“Everything Hurts” + Melody’s Musings about Ranchers

DAY 15: MARK AND MELODY’S UPDATES FROM IDAHO

MARK: The day when “everything hurt.”  See video below.  Read the rest of his blog post about this rough day here:

MELODY:  Musings about beef, guns, ammo and ranchers (below).

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MELODY UPDATE:

Mark had a rough day (see video that I made for him above).   It is mostly GoPro footage so you can see it from his perspective. It was NOT fun watching him struggle this much. It was not a great day

But never mind about biking.  Today I have a few musings about ranchers

Beef. Guns. Ammo. Ranches. Rodeos. Manly men. Tough women. Idaho is the real deal, people.

When we stopped for lunch in an old fashioned diner in Fairfield, there was a man ordering at the counter with a clearly visible gun in a holster. He wasn’t trying to hide it. He wanted people to know he had it. And that didn’t seem to bother anyone but Mark and me.

It also seems normal here that there are few (if any) people of color. We’ve only been here a few days, but I have not seen one person of color for 3 days. Okay, one. But that’s it.

This feels strange to me, a city gal.   Some of the people we’ve met see our license plate and ask where we’re from. When I tell them “Chicago” they feel sorry for us. They love it out here.   I can see why.

It’s beautiful. The nature is stunning and shockingly beautiful (who knew?). The air is clean. The towns are small. The needs are simple. The stores and motels are often family-owned (even grocery stores!) and visiting these towns feels like a throwback in time. Everyone knows everyone. Kids grow up here going to rodeos and watching their Daddies (and Grand-Dads) brand their cows. Kids in Chicago grow up going to soccer camps or gymnastics clubs.

I’m not saying one or the other is better. I just think that when you travel this huge and diverse country of ours and visit the small towns of America, you start to get a better understanding about what people are really like. You imagine how and why people could vote for Trump or Hilary. Or why guns are important to people in this region for reasons we may not be able to understand.  It’s a different world out here. People live this way and that’s that. They don’t want to be told they can’t.

You start to be able to see things from another perspective and I think that’s a good step toward understanding.