Magic Moments from our Face of America Journey

Written by: Tony Mussari, Sr.
Photographs by: Kitch Loftus Mussari

Little by little one travels far. J.R.R Tolkien

We begin with an apology for being out of touch.  Our automobile accident in Minnesota put us on a detour, and then we encountered some big time computer problems which further complicated matters.

Over the weekend we decided to address some of the opportunities these difficulties created for us

If you have a moment you might want to read the latest addition to our blog.   It is titled Thoughts about Customer Service: 25 Days of Gremlins, Generosity of Spirit and Gratitude.  The direct link is: http://faceofamericawps.com/blog/    You might be interested to know that letters we have written to the corporate offices of Best Buy and State Farm Insurance have resulted in immediate and positive replies.

While you are visiting the Face of America website, please check out the video we produced for the Toyota Prius tenth anniversary celebration. We called it: Bumps on the Road. Unfortunately, we were not able to upload it to the competition website, so we decided to put it in the Video section of our website.  The direct link is: http://faceofamericawps.com/video/bumps-on-the-road-2/

Status Report

As we approach the ninth month of our journey, these are the numbers:
We have driven 21,000 miles;
We have visited 39 states and the District of Columbia;
We have visited 170 cities and towns;
We have interviewed 260 people;
We have recorded 56,000 digital pictures.

In the weeks ahead, we will return to Massachusetts and Connecticut, and we will visit Rhode Island.

At the moment, we are editing the What Is America? documentary we will screen in Shanksville this year. Our working title is Visiting Shanksville in the Rain.

Magic Moments

There are many reasons why we will never forget our visit to the Middle West. We will try to address all of them in the book we are writing about our journey.  For the moment we offer this collage of special memories:

Visiting Shanksville on Friday night;

Talking to a survivor of the May 4, shootings at Kent State University;

Visiting with a World War II German soldier who became an America citizen;

Speaking with a woman who emigrated from Poland to find a better life in America;

Experiencing the Green Garage sale in Wisconsin;

Spending time in Money Magazine’s Best Small Town in America, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It’s a city everyone should visit;

Meeting the people at Walser Collision and Walser Rental in Bloomington, Minnesota;

Visiting with Judy Galbraith and Sona Mehring;

Visiting Fargo, North Dakota;

Standing at the foot of Mt. Rushmore;

Driving through beautiful Wyoming and Colorado;

Standing at the site of the North Platte Canteen in Nebraska;

Discovering the memorial to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan in Marseilles, Illinois;

Making a sentimental journey to Dubuque, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa;

Interviewing Molly Marti and her son at their farm in Iowa;

Presenting the National 9/11 Remembrance Flag to Eden Prairie and the University of Iowa;

Walking a labyrinth in Twin Oaks, Michigan, and walking a jetty at New Buffalo Beach, Michigan;

Visiting with a Mennonite family in Pennsylvania.

Tolkien was right: Little by little one travels far.

Until the next time, we hope that all of your stories have happy endings.