A timeline of the day, as it unfolded:
4:45am – Alarm. Roll out of bed, pack clothes (all successfully dried), electronics. Tape up heels.
5:00am – Out the door.
5:10 – Pass a Maverick gas station. Get excited about the possibility of drinking coffee. But then, for some reason, convince myself that it would be better to wait for the Shell station on the outskirts of Muncie, so I march on.
5:55 – The Shell gas station is closed.
8:00 – I arrive in Gaston, where the Cardinal Greenway is interrupted for an extended stretch. Walking into the center, I see ads for the Mill Street Diner, and I’m enticed by not just coffee, but maybe even some hashbrowns.
8:02 – The Mill Street Diner is closed.
8:05 – The BP gas station is not only open, but has four tables inside and robust a/c. I snag a coffee in a styrofoam cup for $1.50 and then plop myself down to listen to a circle of older local dudes talk about topics like 4th of July plans on the lake, a local young person who is “cracked out” and alarmingly deteriorated, some new help one of them has hired on, and a story about varmint control. I don’t know why I was tickled by hearing them actually use the word “varmint,” but I couldn’t have been more pleased.
8:20 – I pop into a Dollar General at the end of town to buy some cheap bandaids and iced tea. An older man in front of me buys three 12-packs of Mountain Dew. On the way out, I see him picking up three other cases from the display out front and moving them into the refrigerator, so that whoever comes next will have cold options available.
8:23 – Across the street from DG, I see the biggest Trump display I’ve seen to this point, including an American flag with his mugshot superimposed and the words “Never Surrender” beneath. Nearby, another American flag has been nailed upside down. I didn’t know the Alitos had an Ohio house.
8:25 – A long, straight walk through corn fields begins. All along the way, drivers are great about swinging all the way over into the opposite lane to give me a wide berth.
9:15 – A light sprinkle of raindrops. It’s delightful.
9:30 – A slightly heavier drizzling. I pop on the pack cover.
9:45 – It’s pouring. I run to take shelter under a lone tree in the midst of soybeans.
10:05 – The rain slows down. I march on, passing soon after through Matthews.
10:15 – A man pulls up alongside me to offer me a ride. I tell him I’m walking across the country. After a long beat, he asks, “so you don’t want a ride then?”
10:30 – Back under a tree. The weather forecast had said 0.2 inches of rain were possible. We have to already be well past that.
Repeat that pattern through 2pm
14:30 – Stumble into Kammy’s Kafe in Jonesboro, the town where the Cardinal Greenway resumes. I’m not sure what to make of Jonesboro; everyone in town seems to get around on golf carts, to the point where “no golf cart” signs line the CG. There doesn’t appear to be a golf cart anywhere around here! In any case, I’m quite happy to scarf down a grilled cheese sandwich at Kammy’s
15:15 – The rain resumes. I curse
17:00 – I start moving through the outskirts of Marion. There is some ramshackle housing and a damn impressive waterpark
17:30 – I climb out of the Cardinal Greenway into Marion’s center to grab dinner. In the process, I discover there’s a hotel close by. All of a sudden, that sounds a hell of a lot better than camping soggy.
18:30 – I’m lying in bed with a large pizza on my stomach
18:50 – I’m lying in bed with a large pizza in my stomach
It’s another night, unfortunately, when I won’t get to experience much of my host city. Marion’s a surprisingly big place and quite spread out, and I don’t have a lot of extra miles in me today. But Marion has a pretty eclectic mix of people who were born here, including Jim Davis, James Dean, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Zach Randolph, and Amber Richards. And, apparently, Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett picked Marion as the site of their ill-fated wedding.
