So I decided to take a road trip, just me and my dogs recently. Went from California to Southern Texas, up to New Mexico, over to Arizona, Nevada, back to California, up to Oregon, Washington, hit the upper border, came back down to southern California.

What I saw astounded me. It was like the scene from Grapes of Wrath, crossed with the Beverley Hillbillies, crossed with Tokyo Drift.

I saw people leaving in droves but nowhere was it as bad as in California. There is a mass exodus of the state and no one seems to notice it.

People/families are buying vans, even ford/chevy service vans to live in due to them looking commercial(less hassle from people /police), and having blacked out windows. They are also far cheaper than an rv.

Speaking of rvs some people are having to buy non running ones cheap and permapark somewhere. This includes families with pets, with no other recourse.

Every rest stop/flying j was people leaving or homeless people permacamped. I spoke to them regularly and the stories were truly heart wrenching.

I also saw more paper plates (license plates) than regular ones (this is hyperbole but not far off the truth I'm sure even people not traveling have noticed this). Many of these people seemed to not know or care how to drive. I can't begin to guess as to the reasons but people in cars with paper plates were 90 percent of the time a-holes on the road, and I saw many of them in accidents.

I'm sorry for the rant, I just am trying to say I've traveled the US extensively over my 40 years, but this one broke me. We have failed as a society, we do nothing for our most vulnerable, and its hurting us all.

I advise everyone to (when its safe) go to your local rest stops and flying j/pilot/whatever rest stop and talk to some of these people. Those homeless people I see so many complain about here (they're crazy, druggies, they stink!) <-all can be true, but they are still human deserving of your understanding and empathy, and I say this as someone who had a homeless guy threaten to eat my dogs. Obviously he had issues so I just left, but someone called the cops. Thankfully Santa Monica has mental health professionals the local police can rely on for such issues, so when I told them he did not threaten me or my life, he was left alone until mental health services could arrive. But I've seen far worse from the police in regards to homelessness in say, Bakersfield.

Also you will meet regular families, many now homeless, who have children with them or grandparents. Who worked their whole lives, some were even approved for unemployment months ago but never got a dime. Most families in the US can't weather missing a single paycheck and these folks were asked to wait indefinitely, and its already been what, 6 months?

Or just talk to the ones who are moving, but don't know where. Did you know that many property rental companies, at least in California, now demand 3 recent check stubs and proof of work, unemployment does not count. We literally have families who have money and still have to move out of state because by the time they got their money its been months since they last worked?

The moratorium on evictions was supposed to help people but guess what? Just like everything else it was perverted into something to hurt the people it was meant to help. Now no one wants a tenant that even may possibly be a risk in the future. We will see how long their properties are vacant before they begin begging for those families back.

Im sorry, I'm done, just all of this is so heartbreaking.

super late edit to add- the sheer volume of people I've met who were absolutely convinced coronavirus isnt real was mind blogging, especially since I lost several people close to me and know many others who were sick. These people came from all walks of life, all races and creeds. But all were positive it was all some big conspiracy. I didn't ever speak on it myself because how do you respond without anger when you've had people taken by it?

Edited for spelling and clarity and to add some stuff.