The Presidential election of 2020 is over. Hopefully. We will survive with battered bruises as a country. The division between rural and urban will be seen in the voting statistics for sure. When we traveled this summer, we stayed in rural areas throughout the states we visited. There was a definite bias in political signs in rural areas.
In Minnesota, we had lunch at a rest stop across the river from Fargo. Then we visited an area recommended, Detroit Lakes. The area was teeming with people dipping their bodies into the lake. During the time of Covid, it did not look safe to be near that many people without masks.
Our goal was to travel from Aberdeen, SD through the eastern part of North Dakota and cross half of the state of Minnesota, landing somewhere near Brainerd. Our twelve-hour day included stops to walk, but no restaurants. Our second restaurant on our trip was in Baxter, MN near the Christmas Wild Rice store. I had forgotten how good the creamy wild rice soup was in Minnesota! It was an off time to eat so there were not many people and it seemed safe.
That evening we needed to walk somewhere after a day in the car, but everything was closed. It was getting dark. Heading out of the parking lot to walk on a quiet street, we discussed the escalating prices for hotels, and the cost of food in restaurants.
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:8 NIV
I was distracted and said, “Look for the green tree.” “What? They are all green,” my husband replied. “The big green one.” All the trees were GIGANTIC.
“Which big green one are you looking at?” I said, “the one on the left side of the road.” If you have ever been to rural northern Minnesota, you will understand that ALL YOU SEE ARE TREES ON EVERY SIDE OF THE ROAD. It made the evening pretty funny. Maybe, it was the 12-hour trip that made us loopy.
What things are different when you visit rural areas and not cities? How are the people different? What do you like better? Where do you feel safer?