What a Cross-Country RV Trip Taught Me About Uniting America
In his new book, Frank Barry drives the Lincoln Highway in search of “the better angels of our nature” and a new way forward for a country struggling with deepening division.
Somewhere in America.
Photo: Frank BarryThis essay has been adapted from Frank Barry's forthcoming book, Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey into the Heart of American Democracy, coming on June 4 from Steerforth Press.
No, we’re not going to Yellowstone.
That was the reply Laurel and I gave to the most frequent first question friends and family asked when they heard of our plan — a year into marriage and six months into a pandemic lockdown — to drive a motorhome across the country. They always seemed taken aback by our answer, as though we were traveling Egypt but passing on the pyramids, or crossing China without walking the Great Wall, or touring Ireland without having a pint at a pub. Who would dare? Snubbing Old Faithful on a road trip west — and through Wyoming, no less?