We walked about the vicinity of our motel today doing errands. Walked to Walmart; walked to the post office; and, walked to Kroger. Kroger has a Starbucks so we got some. A guy, Mike, from Murphysboro, the next town we ride through, struck up a conversation with us. He’s a former teacher from the north side of Chicago. He gave up teaching and went into finance. He also worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections. His wife is from the area and they moved here to raise their kids. Most interesting to me was his tenure as a city councilman in Murphysboro and interest in history. He told us all about John A. Logan, a local historical icon. Maybe the most noteworthy thing Logan did was to start Memorial Day according to Mike. Murphysboro and Carbondale have an ongoing feud about which town can claim the distinction of hosting the first event, but agree that Logan is the originator.
Apparently this conversation was overheard by a guy that stopped while in his car as we were walking and asked if we were walking to Murphysboro. I thought he was going to offer us a ride. Somehow he’d gotten the notion we were preparing for a long walk, maybe the El Camino de Santiago. He’d walked a portion of the route. He sat in the middle of the side road and talked to us for maybe ten minutes before driving off.
I’m a counselor in my former life. I love this stuff! Find out what a person has a passion for and let them talk about it. Listen to them. We’re all struggling to understand one another and be understood aren’t we?
If it all works out we’re back on the road tomorrow, heading for Chester, IL. We finish map number 10 in our countdown across the country.
Today is primary day in Indiana. We both voted absentee weeks ago. If you’re not happy with the course the government has travelled recently, vote! I hope you vote!
1 comment:
The characters you meet are what makes this trip so great.....isn't it nice to find so many genuinely nice people??? Be safe..
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