We're starting the second week of our adventure. All is good so far. We've settled into trailer life, put a couple thousand miles on Shirley, and are ready to enter the heart of our trip. Today is the first of four straight national parks we'll be staying in. Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick is up first, and we only had a couple hour drive to get there.
But first, we had to hit that Thai food truck. They'd set up in a parking lot of a local store, and seemed to have a steady stream of patrons. I assume they largely use social media to market their wares, so at least something good has come from the tools that have so degraded our public discourse. The food was tasty, pad Thai for Kari, basil pork for me. Their rig was impressive.
Our podcast was an Ezra Klein conversation with Barbara Kingsolver. Among other things she discussed her latest book Demon Copperhead, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book is a look at her native region of Appalachia. Kingsolver grew up in Kentucky, and we discovered she's a DePauw grad. She spoke warmly of her time in Indiana. The conversation was fascinating for me, I'm somewhat obsessed by the cultural and political cleavages that have consumed our country. I've spent several decades in the political sphere, and the world looks nothing like it did when I started working in 1984. Our current state of affairs, where each half of the country sees the other half as an existential threat to the republic, is not sustainable. Politics has become identity rather than a vehicle for a diverse society to collectively address complex issues. There is little sense of a shared national identity, shared interests, a shared mission. We all have a responsibility to listen well to others, this podcast contributes to that end. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447?i=1000621869449
We hit the park, set up in a few minutes, and broke out the bikes to do a short tour of the park. We did a nice fifteen mile spin, part of it in dense trails through the woods. Dense woods meant bugs. Especially mosquitoes, the bane of Kari's existence. I love Kari for many reasons, one of them being she is an insect magnet. Kind of like my personal Shell no pest strip. Remember those from our youth?
The ride whetted our appetite to explore the park. It's perched on the shores of the Gulf of St Lawrence. It's beautiful.
Another successful day...
Go tigers!
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