From the Ground

I left Nashville about noon, and headed toward Columbus. This stretch of road was rather nicer than the one between Bloomington and Nashville; not as steep or winding, and with comfortably wider shoulders. I passed the small town of Gnaw Bone, which had about three flea markets beside the road. I had passed another one between Riley and Spencer. About 3 pm it started raining, and I found place that let me stay in their open carport until the rain subsided. In about an hour the thunderstorm passed, but the sky stayed cloudy. I went on into Columbus, and another wave of rain came back from the other direction. I decided to stay at a motel so I could get out of the rain and clean up for church: It cost about twice what I wanted to pay, but I figured it would be worth it.
In the morning I got up and headed across town to the chapel. While on the way, I encountered a resident who was out walking: he said he is in training to walk the Appalachian Trail, and went with me across town, almost to the church. Columbus has plenty of walking trails through the city (People trails, they are called), and when the network is finished will be one of the nicest I have seen anywhere.
I had intended to attend both wards if possible, but it took all morning to get there and the meeting in the later ward started half an hour earlier than the Church web site said they did. I missed the sacrament and came in while the bishopric was speaking. The Sunday school lesson was a repeat of the one on the war chapters. This instructor focused on the role of the 2000 "stripling warriors". She also made mention of recent archeological discoveries in Guatemala, which are thought to be the remains of the fortifications described in Alma 48 and afterwards. The Priesthood lesson was combined with the Relief Society, principally on the subject of Faith. I was rather disappointed about the hospitality of the members. The ward was large, well-attended, and busy, and although there were several people who greeted me and inquired about whether I was a member or visiting, no one had the time to stop and converse much once they found I was only visiting.
I found a park and stayed there for the night, intending to visit the branch campus of Indiana University - Purdue University -Columbus. It was overcast, cool, and windy, but stayed dry.
This morning I went to IUPUI, and was more or less questioned by the security guard when I went into the building. The posted hours said it opened at 7:00 AM, but I was asked to leave until 8 AM when more people would be there. The library internet access policies are the least friendly to visitors of any I have seen across the country and I wasn't able to get on there. I was seriously disappointed and rather upset, but I came to the neighboring Ivy Technical College, which hasn't given me nearly the same difficulty. The physical facilities are nice, but I don't have fond memories of Columbus. The public library, downtown, is too far for me to bother going back to, so I will be leaving here, headed towards Greensburg, then to Batesville.

That's Nashville, Indiana, not the larger and more famous Nashville, Tennessee. But more about that later.

I didn't accomplish all I wanted at the libraries in Bloomington, and I couldn't find a better place to stay, so I risked a park downtown. Then about 11 pm a thunderstorm moved in, and I scrambled to find cover. I managed to stay dry, if not comfortable, during the night. In the morning I went to find some banks and see if I could get some money from my checking account. I tried three, and had no luck. I went back to the County library to do some research, among other things to inspect a map of Ohio and plan my trip through it, since I don't have an Ohio road map with me. I settled on the rest of my route through Indiana. I left town fairly late, and stayed just outside of town.

For most of the year before I took this trip, I have been working on a web site (www.sapiencekb.com), and after this long break from it, ideas are starting to move again, and I've taken some time to try to organize and sort information related to it. I can do some of the research at libraries along the way; the difficulty is that I have problems updating the site. I know enough HTML that I can create pages; the problem is that I don't know how to publish them to the site: I can't very well carry FTP software and install it on library computers! Anyone who can suggest a way to create or maintain a web site while travelling and without my own computer should e-mail me at my webmaster address: webmaster@sapiencekb.com

Shortly after I left Bloomington, headed for Nashville, a woman stopped ahead of me on the road and gave a significant amount of money, for food and motel purposes. She represented an organization which wishes to remain anonymous. If I'm careful with it, it could last the remainder of my trip. I'm very grateful for the help: I was getting seriously concerned.

I'm informed that the hills and ridges I'm travelling through are part of the Appalachian mountain system, and some of them have extensions that can be traced as far as Alabama. The road is winding and the shoulders are narrow, which may account for the fact that I got no ride offers all the 16 miles to Nashville. Although, since I keep to the left side of the road facing traffic, a couple of people have thought I was going back the way I had come from and offered rides going that direction! I passed by Yellowwood National (?) and one of Indiana's largest parks: Brown County State Park, and the "Little Nashville Opry", which has national country music stars performing on occasion. I reached Nashville around 8:30 pm and went through the downtown area: one of the nicest I have ever been through. Nashville is known as a center of arts and crafts, and has cultivated an old-time rustic appearance but with modern conveniences.

I found a cattle farm just outside of town and stayed outside it for the night: The cattle came over to inspect but decided I was harmless and not there to feed them, so they moved on and grazed elswhere. I came in to the library to do my update and do a little other research. I mean to try to reach Columbus (that's Columbus, Indiana, not Columbus, Ohio) in time to attend church there, but that's a full day's walk of 16 miles, so I can't afford to stay too long here today.

I neglected to mention that Monday morning, I was offered a ride the rest of the way into Spencer, which sped things up a little. After spending most of the day in the library there, I managed to call my parents. My mother was glad to hear from me, and apparently my family is following my progress here. Afterwards, I went a little way out of town, just across a bridge, and spent the night there.
I started early in the morning, and after a couple of miles, much to my surprise, a man stopped, parked his car, and came across the road to speak to me. He asked if I was the Confutus that was going across the country. A friend of his in Terre Haute had encountered this blog and commented on it, asking if someone had seen me going through Riley, and since he was on his way toward Bloomington and saw me, he stopped. He offered a ride to the next town, Ellettsville. He mentioned that he had stopped earlier in the day at one of the historical sites and learned that this part of Indiana was the source of limestone used in major public buildings, I think including the US Capitol building. I found that there was a library in Ellettsville (It seems that in Indiana, libraries are more funded by the county than by individual cities), and overstayed the day. I had a half-hour limit, on the net, so didn't accomplish much. Late in the evening, it was raining rather heavily, but had mostly stopped by the time I left. I found a laundromat and ducked in there to do a load of wash while I waited for the storm to go on by.
Through Ellettsville and a couple of miles beyond, the road is a 5-lane highway with a wide turn lane, sidewalks, and plenty of businesses. I found a place to stay the night, and continued on.
I reached Bloomington, and the library at Indiana University about 10 A.M.

I wrote an entry for Spencer on Monday, the 23rd, but I'm not seeing it, so I'll have to try to reconstruct it.
I left Terre Haute rather late, and at first took the main street, Wabash Avenue, toward Indianapolis. At first, I missed my turnoff, and went by the entrance to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The engineer I spoke with in Paris had claimed it was one of the best engineering schools in the country, and at another time I would have been interested in visiting it, but not this time. I backtracked to Indiana Route 46 and took it South past the Airport, and found a corner where I could hide from traffic for the night.
I got up rather late Saturday morning, and hiked to Riley, reaching it a little after noon. Riley is a fairly small town, and I stopped to ponder development of my web site for a while. Then I went to the grocery store to get a loaf of bread, and the grocer gave me a couple of packages of breaded chicken and potatoes, and a couple more of sweet rolls. I went several more miles past Riley and found another stopping place.
I hadn't paid close attention to the distances on my map, so I found myself Sunday far out in the country, miles from the nearest town or church. I didn't want to spend the whole day in the same spot, so I continued on, taking more frequent and longer rest breaks than normal. In the evening, I was offered a ride, but the driver took me through Bowling Green, where I might have found a phone, and dropped me off a few miles outside of Spencer. Sunday was my birthday and I had intended to make a couple of phone calls to my family, but couldn't make it work. Monday morning I came the rest of the way into Spencer to the library: I don't know what happened to the entry I made.
Since crossing the Wabash River, I've noticed a change in the terrain and vegetation. It's more up and down than Illinois, there are quite a few streams and creeks, and instead of fields interrupted by forest, this part of Indiana is predominantly forest, with corn and other crops in a few clearings. (Some are soybeans, I haven't identified the others yet). I've noticed more butterflies here than anyplace else. Every hour or two between Riley and Spencer, I was seeing groups of about 2 to 10 motorcycles go by in one direction or the other. I've seen groups of them before, but never quite so many.

I neglected to mention that while I was sitting down for a rest break while heading for Paris, that a couple stopped by and gave me a sack lunch. A suprise to me.

When I finished at the library in Paris, it looked like a thunderstorm was moving in, so I went downtown and found a Burger King to sit out the storm. I fell into a conversation with a retired Highway engineer who wanted to know my story. He bought me a burger, and we conversed for a while. Afterwards, the sky seemed to be clearing up, so I headed out of town and found a place to rest.
Thursday morning, I had gone a couple of miles, when an Edgar County deputy came by to check me out, and then offered me a ride to the state line. I walked the rest of the way into Terre Haute, without being offered a ride, although a couple did invite me in for a sandwich and a drink (water), and another woman stopped to hand me some money for a Coke. I've been showered with generosity, lately. I found the libraries (Indiana State University and Vigo County Public), but both were closed by the time I reached them. A couple of people told me that there was a homless/transient shelter in town, but I didn't have directions to it and it took me a bit of trouble to find it, but finally I was given directions, and checked in there. I got a chance to shower and eat breakfast, and attended their chapel services before I came back to the University library to catch up on my internet activities.
From here, I intend to head for Bloomington, and hope to reach it by Sunday.

After leaving Charleston, I headed for Paris. The first town I went through was Ashmore; a small town of a few hundred, that boasts an agricultural implements dealer. After spending two months walking past corn and soybeans, a total lack of curiousity about agriculture would be inexcusable, so I spend an hour or so window shopping for tractors. About 4 miles later, I went through Kansas. Kansas, Illinois, that is: (I wonder if there's an Illinois, Kansas?). It boasts its very own Field of Dreams (the school's baseball diamond, and a fine looking one it is, too).
I've been walking in stretches of about 2 miles between rest stops, and I was on my last one of the night, when a wrecker stopped and the driver offered a ride into Paris. He also offered a place to shower and sleep for the night, which I accepted.
It rained during the night, so the offer turned out well. This morning, he took me downtown where I could wait for the library to open. I've been pleasantly surprised at Illinois: I was rather anxious about encountering trouble, but all the way across, people have been more generous and friendly than I ever expected. I'm about through Illinois: Libertyville, Indiana, is 9 miles away, and the the next important city is Terre Haute. I will be avoiding Indianapolis, but haven' finalized my route through Indiana yet. I'm leaning towards following the Ohio River on the Kentucky side, but that's not final yet.

After I left Shelbyville, I walked about halfway to the next town, Windsor. It was already after sunset when a woman on her way to her future daughter-in-law's bachelorette party picked me up and gave me a ride that far. She mentioned that when she was "young and stupid" in the 70s, she had done some hitchhiking, and most people she knew had at least one bad story to tell. She took me to the other side of Windsor. Since that was only about 12 miles from Mattoon, I decided to push on through the night and try to make it to church by 9:30

I made it, without being stopped by the police this time, and attended meetings there. The theme of the Sacrament meeting was on Freedom through Obedience. The speakers were a young couple who had recently moved into the ward. One of the consequences of going without sleep in order to attend church is a greater-than-normal tendency to fall asleep in it; so I must confess to not hearing all they had to say. As I had feared, I missed a lesson in the Sunday school sequence, since this week's dealt with the war chapters of the Book of Mormon (Approx. Alma 43-52). The Priesthood lesson was more interesting to me, since this was on the topic of forgiveness. I came with a greater appreciation of the need for forgiveness in developing Christian charity: certainly, the people I have felt to be least charitable have been those who are least forgiving. An elderly high priest offered me a ride right after church to Charleston. The library there was open until 5 PM. Afterward, I found a park to do some reading, then walked out of town a mile or so to find a place to sleep.

I came back this morning to the Eastern Illiniois University library. The "Old Main" building looks a bit like a medieval castle, quite distinctive compared to other university buildings I have seen. From here, my route should take me through Paris, Illinois, the last major town before I reach Terre Haute, Indiana.

I had left the library in Taylorville and was headed for the highway to find the trail to Pana that had been mentioned, and took a wrong turn. However, a man offered a ride to where I was going, took me to the proper start of the trail, and then decided to take me all the way to Pana. I didn't talk much with him: he was voluble and hardly let me get a word in edgewise, and his daughter wanted to participate in the conversation, too. The place he left me was on the far side of Pana, so I went on a couple of miles and found a gap in a cornfield to sleep.

This morning I continued as far as Tower Hill, a very small town of a couple of hundred. A couple of miles past there a resident of Shelbyville brought me into town. I searched for a local LDS church while in Taylorville and found that the closest ward or branch is in Matoon, and I'm about 25 miles away: not too far if I'm offered a ride, but more than I can hike in what's left of the day.

Shelbyville's biggest attractions are historial and the large reservoir just to the north of here: Lake Shelbyville, and it's the county seat, but it only has about 5000 residents.

I stayed just outside of Pawnee last night, between the corn and the soybeans, and had a nice morning's hike. I found a length of heavy string or light rope beside the road, and it looked like just what I would have been looking for to tie the broken part of my backpack together. I had just finished the job when a state trooper pulled up to make the usual inquiry. After he checked me out, he offered a ride the rest of the way into Taylorville and dropped me at the library. He was friendlier than most, and likes his job. He mentioned that there is a hiking/biking trail that goes all the way to Pana, my next destination, so I'm thinking of trying it. I haven't yet checked on LDS branches the rest of my route through Illinois yet, so I need to do that before deciding whether to move on or wait here. I'd rather not spend the whole weekend in Taylorville; I do need to be moving.

This was a fairly short hop; Pawnee is only 9 miles from Auburn, and has a bigger but less-used library. No rides this time. The weather has been overcast and cool the last few days, so it hasn't been particularly challenging. The next town is Kincaid, but I don't know if I'll make it to the library there before reaching Taylorville.

Again I stayed later at the library than I expected, and since the library had late hours, it was dark when I left. I headed south on Highway 267, got across the freeway, and saw that the next town was not where I had planned to go. I found a place to stop for the night, and first thing in the morning took a look at my map and saw that I had selected the wrong route.

I backtracked, and took another wrong turn, which cost me the whole morning. Meanwhile, while I was walking I heard a snap and felt a shift in weight, but thought nothing of it until I picked up the pack again after a rest, and found that a bracket that helps hold the hip pad in place had broken. I figured I could make do anyway, or perhaps get repairs, and early in the afternoon I sat down with my map again and rethought my route. Rather than going south to Carlinville, I decided, it would be best to go as nearly straight across Illinois as the road allows. Almost as soon as I had repacked, I was offered a ride by an elderly couple as far as Waverly. The library was closed, but I managed to resupply food there, and got about halfway to the next town, Auburn.
Auburn is a small town of about 5000 that has seen better days, but it has a nice library for its size. It's nearly due south of Springfield, within 20-30 miles.
Still lots of corn and soybeans, although I'm told the corn harvest will start in a few weeks, around the end of the month. This part of Illinois is pretty domesticated; I haven't seen much wildlife at all.
With the major shift in travel route, I will be heading for Taylorville (now about 25 miles), then Pana, then Matoon and Charleston, Illinois. This route will take me through Terre Haute, Indiana, a little bit north of where I had planned, but that's acceptable. It appears from US maps that I'm at about the halfway point.

After I left Rushville, I got about halfway to the next town, Beardstown. It was rather late, full dark, and I wasn't quite ready to stop for the night, and I wasn't expecting any ride offers that late, but a man saw me and stopped. He is with the volunteer fire department and as an EMT at Browning, and works as a driver for a van service for the handicapped. He offered a ride in to town, offered dinner at a KFC, and offered to help me find a place to stay the night. He couldn't find an easy way to do it at Beardstown, so he took me to Mt. Sterling, where the police department has arrangements with some of the churches to house transients. They put me in a hotel called the Irish house, so I had a chance to clean up better than I have done in a while.

Saturday morning I headed to Jacksonville, and a deputy stopped just as I was passing the prison outside of Mt. Sterling. The man I rode with the night before said that in his experience, older, veteran police officers are often friendlier than the young ones, which was the case here: this deputy has about 14 years in law enforcement and had been the police chief in one of the counties south of there before the town decided they didn't need a police department. He talked a little about some of the difficulties involved when the county sheriff is an elective office. He took me across the Illinois River bridge into Meredosia.

I got perhaps halfway from Meredosia to Jacksonville when another man offered a ride. This offer wasn't so pleasant. The man was young and wanted me to perform a sexual act, and even offered to pay me for it. I declined, saying I don't do that kind of thing. The third time he came by, he said he wouldn't insist, but didn't want to see me walk all the way into Jacksonville, so I accepted under that condition, but he continued his requests. I mentioned that I was LDS, and he was astonished; apparently he has been filled with misinformation about Mormons being a cult and practicing polygamy, which he wasn't willing to disbelieve. We got into Jacksonville and he offered a place to stay the night and a shower, but after his earlier requests, I didn't think it would be prudent to accept. I found the public library had just closed, the library at one of the two colleges has very limited summer hours. I went downtown, found a business that was open and had a phone book I could check, and the address of a laundromat. I went down there, did my laundry, and dropped my 2-quart canteen on the floor. It showed its quality by springing a leak. After I finished my laundry, I went to the grocery store, which happens to be located next to a Wal-Mart. Since I can go through 2 quarts a day of water quite easily, and have had experience getting dehydrated, I considered replacing the canteen an urgent necessity. It turned out that the only replacement available there was the same model I had just found less than robust. I bought it anyway. After getting my groceries, I went back to the main intersection, where there was a large public park next to the Jacksonville Developmental Center. I had noticed coming into town a sign advertising "Man of La Mancha" at the local performing arts center. I was tempted to get tickets, but didn't know where to get them or exactly where it was being shown. While I was looking for a restroom at the park, I found that it was being shown at the Developmental Center, and the performance had just ended. Tickets were still available for the last performance, on Sunday at 2:30, but at a cost of $10.oo, which would have been a stretch. It was after 9 pm by then, so I found a place to sleep in the park, and resolved to get up at first light.

It was a little after first light, but still before sunrise, when I got up, and headed for the church. (this time, I made sure to get the address before I reached town). The bishop was more friendly than the average, and I was able to change clothes in plenty of time for meetings. For the sacrament meeting, the speakers were the full-time missionaries. The Sunday School lesson was the same one I had last week, still in the mission to the Zoramites, but dealing with faith in Christ. A family in the ward had been participating in the "City of Joseph" pageant, and they mentioned that on the last day of the performance, it was announced that next year, there will be a new pageant, "Joseph the prophet" in its place. The lesson in Priesthood meeting was on service. Afterwards, the bishop invited me to his house for the afternoon, although his family was out of town and he spent much of it doing ward business. He brought me back to the church to the Family History Center, where I started looking through my genealogy to see whether some of the family on the ancestral lines I had overlooked had been in Nauvoo. I found two more, (making 9 families) and still have a few more too look through. I was going to stay the night in the other park which I had passed on the way to the Church, but the couple that had been in charge of the Family History Center passed me and invited me to stay at their house for the night, which I gratefully accepted. They fed me dinner and breakfast this morning, and brought me to the Illinois College Library, where I am writing this entry.

Illinois College is not very large, but it is one of the oldest if not the oldest college in the state, and has respectable hours, so I should be able to do a little research on my logic, and afterwards the public library also has nice long hours. I intend to stay most of the day here, and then head south to Carlinville.

On my way to the public library in Macomb, I was walking down the main street, and a girl, about 10 years old, with braces, caught up with me and offered a snow-cone from a place I had passed a couple of blocks back without seeing it. That was an astonishing bit of generosity that left me feeling better about humanity all day long. I didn't manage to specify where I was going next before I left Macomb last night. I decided to go down highway 67 through Industry, Rushville, and Beardstown to Jacksonville. I got about 5 miles out of Macomb and found a space in a cornfield where I could lay out for the night.
This morning I got up and headed for Industry. A couple of miles before I got there, a couple stopped and offered a ride through there and about 5 miles past. Another few miles down the road, after I had stopped for lunch, a K-9 officer from Schuyler county stopped to check me out, and offered a ride into Rushville. He suggested the possibility of also going past Beardstown, and calling a deputy from Cass county to take me into Jacksonville, but I declined. I'm not in trouble with law enforcement, but I could do without the continual stop and check in every other county I go through, because deputies aren't all very friendly. My route through Illinois is already going to take me by more prisons than Nebraska and Iowa combined, which gives me more reason to be a bit nervous.

Crossing the bridge into Illinois was no great problem after all: it only took about 15 minutes to find someone who could take me across. I went about 2 of the 9 miles to Nauvoo, and a man stopped to offer me a ride the rest of the way. We conversed some, and then he offered dinner, and offered to let me stay in his camper for the night, since it was getting late. His wife was there, and we had an enjoyable conversation until late. His family has been here since the 1820s, so he had some different perspectives on the history of the area than what I have heard before, although they aren't unreasonable, and he had a few complaints about the recent influx of Mormon visitors and tourists, though he was friendly enough to me. They also gave me a breakfast and offered a place to stay the next night, since I was planning to attend the pageant.
Tuesday I went in to Nauvoo and went through several of the tours: A wagon tour of the "old town", which has several restored buildings from the Mormon pioneer era, several of which themselves are open for tours, saw a historical video, and spent some time in the Lands and Records office. They offered several computer stations with access to a data base full of information about pioneer residents of Nauvoo, taken from LDS sources and local land records. I found seven families of my ancestors who had lived in or near Nauvoo, and there might have been one or two more I overlooked because I hadn't given enough attention to my mother's genealogy to remember the names. The office will burns a CD with this information on the ancestors of patrons, and most of the patrons take advantage of it, as I did also. I enjoyed the pageant, and I thought a few of the musical numbers were especially. memorable.
Wednesday morning I said farewell to my hosts. They declined my offer of help around the yard, and only asked that I pass the favor of hospitality on when I am in position and have the opportunity to do so. I meant to go on to Carthage, but stayed a while in the library, and then visited more of the sites in the restored part of town. It was so peaceful that I was reluctant to leave, and it was actually late in the afternoon by the time I made my way out of town. I got about 2 miles down the road and was resting, when another man offered a ride. He was a state employee from Springfield who inspects nursing homes, and was going south from Nauvoo because he enjoys the river drive. He took me to Carthage and went with me through the tour. He had been asking questions about some of my beliefs, although he didn't say much about what he thought of them. He took me as far as Macomb, and out to dinner at a steakhouse. He was going to put me up for the night in a motel, but prices were a bit too inflated because the "Rams and the Bears are in town" so we found another place I could camp out.
I found out while I was going around the campus of Western Illinois University waiting for the library to open that the St. Louis Rams football team has a preseason training camp here from Aug 1-20, and the Chicago Bears are also here this week for some intersquad practices and scrimmages. Since I don't follow sports that closely, this was all news to me. I'm not sure which route I am taking from here yet; whether to go through Springfield, or a southern route that avoids it. I'll post an update before I leave, though.

After spending most of Friday in the library, I left Mt. Pleasant and took highway 218 south. From the partly completed work that's been done, this is going to be a divided 4-lane freeway, but construction hasn't been active on the part I went through. I slept by the roadside.

Since there was a lot of heavy truck traffic, I decided to save a few miles and take the county road. At one point, where I stopped to rest, the homeowner across the road said it was OK, but called the county sheriff to check on me. A few miles down the road, though, another homeowner saw me passing and offered a drink. I decided that I really wanted to go to church, so I pushed on and hiked through the night to Fort Madison. It took me most of the morning to locate the local branch, which for the time being is meeting in the Community of Christ church building while their own chapel is under construction. Since I entered the county, I was stopped 3 times by police officers checking on me, but while I was trying to locate the church, I stopped at the local McDonalds to use the phone. One of the employees bought breakfast for me, without my asking, and after another patron had made the same offer and I declined. At church, the sacrament meeting was It was fast and testimony meeting, the Sunday School lesson was the same one I had last week, and the priesthood meeting discussed the performance of priesthood ordinances. The branch had an enthusiasm I haven't seen often, and although it was crowded with visitors, most of these didn't stay for all the meetings. After church, I went through town to locate the library and the bridge across the Mississippi, and found the bridge closed to pedestrian traffic, which presents me with a little problem. I stayed the night in a park next to the river, and, somewhat to my surprise, wasn't bothered there.

Fort Madison boast the largest swing-span bridge in the world. One of the spans of the bridge can rotate at right angles to the rest of the bridge to let big barges past. I watched one of them before I went looking for groceries and the library. Assuming I can find someone to take me across into Illinois (I'd hate to detour all the way to Keokuk or Burlington), I intend to spend a day in Nauvoo and see the "City of Joseph" pageant. This is the last year it will be performed.