{"id":153,"date":"2008-10-08T22:33:24","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T05:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/?p=153"},"modified":"2008-10-11T23:44:04","modified_gmt":"2008-10-12T06:44:04","slug":"straight-line-to-needles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Straight line to Needles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Self discovery is a funny thing.\u00a0 What starts out as a small observation, upon reflection, revels larger patterns.\u00a0 It turns out that we are a pretty predictable lot.\u00a0 I’ll try to explain.<\/p>\n

My motorcycle riding friends warned me about this leg of my journey.\u00a0 Long, straight runs that go on forever.\u00a0 For most riders, there can be no worse fate that facing a day of curveless roads and flat terrain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not for me.\u00a0 I had the most amazing ride of my trip so far.\u00a0 Yes, it was flat and straight.\u00a0 But I was blessed with a ride free from traffic and wind through a landscape that came alive in orange hues and craggy geometries.\u00a0 That feeling of being so small and still part of something so big.\u00a0 Perfection.<\/p>\n

It turns out that this was not a isolated reaction.\u00a0 I have a history of getting lost in the frictionless straight lines of my pursuits.\u00a0 When it came to years of windsurfing, I\u00a0never felt drawn to the wave jumping gymnastic maneuvers of my peers.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 The rush of pulling back on the sail and\u00a0flying across\u00a0water was all I needed.\u00a0 Later, it appeared again in my love of kayaking.\u00a0 Short river kayaks and the challenges of maneuvering through turbulent river runs left me flat.\u00a0\u00a0But put me in my 17″ ocean kayak with a long stretch of open water ahead, and it is as good as church for me.<\/p>\n

But I digress.\u00a0 This straight road led me to Needles, California.\u00a0 It was here, in a restaurant parking lot that I met Michele Alvarado and Anita Holmes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anita is a Native American from the Fort Mohave tribe.\u00a0 Michele is a descendant of the same tribe and both women work for the Fort Mohave Police Department.\u00a0 They are active in their community and have raised 8 children, 7 grandchildren and one great grandson between them.\u00a0 What follows is a remarkable example of the heroic struggles happening across our country and the even more remarkable people who are willing to share their story.<\/p>\n

[Click the play button below to hear the audio]<\/p>\n

<\/object>
Anita Holmes<\/a><\/p>\n

For the record, I left this interview without ever\u00a0asking who Michele and Anita were going to vote for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Self discovery is a funny thing.\u00a0 What starts out as a small observation, upon reflection, revels larger patterns.\u00a0 It turns out that we are a pretty predictable lot.\u00a0 I’ll try to explain. My motorcycle riding friends warned me about this leg of my journey.\u00a0 Long, straight runs that go on forever.\u00a0 For most riders, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}