Our shady spot.
Due to kitty excitement (see Kitten Rescue), we didn’t get out of Springfield until mid-afternoon. We drove north, towards Iowa, and stopped at a Passport America spot just a few hours away. Shoemaker’s RV Park was just off the highway but a nice enough spot that we decided to stay two nights and give ourselves a full day to just hang out in Bessie on a rainy morning and figure out how to best care for this newborn kitten we’d found.
Bailey gets a swim.
When the sun came out in the afternoon, we walked around the park, which included a small lake with a giant Slip ‘n Slide sloping down to it, a restaurant, bandstand, and playground. The park was a fairly empty and shut down then but clearly gearing up for a big 4th of July weekend. At least Bailey got a little swimming in.
Rural Recognition
Driving here through rural Missouri, twice cars full of young people passed us, tooting horns, waving wildly and grinning, hanging halfway out windows and gesturing happily. At first we thought something was wrong with Bessie or the tow car. Or maybe life was so boring in these parts that teenagers got excited when they saw out-of-towners. Then we remembered the “Right to Marry” bumper sticker on the back of the CRV. This was the first time we’d traveled since the marriage equality ruling by the Supreme Court on June 26.
Freedom to marry.
We’d welcomed this ruling without public celebration in Springfield, which had soundly voted down a gay rights measure last fall. But these young people in the middle of nowhere Missouri made me think about what its like for gay people here, especially youth. As excited as Kate and I were about this ruling, we are already married. We have acceptance from family and community, and we don’t hide. For people living in states with no GLBT rights protection, I can only imagine the impact of this nationwide embrace. And I was glad for these two vehicular high-fives with strangers.
Passport America
We got this place for $12.50 a night (half off), thanks to our Passport America membership. It costs only $44 to join (per year), and it gives you half off thousands of campgrounds and RV resorts in the States, Canada, and Mexico. There are a lot of restrictions, depending on the particular camp (length of stay, days of week, etc.), but we’ve been able to use it several times already and it paid for itself after three stays.