We began the last leg of our journey today with about 211 miles to travel. We have been gone 33 days, and have traveled just a little more than 4,650 miles. This has been a dream come true for both of us. We have had the pleasure of visiting with family and friends and creating some very special memories. We have seen a fantastic and tremendous variety of landscape. We have experienced recent history as well as history involving the expansion and grown our country from the Lewis and Clark Expedition and forward. Some of these experiences have evoked emotions we were not prepared for, making the experience even more moving. We have enjoyed each other’s company beyond measure and, although we are sad to see the journey come to an end, we are happy to be returning home.
Along the way, things that we have seen have brought to our minds the words of many songs. One song, above all others, seems to summarize best our experiences over the last five weeks. These are words penned by Katherine Lee Bates, words that we all know so well.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
- For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
- Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
- God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
- From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
- Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
- Across the wilderness!
America! America!
- God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
- Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
- In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
- And mercy more than life!
America! America!
- May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
- And every gain divine!
“America The Beautiful”
By the way, in spite of the many human errors committed throughout our history involving mankind’s mistreatment of mankind, we are still feel fortunate and proud to be citizens of the Unites States – Americans!
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