Hello Everyone! It’s been a beautiful week here in Washington D.C. with warm, sunny days and cool clear nights. In some ways this is all very familiar to me as I’m usually headed home in October or November, tired from a long year on the road and ready for some “home time” over the holidays. I come home to rest and get my affairs in order and begin to plan for the next leg of my journey, whatever that may be and wherever it may take me. It’s a time to catch up – on my projects, on my sleep and with friends and family. Unlike spring and summer which I’ve rarely spent in the city, this feels more normal to me.
Today also marks the three year anniversary of the journey which became Miles2Go. Three years ago today, I set out for Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with a dream of spending a month in each state over the next 4 years. I soon learned that a month was too short to get a real understanding of a state while also maintaining this blog, so my timeframe changed. There were a lot of tough times and setbacks as I got this thing off the ground, and just when I felt like I knew where it was going and how to make it all work, I hit the cruise control button and then this pandemic hit, turning me towards home and grounding me indefinitely. It’s been a bumpy road for sure, but anything that’s worth it will no doubt involve overcoming obstacles. I don’t know what my future or the future of this project will look like at this point, but I’m grateful for the journey and everything and everyone that’s been a part of it thus-far.
Sadly the reason keeping me here, the coronavirus, has continued to rage across the country with still-worsening conditions being reported every day. As we get closer to a quarter-million deaths from the virus here in the U.S. alone, I wanted to put that number into perspective for you. While 235,000 may be just a fraction of a percent of the population of the U.S. as is often pointed out, it is more than our average annual deaths in this country from any cause other than cancer and heart disease. It’s four times our average annual number of flu and pneumonia deaths (all according to the CDC). It’s also more than the number of Americans who died in World War 1, Vietnam, Korea and the American Revolution combined. It’s more than the single-year casualties from our two bloodiest wars – World War II and the Civil War. Keep these statistics in mind when people tell you that the virus isn’t all that bad. In the entirety of the almost 15 years we were involved in the war in Vietnam, we lost less than a quarter of the number of people who have died from this virus this year, and it’s only mid-November. For some reason people in this country refuse to look beyond our borders to countries which got some level of control over the pandemic through the summer months with masks and distancing and continue to believe it’s all some kind of hoax. 80% of current cases in the U.S. can be traced back to restaurants, bars and gyms.
What should we be doing about this? First and foremost we need to start listening to the experts. This country’s leading medical experts and virologists have laid it out pretty simply from the start, and have been able to make things even clearer as we’ve learned more. And yet people refuse to listen to them, searching out someone, anyone, who will tell them what they want to hear instead of what the consensus of the experts is. I want to get back to my normal life more than anyone, but I’m willing to put that all on hold for the greater good of my countrymen. To me, that’s a pretty good definition of patriotism.
There was some good news this week coming from Pfizer that they believe their new vaccine is 90% effective. Anthony Fauci has shown enthusiasm for their results and told reporters he would take their vaccine himself. If their studies work out the way they are projecting, they could start seeking approval in the next few weeks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this as it would really be such a blessing for us all. This news is not reason to run out in the streets and hug a stranger just yet though. Over the summer when my mother and I visited Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia it was tragic to learn that people had died there just hours before the surrender was signed. Don’t be that guy.
It appears as though the results of the election have been tallied and Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. I don’t bring politics into this space very often unless it’s in an historical context, but I’m really hoping that he can bridge some of the divides this country faces. Love him or hate him, President Trump has presided over the most divided country in recent memory and something must change. Y’all know some of my opinions on this, but it’s something I’m always thinking about. It’s apparently quite easy for people these days to throw labels around and learn to hate others whom they do not know and have never met. Americans spend way too much time watching TV instead of being out in the world interacting with each other, and it shows. I’ve traveled around and across this country for most of the last 20 years, and met people in every corner who defy those labels most associated with them. I’ve seen interracial couples in every town I’ve been to across the South, met brilliant, progressive students in the mountains and hollers of Appalachia, discussed guns with California cowboys on the Pacific coast, gone deep but respectfully down the rabbit-hole of the Civil War at Confederate museums and worshiped in countless churches and synagogues across the country and been welcomed in every one with open arms. When I hear about people who want to “shoot the libs” or “burn Trump Country to the ground” it makes me sick because in every instance people are talking about my friends. That sort of rhetoric led to our Civil War, the darkest days of our nation’s past. The method was the same – wealthy people convincing hard-working citizens that their way of life was under attack and that to preserve it they had to fight for it. People were taught to believe that their differences were irreconcilable and the only way forward was war. The damage that did to those men, their families and the country as a whole was beyond horrific. It’s time for America to turn off its televisions, drop the violent rhetoric and get to work on building bridges –both literal and figurative ones. I promise that in most instances you will find people not that unlike yourself. If people would just stop the back-and-forth and childish one-upmanship and trying to “burn” someone else for their beliefs they would find common ground and compromise. It’s not too late for this country, but we’re awfully close to that point.
On the other side of my thoughts is a happy two-year-old who loves everyone and everything because hate has to be taught. It’s been another great week of spending my mornings with young Mason over in Glover Park. He helps me forget about the news and the pandemic for 5 hours every day. The weather has allowed us to spend most of our time outside hunting the coolest berries and the roundest acorns and discussing the sound each makes when they go in the creek (“plip” and “plunk” are my choices respectively). This week he has really started to share things with me which is so great to see. If he has a stick, he’s sure I have a stick too. If he pulls some berries off a bush for himself, he pulls some for me too. I remember reading somewhere that when a child offers you something, accept it with tremendous gratitude because they have very little that is actually theirs and the fact that they want to share what they do have shouldn’t be taken lightly. So we march down the street together with our sticks in our hands, a fistful of berries and a pocketful of acorns. He now knows pretty much all of his letters, which is pretty cool, and we are moving on to the “baby” letters (lower case) which will take some time. Some are easier – like an “s” or a “u” which look very similar to their big brothers, but some, like the “a” or the “e” (which were his first letters) change like a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. I like using nature to explain things when I can. While the toilet continues to be a challenge, Mason has proven himself very capable of washing his hands like a big boy. Sometimes when I have to wash my hands and he doesn’t, like after I change a diaper, he will stand next to me at the sink being sure I wash the backs of my hands and in between my fingers as well. He’s a kind and sweet little kid.
I also got some great news this week from one of my good friends that he and his wife are expecting a baby in March. There are so many blessings in the midst of all of this chaos and I want to be sure to remember that when I look back at these posts in the future. Wishing them all the best over the next few months in preparation for their new baby.
Last Friday we began a November to Remember by celebrating another Forget-About-It Friday in the basement, this time with an Irish Pub theme. We brewed an Irish Stout which is fermenting beautifully as I write this. We listened to some great Irish folk music as well, drank some Guinness and ate an enormous plate of nachos – which may not be Irish, but they sure are delicious. It was a fun night in the basement. Over the next few months, we will take an imaginary journey around the world on Friday nights. This coming week we’re going to Paris.
Saturday I got some work done around the house in the morning and then went out to my friends Sean and Jess’s house out in Frederick. I’m trying to see a few people while we can still do outdoor, socially distanced gatherings. We had a nice campfire outside their house by the lake. It was so nice to just be somewhere different for a change and great to see some familiar faces and catch up.
Sunday was a pretty quiet day and Monday was a beautiful day for Mason and I to be outside and for some evening math tutoring. After our tutoring session, Nick’s dad gave me some venison roasts and a few other cuts from his freezer which I’m really looking forward to. I do love venison.
Tuesday was a great day all around. It was sunny and warm under blue skies with a light breeze as Mason and I wandered around the forest stopping to watch the beautiful autumn leaves float down to meet us. Then in the afternoon, my mom and I went out on our weekly exploration of the area. We started with a couple of places we had missed in earlier trips downtown, including a monument to the original proprietors of Washington D.C. – those people who gave or sold their land for the creation of a planned capital city. We also found two signs marking the location of the infamous Yellow House slave pen at 7th and Independence. I had discussed the Yellow House in my podcast when recounting the story of Solomon Northup who wrote 12 Years a Slave and told the world about being drugged and captured in Washington D.C. and sold south. It is tragic to know that there was once a slave pen just outside the shadow of the Capitol dome and I’m glad that it has been memorialized so that we never forget it.
From there, we headed out to Bladensburg, Maryland, just outside the city limits but inside the beltway. There we visited the Bladensburg Dueling Ground where duels, which were outlawed within the city, took place right up until the Civil War. It was where 22 year-old Daniel Key, son of Francis Scott Key, was killed over a question about the speed of a steamboat. Naval Commodore Stephen Decatur was also mortally wounded in a duel there, and several senators and congressmen dueled there as well. Leaving there we went to the wonderful Bladensburg Waterfront Park on the Anacostia River which interprets the Battle of Bladensburg from the War of 1812, the immediate precursor to the burning of Washington. Finally we visited the Indian Queen Tavern which was built around 1760 on the road to Georgetown before Washington D.C. existed. It’s a pretty cool old building which now houses the Anacostia Watershed Society. We also learned about the first manned and unmanned balloon flights in the U.S., both of which happened there in Bladensburg. It was a pretty successful outing. When we got home I took my first shot at cooking enchiladas, and they came out better than most I’ve had in my life. They were delicious.
Today has been gloomy and rainy, and Mason and I were stuck inside all morning building towers with blocks and playing with his trucks and stuffed animals. I was happy to get a nap when I got home. When I’m done writing this up, we’re going to enjoy this week’s Dinner and a Movie night with some gyros and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Afterwards I’m looking forward to the newest episode of The Amazing Race, my favorite show. I’ve also been enjoying The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix which is beautifully done. It’s a quiet show, but I really like it.
This weekend is my mother’s birthday, so we will be celebrating all week. We’re going to do a nice long day trip, enjoy some great meals and some fun time together. I also plan on spending what time I can outside before the cold winter weather closes in. I’m going to keep up my pandemic hobbies, enjoy a new book which I haven’t picked out yet, keep up my morning walks and hopefully get out to take a few photos at some point as well. Until next week then, stay safe out there, wear your masks and try and be kind to each other. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you right back here next week.
-Mike