DeWitt
Though it’s not on my route, DeWitt has some interesting history that is tied to Abe Lincoln. Named for DeWitt Clinton, former New York governor, the town was first called Marion. In 1840, John and Ann Richter (husband and wife) moved from Springfield to Marion (DeWitt). John was a native of Philadelphia, who had moved to Springfield 10 years earlier.
In Marion, Richter ran a store, and he also served as coroner and postmaster there. He became a friend of Abe Lincoln, who often stayed at the Richter home when attending court in nearby Clinton (about 10 miles away). Lincoln claimed that one night he had to sleep in a large bed in a Clinton hostelry with 3 other men. He said not only was it the worst night of sleep he ever got, but he also woke up covered with bedbug bites. Other attorneys commented that Lincoln would take off for Marion on horseback as soon as the Clinton court recessed for the day. When asked why he preferred Marion to Clinton, Lincoln would say the fishing was better there, but his friends thought the real draw was the good table Ann Richter kept.
Lincoln would stay in correspondence with his friend Richter, even while in the White House, and it is said (pretty good dodge for a historian to use, right?) that Richter once gave him a $10 contribution, even before he decided to run for president. That was a princely sum in those days.
Because yesterday turned out to be a scorcher, I decided to start walking as early in the morning as I could. (For the first time on the trip, yesterday (Monday) water stored in the cab of the pickup was really warm when I carried it on the bike.) The weather had cooled off nicely overnight, and there was a good breeze, but the fact that it was from the south had me thinking that the day might warm up after all.
DeLand
Though the U.S. Census Bureau persists in spelling the name as 2 words, locals spell it as one, with a midcap L. The town has tornado sirens mounted on high poles surrounding it, and the local high school is consolidated with the Weldon area, with a school building located on the north side of Route 10, between the two towns.
The tornado warning system is justified. According to the U.S. Weather Service, tornado activity at DeLand is 159% above that of the average activity of the rest of the United States. Right on Route 10 is the local Casey’s. I parked there for the walk forward to Lodge, and hit the road east again at about 8:00 a.m.
Of course there is the matter of the rough and sloping road shoulders (my own shoulders slope a bit too), but I’m surprised at the pain in my knees. Until recently my right knee was doing fine, but now it’s joining the chorus of complaints.
Lodge
Lodge straddles Route 10 east of DeLand. It’s also on a major rail line, which also divides the town. Not far south of Lodge, is the U-Pick-It Pontius Berry Farm. The community of Lodge is unincorporated. I was unable to find any open businesses in Lodge, though I may have missed one.
When I got back to my pickup at DeLand, I decided to take the advice of some ladies from the Clinton VFW Auxiliary and visit the Simpkins Military Museum in Heyworth, so I drove up to Farmer City, took I-74 northwest to U.S. 136, and drove west to Heyworth. As I entered town, I saw several pickups with flashing yellow lights coming toward me in my lane.
The lady driving the first one said some semis would be coming down the middle of the road (primarily to avoid some overhead trees). She asked me to pull well off the road, which I did, as did the cars following me. Three sections of wind turbine towers came down the road, taking up nearly the entire roadway.
After the wide loads had passed, I drove on west a few blocks and stopped at a gas station to ask about the Simpkins museum, but neither lady in the store had heard of it. I crossed the highway to ask the same question at the hardware store, where the proprietor told me how to get to the museum. As soon as I headed back east, I saw a large sign, surrounded by flowers, and backed by an American Flag on a staff. The sign gave pretty good directions to the museum too.
Despite testimony of others who’ve been to the museum that it’s well worth the trip, you couldn’t prove it by me. It wasn’t open, and wouldn’t be until much later in the day. I called the number on the sign, but got an answering machine. I did leave a message, but I haven’t gotten a response yet.
Feeling very grubby from 2 days’ of walking and riding without a shower, I headed farther west to McLean in McLean County, where there’s still a Dixie Belle truck stop. There used to be lots of those around the country, and one could always count on them for good food, clean restrooms, and friendly faces. I paid $8.50 to take a shower, and I was glad I did, as were the people I met for the balance of the day.
I called my chiropractor, who has her office not too far south of here in Monticello, and left a message, hoping to get an afternoon appointment. In the past, she’s been able to make a kind of adjustment to my leg bones (based on a Russian bone-setting technique), which quickly alleviates my knee pain. I got a call back from her receptionist, but I couldn’t answer the phone immediately because I was driving. She left a message that the earliest appointment she could get me was at 10:00 the following morning (Wednesday), so I called back to accept that slot.
Too late. She had just given that time to someone else. She said she could get me in at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, and I quickly agreed, lest I lose that time slot too. That’s probably better, because I can either walk really early tomorrow, or else split the walk, doing some before and some after the appointment. At least I should be well-adjusted for a while thereafter. My chiropractor always says it’s important to walk after an adjustment, but I don’t know where that means 10 miles along the highway, followed by a 10-mile bike ride.
I met my chiropractor and her husband at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, where Paul and I were both enrolled in graduate studies in the geography department, and where my chiropractor, then studying to be a musical therapist, was as student secretary at the National Counsel for Geographic Education, the same office where I worked for my assistantship. She and her brother rented a house together, and she sometimes fed me supper on days when I had a night class.
Her husband Paul is at this moment in Malawi (working with the Marion Mission), Africa, where he is transporting materials for simple village water wells out to remote areas. He invited me to go along, so I could be doing that this month instead of walking across Illinois. Paul has made a number of trips there over the past years. He's also active in Habitat for Humanity, and he's an expert and successful writer of grant proposals. He's a good guy to know, and his wife is a great chiropractor.
I drove back east toward Heyworth. Earlier I had noticed a pretty park on the north side of the road, just west of Heyworth, and I thought it might be a nice place to eat lunch. It was. As I was leaving, the custodian was getting in his pickup to leave, so I stopped to tell him what a nice park they have. (They even have porcelain in the main restrooms.) He said that for years the youth of the community had seriously vandalized the park, but that things had finally turned around, and that, thanks to lots of volunteer help, the park is now well maintained.
I was reminded of a quote from Abe Lincoln, "Let not him that hath not an house tear down the house of him who hath one." One social theory about vandalism is that people tend to tear down things that mean nothing to them. Inner city youth in this country, for instance, long vandalized cars and phone booths. The social theory said that they had no phones, and thus no one to call, and that they had no cars, and thus had no vested interest in the cars of others.
That in turn reminds me of a verse from the Bible that says, “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?” (Luke 16:12, KJV) I admit that I have never comprehended vandalism, or the motivation that leads to it. Some people build things; others destroy them. But I still do not understand why that should be.
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