Tuesday, December 2, 2008

DAY 15 - SANTA MARGARITA & ATASCADERO

LOCATION UPDATE: Tomorrow (Wed) we'll be walking through Templeton on Main & Theater and Paso Robles on Spring & Monterey.

DAY 15 - We parked at a Park & Ride under a PFLAG sign and set off through Santa Margarita and Atascadero on the historic El Camino Real. (we think this is a sign of good things to come)

We started our day a little bundled up... it was FREEZING! It was foggy and pretty desolate after we made it through the few blocks of downtown Santa Margarita.

Between Santa Margarita and Atascadero, we were joined on our route by Amanda and Jake. They stayed with us for about 3 or 4 miles and Amanda and her wife, Laura, scouted our next days route for us. Thank you Amanda and Laura!

Once we reached the town of Atascadero, we stopped at Chalk Mountain Liquor (it's also a deli and market) and we want to encourage everyone to PATRONIZE this establishment!! The poeple there were wonderful to us - they packed up food to send with us, offered us water, and tearfully did video clips about how upset they were about prop 8 passing. Thanks you Dianna, Patience & Jessica!

We had been warned that Atascadero might not be very tolerant, so we were prepared to just check in...

... but we kept walking and we were swarmed with support and encouragement!!

Here are a few people that we met:

Sam invited us into her home, offered us food, water and a restroom.

Mark gave us money and a letter that we can give to the Supreme Court.

Brian helped us with directions and was genuinely surprised and happy to be meeting us.

Others were Mary Ann, who offered us a place to stay; Kitty, who offered us free steam room time at her Aveda salon; Cindy who pulled over and gave us money; Val who found us and gave us a starbucks gift card; Chris B. who pulled over and gave us water; and the women and families who stood on their porches clapping for us.

We ended our day at David and David's house in Atascadero. They have been very involved in fighting for marriage equality for years and got very involved in the No on Prop 8 campaign. We spent a wonderful evening swapping stories over a fantastic meal. (picture tomorrow)

1 comment:

  1. You go girls!! Love the sign!!! Thank you for showing me things I didn't know or had forgotton about my own community!! The big Yes on 8 signs had me feeling so down, I forgot just how many truly good-hearted people were out there. Thank you for reminding me!

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