I am very fortunate to have two girlfriends who like me enough to go on a girl’s weekend trip with me each year. Our trio’s first trip was eight years ago. We started in Las Vegas. This year we visited Memphis. The in-between destinations include: San Francisco, New Orleans, Napa, Chicago, Charleston and Portland. The original goal of these weekends was to spend time together and relax. A “huge” (thanks Donald T.) side benefit of these vacations is experiencing the culture of each city.
There is a quote on the website of Backroad Planet that sums up what I’m feeling: “And suddenly you realize that your travels were more education than vacation.”
Those words hit home during our trip to Memphis. I was ten-years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. As a kid, I knew something horrible had happened. But to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis as an adult, it was a profound experience. The front of the Lorraine Motel has been preserved…so we don’t forget what happened there.
At the same time, I was reading the novel by Sue Monk Kidd “The Invention of Wings.” This is a fictional novel based on a historical woman, Sarah Grimke. Sarah Grimke is the daughter of a plantation owner from Charleston. On her eleventh birthday, she is given a slave girl as a present. The power of the story is that it is told from both of their points of view. Sarah (and her sister) grew up to be leaders in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.
Is there a city or place in the US that surprised or moved you? Should we put that city on our list for a future trip? I’d love if you’d share that destination and why you’re recommending it by replying through the Contact button at the top of the valsroad.com website or emailing: val@valsroad.com
