Indiana Here I Come

“When they’re running you out of town - make it look like you’re leading a parade.”

Monday, October 25

After a rather ignominious exit from the town of Onarga the good news was that I got an early start on the day. 5:00 A.M. found me walking toward Gilman, Illinois, three miles distant, where I could get a breakfast and a cup of that unnecessary coffee. There I began a new road - Highway 24 - which I will follow to Route 224 south of Fort Wayne. Both roads heads almost due east from here and I will now stay in this latitudinal zone for nearly the remainder of the trip.

As Indiana was only 31 miles away and the town of Kentland, 35, I decided to just go for it and get there. I figured I could be in Kentland, Indiana by early evening and with it - get a motel for the night. Highway 24 had bike lanes most of the way and the traffic was light - a very good thing.

On the way through Watseka, Illinois, an elderly lady saw me and almost started crying over what I am doing. She is a Tea Party member and insisted I take $5.00 and kept telling me,”God bless you” as we parted. I was later stopped by another woman who said she also was a Tea Party member. After listening to me talk she invited me to hang around for perhaps I could speak at a meeting coming up in a day or two. I told her I had to move on but while we talked a photographer arrived and started taking pictures. It turns out that he, Scott Anderson, is a photographer for The Daily Journal - a newspaper headquartered in Kankakee, Illinois. Scott liked listening to me speak about my journey and took notes as well as pictures. He then asked if he could follow me and take pictures of my experiences like a “day in the life of” sort of thing. So for the next 10 miles, until I hit the Indiana border - there he was taking photos - all sorts of photos. Scott would get in his truck and drive ahead or whatever he felt he needed to do. His last photo was of me taking a photo of the “Welcome to Indiana” sign at the border. He thanked me saying that what I am doing "is a story" and he wanted to record it. He said he is mainly a photographer but that he wanted to write this one himself. After a couple of more questions we parted at the border.

As Kentland, was yet an additional four miles away and the day was rapidly waning, I hurried into Indiana feeling that another goal had been achieved - I had just entered a new state.