Former resident introduces family to city

Josh Stack returned to Demopolis recently and compared the city with what he remembered of his old stomping grounds 21 years ago.

When he left Stack was a rising high school junior. He spent seven years in Demopolis schools, made friends he still holds close and built memories that are unique, such as meeting Bill and Melinda Gates when the couple visited the Demopolis Public Library.

Son of former residents David and Sharon Stack, Josh came back with his wife, Roxana, and their two sons, Mathias, 5, and Santiago, 3, pulling a travel trailer behind their truck. The family made headquarters at Foscue Park while they met with his old friends and he showed them around his former hometown.

One of the first places the family visited was the library, where Josh’s mother served as director for many years. “I was pleased to see the library,” he said, and his sons thoroughly enjoyed visiting the children’s section.

“The historic homes in downtown Demopolis are in better shape than I remember,” but, he added, U.S. Highway 80 shows the  “further homogenization” of America.

The Stacks, recently moved to the United States, are getting acclimated to the country and introducing Roxana and the boys to life in America.

Josh and Roxana definitely have an international past. They met when both were in training with Maersk in Copenhagen, Denmark. A native of Peru, she had also worked in Singapore. Josh’s former job had taken him to Angola.

With a shakeup in management at Maersk, the couple decided to relocate. Roxana applied for a Green Card. When it arrived in December, the family traveled back to the U.S. The two decided to get to know it up close by taking a trip around the country.

Roxana had been to the United States before, but only briefly. She had taken a trip to San Francisco, and the couple held one of their wedding ceremonies in Charleston, S.C. The other was in Lima, Peru, so that Roxana’s family could celebrate the event.

In May the family started their cross-country trek from Cramerton, N.C., where Josh’s parents live, traveled to Florida, and then headed west, staying at national parks or RV camp grounds. They spent time in Auburn to check out his alma mater before continuing their journey.

Already they had scheduled stops in New Orleans and Houston, but after that, the family hadn’t made definite plans. California is a destination, although when and how they reach there was still being worked out. The trip will take them up the West Coast and then back across the northern tier of the states before they end up in Cramerton again, where Josh is a partner in a real estate company and Roxana, an industrial engineer, plans to do consulting work.

Since they are so young, the boys may not remember much of the trip. Their parents are documenting everything with photos. The family adds National Park stamps to their journal every time they camp in one of America’s federal campgrounds.

Still, keeping two active boys happy while driving long stretches has been challenging.

“We had to devise a lot of things to keep them entertained,” said Roxana.

They use audiobooks and home school programs to prepare the boys for school in the fall.

Since this is Roxana’s first real introduction to the United States, she has come “to realize how vast it really is.” She knew there were plenty of cities and towns, but there is “so much in between those big cities.”

As they have been camping, the family has met many other families on the road, several of them making permanent homes in their RVs.

The boys, who speak both English and Spanish, enjoy meeting the people they meet, said their parents. Mathias also spoke Danish fluently, but his mother says he has lost a lot of it because he has had no opportunity to practice the language since coming to the United States.