Americans are better than our leaders' rhetoric. A road trip showed me that. - Braver Angels
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Americans are better than our leaders’ rhetoric. A road trip showed me that.

By Lynn Heady, Tennessean

One of the perks of being retired is having the time to travel in a leisurely manner — taking a road trip rather than flying.

We decided to do this on our recent trip to Parkland, Florida to visit my 98-year-old mother and several other members of my family. We mapped out our trip so that we stopped every four and a half hours and relaxed and refreshed for the next day’s travel.

Aside from a broken windshield and lots of thunderstorms on the way there, the trip was delightful. The joy included meeting and talking with so many amazing people on the way. The server at the motel’s free breakfast spread, Tequila, asked about our family and shared hers with us. We had a lot in common despite our apparent differences.

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