The Road West

America defies easy explanation.

I learned this after watching a fist fight spill over from a Wal-Mart parking lot to a pirate themed miniature golf course in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. I had just settled in to the back seat of my car for the night when the fight broke out. Triggered by some slight, two families in rented RVs started a shouting match which quickly escalated into a fight.

Punching and swearing, two older men crossed out of the lot and into the adjacent miniature golf course where they fell into a lagoon adorned with miniature pirate decorations. They continued to fight in the waist deep water until the police came and removed them.

I had set out to discover something about America. What I found defied an easy explanation.  I suppose it was my fault as I only looked on a very specific edge of America. I wanted to see if the America defined by family road trips and manufactured history still existed and what it meant in today’s context.

It does still exist, but what it means today I have no clear answer for