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![\"Arizona](\"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/wp-content\/uploads\/azhistoricstorm-300x202.jpg\" "\\"azhistoricstorm\\"")
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Today is my second day in Holbrook, Arizona.\u00a0 Riding was simply not an option.\u00a0 Sunrise began with 30 mph average wind speeds and it only went up from there.\u00a0 Gusting, which was pretty much constant, reached 55 mph and\u00a0produced more than one overturned semi on I-40.\u00a0\u00a0The resulting dust storms were awesome and terrifying.<\/p>\n
So here I sat.\u00a0 In my hotel room, with sporadic power, staring at the one bar I had on my cell\u00a0phone, willing it to\u00a0leap to two.\u00a0\u00a0I was restricted to how far I could walk\u00a0from the hotel and both restaurants that\u00a0I could reach\u00a0were closed due to the storm and power issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Note to\u00a0the\u00a0ladies\u00a0– lip gloss in a dust storm is gross.<\/p>\n
During the few respites when I had power, it was hard to avoid the news from the campaign trail.\u00a0 The fracas surrounding Rep. John Lewis’ statements, the pastor at a campaign rally implying God’s preferences in this race, and, most disturbing of all, the crowd’s increasingly ugly calls and responses to campaign speeches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dust storms.\u00a0 They are disorienting.\u00a0 But they are temporary.<\/p>\n
Thomas Carlyle wrote, ‘The dust of controversy is merely the falsehood flying off’<\/p>\n
If this was on my mind when I learned that the power was back on at Jimmy’s restaurant, it quickly left.\u00a0 A full day of vending machine food sent me skipping\u00a0over to Jimmy’s.\u00a0 There I met Randy Andrews.\u00a0 A father of three adult children, Randy is the retired County Assessor for Holbrook and his soft spoken account of how he came to shift his support was surprising and unexpected.<\/p>\n