back to Texas. It’s not a simple phone call, yet painting projects I can’t even remotely do have started calling us home. It doesn’t take long to realize that there. There are more motorhomes and motorhomes than we had noticed before. People are staring at how to get out. We make the car the ultimate sin of cars by passing fuel stations with less than one part of the tank as we head into the unknown.
As the diversity estimator on the board ranges from one hundred to 50 to 25 miles without a city on the horizon, we’re worried. With only 14 miles of fuel, we arrived in the city of Dell, Montana. I’ve never heard of him, and I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to him normally, but after seeing that all there was was a fuel station and some houses, I’ll never get to the place. Two elders sit on their porch and look at I think they’re betting on how many other people will enter the city with a can of fuel to fill up before climbing the road.
August 10
Now we’re in Idaho, and after all those weeks, it’s a little shocking to walk into a store and not see any masks on the other people who paint there or on customers. There’s no state mandate here. It is a genuine reminder of the strength of government approval of mask laws.
Utah is charming and, as you approach Zion National Park, the red cliffs that rise in the desert recommend what will happen. At dusk, everyone enjoys their personal little oasis with lit campfires, the smell of grilled food and drifting laughter. each other It’s glorious to even have that little connection with other people.
We plan to leave Zion out of its east front through the 1. 1-mile-long tunnel between Zion and Mount Carmel. The tunnel, which was the longest in the United States when it ended in 1930, crosses the mountain in absolute darkness and is probably one of our sons. favorite moments of the whole trip.
See also: Glampings in Hong Kong
August 11
It seems that only states that have noticed a lot of cases take the virus seriously. In Page, Arizona, symptoms say, “Use your component and wear a mask. “We check out to move to a McDonald’s, however we can’t get food because it only gives pick up on the sidewalk and we can’t download the right app We see a worker arrive at her turn and take her temperature before being left in This looks like a top security medical facility and feels very apocalyptic.
Most of our adventure through Arizona takes place in the Navajo Nation. I am very attracted to other people with their charming taste showing apparent pride in their heritage. I need to communicate with them and take portraits, but it’s very clear that they distrust all other people traveling through their country. There is so much history of worry that I can see in his eyes. I perceive and believe that it is appropriate to smile with my mask and leave other people alone here. .
As we advance on the edge of Navajo territory, we see the art paintings throughout our adventure that refers to the pandemic A beautiful and hard symbol in the look of a deserted construction in the middle of nowhere depicts a Navajo woman dressed in a masked face while holding a rabbit, her eyes staring at the viewer.
In New Mexico, we’re starting to see billboards for a charm on the road called Bluewater Village. After what appear to be a hundred billboards over a hundred miles, we can’t go without looking. My favorite billboard just says “Snake stuff!” With a symbol of a rattlesnake tail.
See also: Learning from Blocking: Lessons from Our Tatler Community
August 12
The car is looted. No matter how we look, there’s still another 8 hours before our next stop and the kids found out about some flashy jokes, surely telling terrible, repetitive jokes over the last forty-five minutes.
We veered to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and took a small rural path to a small unpretentious cemetery that houses the tomb of celebrated American outlaw Billy the Kid. The tombstone was stolen twice and discovered years later across the country. covered in firearms, ammunition and bottles of alcohol and locked in a metal cage. We found a circle of family members driving from Los Angeles to Kansas City who took an hour to see him, and it’s evident how excited his children are.
I see him leave the small construction of the nearby Chamber of Commerce and run to communicate with him. The guy says it’s the town’s busiest charm, with about 15 to 20 visitors a day normally, however, there are only about now five left. I guess if the city’s busiest charm only gets five visitors a day, it’s probably a decent position to hide if you run away from the law.
The temperament adapts as darkness approaches and young people are silent about tiredness. directions, we see shooting stars and the Milky Way. It’s a beautiful view. We arrived at Amarillo State Park a few minutes after midnight.
See also: The places to observe the stars in Hong Kong
August 13
Children act. At each and every stop, the car fills with flies that torment and annoy us for a hundred miles afterwards, and the tiredness of being in the car day after day catches up with us all. We can say that we are back in Texas when young people are afraid of a snake, our daughter gets stung by a wasp in her hand and I walk over a scorpion that stings me in the back of the foot, but the young people ask us when we will take the car on our next trip. even if it sounds a little crazy right now, we’re all starting to communicate about some other adventure.
See also: Wish list trips: the trips our editors are eager to make after the pandemic
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