This past Sunday night we packed up our car to leave ahead of the hurricane threatening Florida. We drove through Alabama, and passed Missisippi into Louisianna, making some stops along the way. Seeing America, as the CEO of Freedom Travel Alliance is one thing, but getting to experience it through my son's lens is another. He is bright, smart, and has an amazing ability to ask questions so he can fully understand the world around him.
As we drove into Alabama, my husband read the sign aloud, “Welcome to Sweeeeet Home Alabama” my inquisitive child, looked at me and asked “What is so Sweet about it? Does it have candy or chocolate everywhere?” If I was more prepared, I would have had our maps and state facts at the ready to share, making this more of a homeschool trip, instead, I am embracing this being a life skills trip, starting with how new Floridians survive a hurricane =by making a run for it!
I am always happy to see that now as we approach the fall of 2022 places like Alabama look like its 2019, with no masks in site whereas here in Louisianna I noticed that not one person on the LSU campus had a mask of shame on, and yet only a couple miles down the road, people as they walked alone, outside on the street, took to extreme fear measures donning the N95 and while inside of the bigger chain stores- I noticed greeters and all of the cashiers were wearing them too. Seeing these maskers, my son quickly observed, “we aren’t in mask-free Florida Momma, right?”
With the pandemic in our rearview, I do wonder how long are the residual effects of it going to stick around? In July we officially moved from the Northeast, my husband left his job and we decided that my son’s perception of the world IS his reality….and having parks closed, people and children muzzled was NOT the reality we wanted to normalize for him, so off we went. That said, as we explore the south part of the USA on this evacuation journey I see it’s not something we can always and easily outrun.
By creating FTA (Freedom Travel Alliance) I set out to build our Ark 2.0 and the floods in my new home are set come in, I realize there is still much work left to be done.
Our family team at Freedom Travel Alliance is working hard to continue to build what so many said was impossible…because my fight IS to build.
Running just as fast we can....
Such an excellent article.
Thank you.
This is a lovely article! 🙌