Day 7 (cont.), Day 8, and Day 9

Day 7 continued

Despite my graduate studies in geography and lots of reading about geology, I often don’t understand much about local drainage conditions in Illinois. Sandy Showalter had offered me a place to stay. After a session in the Havana Public Library, primarily to post my blog, but also to learn more about Havana, I called him to find out whether the offer of lodging was still on. He said it was, so I set out to find his place out in the country, southeast of Havana.

Some area roads are still completely under water from the excessively heavy rains of early August. On one side of the country road I was travelling was a corn field with lots of water standing. Directly across the road was a soybean field, with beans looking green and healthy, probably the tallest soybean plants I’ve ever seen, and the center-pivot irrigation system was watering full-blast.

Sandy had warned me that the usual road to his place was blocked by water, but he had told me to turn left at the Road Closed sign and drive around past a little cemetery to bypass the water. That worked just fine.

Sandy’s place is situation in a stand of hickory trees. It’s in a really lovely spot, When I got there he was out with his grandson, for whom he recently got an old Minneapolis-Moline model R tractor. It’s the little brother to the model Z tractor he already had. Sandy converted the electrical system of the R to 12 volts, redid the lights, and got everything working. The engine runs like a top. Sandy thinks it’s about a 1948 model.

Just a few months younger than I am, Sandy recently retired from a shop where he worked for years as a mechanic, and he’s looking forward to Social Security and Medicare. He has a big dog, Buddy, and a black and white cat, Pritchard. After his grandson left, we sat out in front of the house, enjoying a beautiful evening and watching the hummingbirds at a feeder Sandy keeps there.

One of Sandy’s hobbies is to make things out of wood. He’s made rocking horses, rocking chairs, lovely wall cutouts, picture frames, and some little sofa tables you can use as a flat surface when you’re sitting on a sofa. He built his house with his own hands (it took him 2 years), in addition to holding down a full-time job. He had just finished putting a laminate wood floor in his dine-in kitchen. It was really well done, and it had taken him two days.

I saw what looked like another house out back and asked about it. It was the woodworking shop he built, where he makes those creative and beautiful things out of wood.

Day 8, September 8—Destination Illinois Route 10

I had planned to go back north and walk along U.S. 136, but Sandy suggested a route along township and county roads that would lead me to Poplar City, Biggs, and Easton. It would have been 11 miles along U.S. 136, but instead I walked south and east. I did lose my way at one point, and I had to humble myself and ask directions. Just south of Sandy’s place, I saw a herd of spotted fallow deer in a field to my left, and I stopped to take a picture. Initially the deer crowded up to the fence in curiosity, but when I walked back to take a picture, they snorted and fled into another pasture.

I walked into Easton, which is on Illinois 10, then biked back to recover the pickup. I had talked to some people in Easton on my route survey 2 weeks earlier, and they had asked the town officials to leave up the beautiful American flags that had lined both sides of the highway when I drove through. Someone didn’t get the message, though, and a worker had taken down the flags just the day before.

Part way along the main street I met a veteran who has a shop where he fabricates the frames for race cars. He said he doesn’t really consider himself a veteran, though he served in the Army in the 1960s, because he didn’t see action, and he didn’t really retire from the military. He just served his time and got out. I thanked him for his service, nonetheless.

Teheran

Teheran, Illinois, is the home of the Mason County Animal Shelter, operated by a nonprofit group called Pets without Parents, of Mason and Logan Counties. Sandy Showalter’s son is active in that organization, and through it he got Sandy his wonderful dog Buddy. Locals pronounce the town’s name tā-HĀ-ren.

Back in the mid-80s I was in the Army Reserve, drilling in Decatur, Illinois. I used to take Route 10 from rural Carthage, Illinois, where I farmed, to attend my weekend drills. I was always intrigued by the name of Teheran.

One of my fellow reservists was from Teheran, where his family ran the grain elevator. During fall harvest, when the elevator was super busy, it was really hard for him to attend drills because the family business was unbelievably busy at that time of year. That elevator is being modernized, getting new driers and other updated equipment, just in time for this year’s corn harvest.

About a mile east of Easton, I encountered Randy Otterson and Adam Guffey, two red-blooded young American farmers, who were in the middle of corn harvest. Though they were in the corn field, they were near the roadway, and we talked a few minutes. Though they weren’t veterans, they thanked me for walking to support our troops. Corn picking is in full swing there in Mason County.

I biked back from Teheran to Easton and ate lunch at the local eatery. I was sure I would remember the name of that little café, but I just can’t come up with it. When I biked back to my pickup, an Easton police officer was pointing his hand-held radar gun down the road, but the farmers and truckers entering Easton were all doing well under the speed limit. I told him what I was doing, and he told me to “be careful out there.”

Sandy had told me that Mason City, my next destination, had a new library, so I was hoping to use the Internet there. I drove to Teheran and checked the mileage back to my starting point. I had averaged 11 miles per day for 8 days, and I was actually ahead of schedule. I’d had experienced a few difficulties (my ankles are still sore from mosquito bites), but I had been showered with blessings, and I had met some wonderful fellow Americans and learned a great deal about my own home state.

Mary had been telling me about some difficulties at home, the pickup was past due for an oil change, my air mattresses wouldn’t hold air, and the bed of the pickup was not very appealing for a night’s sleep. Given that I was so far ahead of schedule, I decided to drive home, recharge my personal batteries, help my wife Mary with some crucial chores around the house, and get the air mattress exchanged.

The plan now is to go back to Teheran on Sunday afternoon and walk into Mason City, then set out walking from Mason City toward New Holland on Monday morning. That will leave me 5 miles from Burton View and 10 miles from Lincoln, and walking either or both of those distances on Tuesday should be manageable and still leave me ahead of my original schedule.

Trying to schedule distances on this walk reminds me of trying to prepare class lesson plans weeks in advance as required by the public school administrations where I have taught school. You can never hold perfectly to such lesson plans, but they must be submitted nonetheless.

Day 9 (at home)

Today (Thursday) Mary and I were able to volunteer to help put together envelopes with the Great News Radio newsletters, and that let us see some old friends and make some new ones. It also led to an invitation to be on the Great News Radio Morning Program (a program that usually features Mark Burns and his lovely wife Carrie, but which will have to do without Carrie tomorrow morning because of her being in Israel). You can tune on Friday morning (7:32 a.m. CST) or evening (7:32 p.m. CST) at any of their 4 frequencies (89.3, 102.5, 103.9, or 97.1, if you live in the Champaign area), or you can go to http://www.greatnewsradio.org/ and click Streaming Audio. If you don’t hear it live, you can catch the archived version.

You might also like to see the video from the start of the walk at http://www.wgem.com/Global/story.asp?S=13081522