We have resumed our trip to Phoenix — albeit with some changes to the itinerary. Because of our detour, we're no longer taking the train from Kansas to Santa Fe. Instead, we're currently booking it across Texas. We only made one stop between Fort Worth and Amarillo and that was for a visit to Bayou Bob's snake ranch near the town of Santo (expect more on that later).
I'm using this long drive to sift through the massive amount of tape we've collected and to reflect on the last few days...
While having lunch at a Mexican restaurant in a Kansas City strip mall on Saturday, we met three friends who were eating together in a nearby booth. Turns out one of them, LaShonda, recently had major brain surgery but had trouble paying for it. She works as a nurse's assistant — but for less than 40 hours a week so she doesn't have health care. The woman whom she credits with helping her the most through that difficult time was sitting right across the table: Dawn Mosley. Dawn stepped in to help care for Lashonda's three kids, bring her food, and generally keep an eye on things as Lashonda went through a long and painful recovery. And we learned that Lashonda wasn't the only the one who Dawn has helped out in the last few months. The third friend, Monique, says Dawn has provided her with sporadic work — detailing cars and painting houses — when she's had trouble paying the bills.
Dawn is a leader, though perhaps not as obvious as some of the other folks we've met in the past week. She's not a fire chief or the general manager of a baseball park. And she had a story of her own to share.
That night in Kansas City, the hottest show in town was American Idol - Live. Jealous of the thousands (seriously, thousands) of ticket-holders roaming the streets, we decided to head to the outskirts of the city and catch a flick (Tropic Thunder) at the I-70 Drive-In theater. Their only rule regarding food: no barbecue ribs allowed.
Then on Sunday we drove to Tyler, Texas in case we needed to help cover the hurricane. We even stocked up on supplies at Walmart (water boots, 5-gallon gas cans, Power bars). Turns out our editors had enough reporters in place and sent us on our way. So we returned all the supplies on Monday and continued our trip across Texas. Outside of Fort Worth, we ran into a convoy of utility trucks at a gas station — all of them en route to Baton Rouge.
One of the drivers said this was deja vu: after Katrina, he spent six months living in a hotel, restoring power to New Orleans.
We spent Tuesday night in Amarillo. And now we're on our way to Walsh, Colorado — a town suggested to us in one of your letters. I'm keeping our Google map updated with stories and photos:
Keep sending us suggestions. We have more ground (and stories) to cover before Phoenix.
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