Featured Response: Zachery Shiner, Touring Cyclist

Posted on June 21, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowI was amazed and thrilled to receive this response to my question from someone I never met.  Perhaps, I will, if I slow down or he speeds up.

“When I was near Milwaukee I stayed with Shane via warmshowers, and had a great conversation over some delicious beers about how to live tomorrow, all thanks to the guest he had the previous night.

IMG_20150613_085533605“Today I made it to St. Cloud and saw a couple of business cards sitting on some gold colored bananas asking the same question. John and I continued the conversation started 500 miles ago.

“So I wanted to let you know, from your perspective at least: I am tomorrow.”

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Trip Log – Day 44 – Medina, MN to St. Cloud, MN

Posted on June 19, 2015 by paulefallon

Hamel to St CloudJune 18, 2015 – Blue skies, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 59

Miles to Date: 2,581

States to Date: 13

It’s always great when a warmshowers host can ride me out of town, and this morning Frank rode with me 35 miles toward St. Cloud. Frank is a brisk cyclist who took me along highways with good shoulders. He turned around when we reached US 10 and I headed on my own. I had plenty of time, so took an Internet break and met on of the happiest McDonald’s employees anywhere.

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I had enough highway riding so found a nice side road for the last twenty miles into St. Cloud. River Road went past giant irrigating sprinklers that reminded me of dinosaurs and I was mesmerized by a yellow bi-plane crop-dusting the fields.

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I got into St. Cloud by six and stayed with another phenomenal warmshowers host. Susan made a picnic of fired chicken and barbeque ribs, quinoa salad, and grilled cauliflower. Then she topped it off with ice cream with fresh fruit and a sour cream ‘bar’, a Minnesota term for a pan crumble. Oh, and after we were finished, local beer!

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Profile Response – Wayne Beck, Dr. Bob’s House Akron, OH

Posted on June 19, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowDr. Robert Smith is one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, which began in Akron in 1935. Dr. Bob died in 1950, and his home turned over twelve times, eventually becoming a fraternity house, until a non-profit foundation purchased the house in 1984 to preserve it. Dr. Bob’s House received National Historic Landmark designation in 2012.

The house is open 364 days a year. Volunteers do all the maintenance and provide 15 to 20 tours a day. During Founder’s Week, in early June, 20,000 people visit Akron to participate. When I ascended the twelve steps to the house on a hot Friday afternoon, a group of volunteers were landscaping the garden. Inside, Wayne Beck gave me a private tour.

Wayne, 59, is a graphic designer with a trio of sparkling earrings who’s been a volunteer for the past five years. He lost permanent employment prior to recovering from alcoholism. Volunteering helps him focus on the program and gives him valuable experience while he seeks a full time position.

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Dr. Bob’s house was built in 1915, on a brick paved side street when Akron was emerging as the Rubber Capital of the World. It is a straightforward two-story structure with wide front porch, Mission-style gumwood trim, and well-proportioned, modest rooms. In the Inglenook end of the living room, the Bible on display is open to Annie Smith’s favorite Bible verse, James Chapter 2, verse 17: Faith without works is death.

Wayne augments Dr. Bob’s story with personal vignette, which seems appropriate since AA is a confessional program. People learn to trust others and lean on them rather than their addiction. “My brother came to me and asked ‘Am I an alcoholic?’ His four-year-old daughter had given him shot glasses as a Christmas gift, which he took as a hint. “Of course, I said, ‘it’s not for me to say, but if you have to ask the question, you probably know the answer.’ Alcoholism is genetic, it runs in our family.” Wayne’s grandfather died from alcoholism, and his nephew recently got his second DUI.

In one of the second floor bedrooms, Wayne points out a medical bag that Dr. Bob supposedly carried on his last binge. “We celebrate June 10 as Dr. Bob’s sobriety date, but the train trip that triggered that last binge happened in late June. Our history is a little fuzzy, which makes sense, since we’re all alcoholics.”

Another bedroom is known as the surrender room, where visitors often recite the third step of AA’s 12 steps: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. Wayne stepped away. I spent a few minutes contemplating how alcoholism has affected my own family: alcoholic grandparents whom I never met, an alcoholic father who was so vital and generous, expect when he wasn’t. Dr. Bob’s brilliant program has helped millions directly, and even more indirectly.

imagesBy the time I returned to the kitchen, where cookies and coffee are set out for anyone who wishes, Wayne shared what I already intuited. “Looking back, I knew who I was when I was 16. A friend of mine and I wore long coats with interior pockets, into a local store. He took a Playboy, I took a bottle of cheap booze. We went to the woods with our stash. I couldn’t understand his fascination with the tits, but I drank the entire bottle. I was born an alcoholic. I was born gay. I was baptized a Christian. That is who I am.”

 

How will we live tomorrow?

 

“I am still bringing myself up to speed. What I hope to do tomorrow is work full time in my field.”

 

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Trip Log – Day 43 –Minneapolis, MN to Medina, MN

Posted on June 18, 2015 by paulefallon

Mpls to HamelJune 17, 2015 – Blue skies, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 30

Miles to Date: 2,522

States to Date: 13

I woke up feeling pretty good, considering the shock I gave myself yesterday. Still, I was glad to have an easy day ahead of me. A nice breakfast and visit with my yoga buddy Ellen and her boyfriend Derrick, then an easy ride to downtown Minneapolis to visit the Cedar Cultural Center, a non-profit music venue in the heart of the Somali immigrant community of Cedar-Riverside and then the American Swedish Institute, an elaborate mansion along Minneapolis’ first paved street, to talk about tomorrow with their key staff.

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It was almost five o’clock before I headed out of town, along great bike paths, to reach Medina. My warmshowers hosts, Frank and Connie, welcomed me with a great Italian dinner and interesting conversation. They are adventurous cyclists who have been to California, Montana, and New Zealand. As Connie says, “There’s nothing like the two-wheeled view of the world.”

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Profile Response – Missy McCormick and Bill Adams Poland, OH

Posted on June 18, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowMissy McCormick and Bill Adams moved to Poland, OH a few years ago. Missy is a ceramics professor at Youngstown State University. Bill is taking a respite from an eighteen-year career in insurance to be stay-at-home dad with their three-year-old son, Ash. Bill has been doing a variety of volunteer work, much related to cycling, in anticipation of shifting his career to the non-profit sector in a few years. The family hosted me on my first night in Ohio. Like many families with young children, we talked in sequence. Missy and I chatted while Ash played with us in the yard, Bill and spoke later while Missy was putting Ash to bed.

How will we live tomorrow?

Ceramics is historically, a craft-based material. Missy teaches students how to use the wheel, but also how to use 3-D printers. There is a relationship between the two processes, but also fundamental differences.

“Craft is often a lower priority in our world. Yet the more we get away from it, the more people crave it. The more digital we become, the more drive we have for craft-based work.” From Missy’s perspective, ceramics are materials that not only span time, but also application. “We can print out a new knee, an exact fit to your bone structure, or we can throw a cup by hand.

“We are trying to rediscover authenticity in our lives. Not just in craft, but in society.” Missy and I discussed a variety of people we knew who were undergoing gender reorientation. She sees that as an extension of the search for authenticity. “Transgender people, gay marriage, these signify that people are tired of having to conform. Society is becoming more inclusive. Not for all, not all at once, but it is moving in that direction.”

I asked Missy about the maker movement, which others had mentioned as a positive step toward tomorrow. She does not share that enthusiasm. In her work with 3-D printing, it is not an intuitive process; it is technically challenging and abstract. Making something on a 3-D printer is not the same as making it be hand. “There’s a silent process when you work directly with materials that allows you to think and solve with your hands.”

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When it was bedtime for Ash, Bill joined me. Bill is an avid cyclist. For five of six years early in his career he didn’t have a car. “People thought I’d lost my license; like DUI. They never considered that I chose not to have a car.”

He is concerned about America’s focus on economic activity above all else. “I don’t need to know the stock market activity every hour, yet it’s presented as important news. Everything in this country has a dollar value. In Europe, life is an experience. Here, it’s an accumulation.”

images-1As the clear night sky drew dark, we shared stories of cycling at night, something I love to do at home, where I’m comfortable with my routes. Bill told about riding home at midnight from a second shift job on a cold winter night, hard but exhilarating riding. “Many people don’t appreciate how amazing that is. We’re always avoiding the cold, the rain, any unpleasantness. When you’re always trying to be comfortable, you don’t do much.”

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Trip Log – Day 42 – Rochester, MN to Minneapolis, MN

Posted on June 17, 2015 by paulefallon

Rochester to MplsJune 16, 2015 – Blue skies, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 96

Miles to Date: 2,492

States to Date: 13

A perfect riding day. Rochester has bike paths along the main roads, but construction obstacles prevented me from connecting to the Douglas Trail. Eventually, the giant suburban boxes cloaked in murky aluminum siding came to an end. My wide sidewalk ended. The road narrowed, then it turned to gravel. Seven miles out of Rochester and I am on a dirt road!. But the Midwest is nothing if not logical, so I just kept north and west, and, sure enough, found the trial I wanted.

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U.S.52 is the main route running NNW from Rochester to St. Paul. Bicycles are allowed, and the shoulder is good, but the traffic is constant. So I zigzagged north and west and north again along County and State roads. Rather, boulevards. In Minnesota a ‘road’ is often gravel, while a ‘boulevard’ is paved. The land grew broad, the sky huge. Intuitively, one might think such a grand landscape would make me feel tiny. Actually, I feel expansive rolling across the immense, taut surface of the earth.

I stopped at 48 miles in Cannon Falls for lunch – my first Chinese Buffet! Chinese Buffet is the ideal lunch on a long riding day; a great amount of food, including soup and vegetables, that’s healthier than most other roadside options. Besides, I got spot-on fortune: Soon you will be sitting on top of the world.

IMG_2379Sure enough I had 20 more miles of high plains cycling. I passed my first irrigated farm, another sign of heading into remote terrain. But I have one more major city: Minneapolis.

By mile 75 I was in the city exurbs and looking for a break. Instead I found only miles of wide four-lane roads with wide sidewalks that double as bike paths with subdivisions off either side. I believe separated bike paths are actually more dangerous than bike lanes integrated onto the street, because motorists don’t see me as easily at intersections. At every crossing I have to watch for cars in all directions and make sure they see me. Making sure that I can be seen, I managed to miss seeing a curb rise between a pair of sidewalk ramps.

There’s this instant of unity and light when cyclist and bike are suspended in midair, unburdened by friction. You know instinctively that things are going to get very bad very soon, but at the apex of your flight you are suspended, together, in bliss.

Then I am on the ground, disconnected from my bike, my head on the concrete, eyelevel with grass and shoes. “Are you alright?” One, two, three people hover over me. “I think I’ll just lay here a moment and see how things feel.” My response to trauma is always deliberate. I take a deep breath, two. I move a hand, an arm. I might be rousing from savasana. My left side hurts, and my knee, but all my joints move. I get up on my knees. Make sure I’m not dizzy, and then I stand. My elbow hurts. That’s not good. I broke that elbow in my last bike accident, 19 years ago. “Are you okay? I’ve got a first aid kit here. Can I clean you up?”

Two men in uniforms stand in front of me. Men in uniform are comforting, even if there are from Bartlett’s Tree Service. We discover I have a bloody knee and elbow and a terrific raspberry bruise on the left side of my belly. Thank goodness I ate so much at lunch; I’ve got more padding there than usual. We clean my scrapes with iodine. Ouch! We apply bandages. I appear to be fine. The Surly, the warhorse of cycles, is fine. Actually, the left pannier seems to have cushioned the fall. Saved by my trusty two-wheeled steed! I take a picture of the offending curb, which is a poorly designed obstacle that ought at least to be painted yellow. I am shaky but there’s not much to do but bike on. Less than an hour to Minneapolis.

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In city after city I cycle through miles of big box stores and fast food joints. Now, when I want one, I find nothing. I take the bike path across the Mississippi Rive on a perilously high bridge; take in the view from the bluffs of Fort Snelling. Minneapolis is rational to a fault. Numbered streets and numbered avenues run at right angles without the hierarchy of New York where Avenues are wide and rare and streets narrow and often. Minneapolis is a square grid. I have to get to the 4800 block of 38th Avenue, but after ninety miles plus an intimate connection with a sidewalk I am confused and go to 38th Street. Eventually I find my way and my yoga friend Ellen and her boyfriend Derrick have a great dinner for me, wild rice and salad and that Minnesota State Fair staple: pork chop on a stick. We talk until near midnight. I fall sound asleep wondering how sore I will be in the morning.

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Profile Response – Melanie and Simon Huntley, Pittsburgh, PA

Posted on June 17, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowMelanie and Simon Huntley moved into a 1950’s era contemporary house on a peak overlooking Pittsburgh a year ago. It’s a private space with a nice yard in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood; a great place to raise their sons, Eliot, 4, and Theo, 6 months. After living on a peach farm outside Grand Junction, CO for two years, they returned to Pittsburgh a few years ago to settle near family. Melanie is a trauma nurse with Nurse Practitioner credentials, though she is at home these days with the boys. Simon has merged his heritage and love of farming with his IT expertise to create a business that provides websites and software geared toward small farmers and CSA’s. Melanie and Simon were my warmshowers hosts in Pittsburgh. Their thoughts on tomorrow are distinctly different yet complementary.

How will we live tomorrow?

Simon and I sat in the kitchen, drank a beer, and absorbed the view. “I live in a house where I get to watch the sun set every day. It’s a treat.

“We are only in the middle of the computer revolution. The software revolution will continue for some time, and the robotics revolution is on the horizon. Within ten years we will have autonomous truck driving. Six percent of Americans have jobs related to truck driving. What will it mean when those jobs are gone? Robotics will be an atomic bomb in our economy.

“Pittsburgh is a robotics center. Uber is here, developing autonomous cars. Driverless cars will drive the cost of Uber down, and private car ownership will go away. I think autonomous cars will be good. We are just not that good at driving. What are there, 30,000 auto related deaths per year? I want driving automated, but automation will go so deep in our economy. We will be in a position where everyone needs an education to work It will have tremendous effects on our lives. From an economic perspective how are people going to live? Will we get a ‘draw; just for being citizens that will allow us to live?

IMG_2030“Look at the industrial revolution, 90% of the people lived on farms, now it is three percent. There will be disruption, but I don’t believe in the idea that we will become a leisure economy. People will need jobs. The industrial revolution moved jobs from the farms to the cities. Now, people like me can live anywhere.

“My work in farming has reached a plateau. I have set up my business to pretty much run itself. So now I ask, ‘What do I want to be involved in next?’ I am interested in doing something in automation. I want to position myself in that area over the next five to ten years.

“I used to worry about the future, but I am more confident now. When I look around, we are living amazing lives. I have machines working for me right now. I own the machines. I have over 1000 farm clients and just a few staff. I have no accounting department, no HR department. I have software for all of that.

“Farming is the specific thing that I do. I am pretty positive that we can solve the problems before us until we hit a limiting factor. There will be pain, famine, disruption, but I think we can solve what lies ahead.”

I ask Simon how his point of view evolved from one of fear to one of confidence?

“The earth is resilient, eco-systems are resilient. We are resilient. Look at Pittsburgh’s rebound; it’s amazing. It’s based on universities and healthcare and education. But it’s also affordable and livable. I have this beautiful house in a nice community. My boys will be able to walk to school. I can live anywhere and bring my job with me. I have an awesome life.

“I merged my IT interest with what I know best, farming. Others are doing that in other areas. I believe things can get better for everyone.”

Melanie joined us after Elliot was in bed.

“I hope that people will reach out to one another. I want to connect, in life, with others. We connect electronically, but we hardly talk to anyone. When you are really with someone you find out what they really need.

“Small acts make such a difference. Sometimes, when I have the boys and my bags at the grocery, someone takes my cart back to the store for me. That’s the best.”

 

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Trip Log – Day 41 – Cresco IA to Rochester, MN

Posted on June 16, 2015 by paulefallon

Cresco to Rochester MNJune 14, 2015 – Wind and rain, 65 degrees

Miles Today: 61

Miles to Date: 2,396

States to Date: 13

IMG_2346I rode straight north on a still grey and humid morning to Minnesota. Then the country road began to wind and the land turned hilly and the pavement turned to gravel for six miles. I couldn’t help thinking, ‘Is this the best route across the country?’ Pavement returned and I stopped for breakfast at the Preston IGA – the only food option in town – before finding U.S. 52 and a nice wide shoulder. The wind picked up, the rain came down, and I was happy to have the country road behind me.

Rain is not conducive to dawdling; I arrived in Rochester at one o’clock. I was interested in talking to an editor of the Mayo Clinic’s online site – one of the most extensive and respected online resources – but had been tardy in contacting them. Their public affairs guy tried to make a connection without luck. I will try again, with more advance notice, when I am Scottsdale or Florida. The Mayo Clinic has satellites.

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However, as is often the case, I may have learned more by simply camping in their lobby, borrowing their guest Wi-Fi, and observing one of the world’s leading medical institutions in action. I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals, often to observe, but I’ve never been anyplace that comes closer, in atmosphere and attitude, than the Mayo Clinic when it comes to creating a hospitality experience. Most hotels only dream of having such well appointed spaces and polite yet professional staff. The choreography of so much activity transpiring in an atmosphere of subdued calm is impressive. I visited the public spaces, museum, and 1930’s era offices of the brothers Mayo and came away assured of that fundamental truth of any business: put the emphasis on people and they will flock to you. Rochester is full of hotels, all of which have shuttles to the clinic. People come to this small city from all over the world for healthcare. Yet there’s no reason why Rochester should draw so many patients, except that the Mayo invented patient-centered care, and probably no one does it better.

The sun was shining by the time I left Mayo. I found a great little motel on the edge of the hospital district, had a nice meal in a cafe, and strolled the streets in summer’s lingering daylight.

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Profile Response – Corinne Bechtel, Director of Tourism, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Site, Pittsburgh, PA

Posted on June 16, 2015 by paulefallon

 

HWWLT Logo on yellowSometimes a person is so well suited to her job that all seems right with the world. At least, that’s how I felt meeting Corinne Bechtel, who loves all things Pittsburgh; in particular the massive Carrie Furnace, the prize relic of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area. Corinne’s an expansive person. When she says, “We took the concept behind this National Heritage Area, to celebrate Pittsburgh’s iron and steel making past, and expanded it to include all the groups that came here because of steel and the art and architecture that resulted from it.” you realize that she’s wrapped her arms around anything that’s ever happened in Pittsburgh and given the city a huge hug.

imagesThe actual real estate of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area includes the Bost Building in Homestead, PA, a hotel that served as labor headquarters during the Homestead Strike of 1892; an Historic Pump House in Homestead, and the Carrie Furnace across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. For those, like me, wanting a history refresher, Corinne explained that the Homestead Strike occurred when Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie’s main man in the world’s largest steel works, locked out workers trying to organize. Frick hired Pinkerton Guards, who wound up surrendering to the workers at the Pump House. Victory for the workers. Except that the overzealous laborers and their families taunted and beat the Pinkerton Guards on their retreat back to the train. When Harper’s and other media of the day captured the beatings, public opinion swayed against the strikers, who eventually capitulated to Frick. Organized labor didn’t reappear in Pittsburgh for over forty years.

In 1892, 4,000 men worked in the Homestead plant. River barges plus rails to handle over one thousand train cars brought raw materials to Homestead, where they were turned into iron. Then it was transported across the river (first by boat, later by a ‘hot rail’ bridge that reduced the need to cool and then reheat the iron) to become steel. Making steel takes volumes of water, provided gratis by the Monongahela.

imgres-1No lockouts are required now. The 300 plus acres that Andrew Carnegie owned on either side of the river closed for good in the early 1980’s, leaving a toxic legacy on land and water. Most of the facilities deteriorated and were demolished. Local preservationists rallied to save the Bost Building, eventually earning Heritage Are designation and adding the Pump House and Carrie Furnaces, which operated form 1907 to 1978 and are now the last remaining blast furnaces of that era in Pittsburgh.

Today, the Bost Building is a museum, the Pump House a function space, and the Carrie Furnaces fragile ruins where local artists create intriguing site-specific art. Rivers of Steel is trying to stabilize the Carrie furnaces (blast furnaces all had women’s names) but not refurbish them. Corinne guided me up the narrow stairs and across the metal gangways. It’s refreshing to experience an unsanitized industrial landscape.

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But these structures are just the starting point for Corinne’s Pittsburgh enthusiasm. Every surface triggers a story. She explained the origin of Pittsburgh rare steak (charred on outside and rare inside by furnace workers who threw their meat against the 1200 degree furnace wall until it fell off, than singed the flip side). I learned the local tradition of a wedding cookie table, where guests bake their specialties to share. Corinne offers tours well beyond the Homestead steel works, including local churches, ethnic food tours, and other cultural destinations. “The immigrant history often unfolds for work reasons, but immigrant maintained a high level of autonomy. They segregated into work groups, neighborhoods, churches, food, and language.”

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_2028“I think and hope that people want a greater connection to the past, to the things we make with our own hands. We see this all over Pittsburgh; in arts, crafts, cooking, and landscaping. We get our cultural richness from the past, and that is how we’ll live tomorrow.”

When we returned to the Bost Building after our tour, I thanked Corinne for her time and insights. “On a daily basis, I create experience that last a lifetime.” So true.

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Trip Log – Day 40 – McGregor, IA to Cresco, IA

Posted on June 15, 2015 by paulefallon

McGregor IA to Cresco IAJune 14, 2015 – Cotton candy clouds, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 61

Miles to Date: 2,335

States to Date: 13

I woke early and climbed, climbed, climbed out of the Mississippi River Valley to the high plateau that is Iowa. Monona didn’t offer much for breakfast, so I had a snack and pedaled in the narrow zone between the rumble strip and the gravel on to Postville. I didn’t expect much more in this sleepy town on a Sunday morning, but was intrigued by the highway sign’s hyperbole proclaiming Postville, ‘Hometown to the World’.

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Main Street looked shut tight until I noticed lights in Glatt’s Supermarket. I entered the store. An Orthodox Jewish woman carrying a baby stood at the register; three small children popped their heads out of the next room to see the strange, bright man. I opened a soft drink and asked about Postville’s ‘Hometown to the World’ slogan. Shaindy Glatt explained that people from all over the world lived in Postville – Orthodox Jews, Ukrainians, Somalis, Mexicans, Germans, Russians, Hispanics – mostly due to the world’s largest Kosher slaughterhouse located there. Her description triggered a news flash. “Is this the place.” “Yes,” I didn’t need to finish; “this is the place where there was the big immigration raid occurred a few years ago.” From Shaindy’s perspective, the raid was overblown, and the resulting justice unfair. The Orthodox Jewish plant manager got 27 years to life in prison, while the banker in cahoots got a wrist slap and a fine. “Before the raid, everyone got along. We had festivals with tents and everyone had their respective foods. We haven’t had that since, although things are getting better, slowly.”

images-1I left Glatt’s and discovered a Mexican cantina on the main corner, settled in to write through the hottest part of the day and had fantastic fajitas for $6.95. My Mexican waitresses kept my water glass and chip basket full, but they didn’t venture into the politics of Postville. Later, however, a man of German descent took a different tack from Shaindy Glatt. “What that guy did was inhumane, working people in slave conditions.”

Since it was Flag Day, and I was in Iowa, in a melting pot no less, I decided to fulfill my promise to contact all the candidates running for President in 2016 and ask them my question. It took a few hours to figure out a comprehensive list, navigate their online personas, and determine how to best contact each one.

Based on web searches alone, I made a few observations:

  1. Ted Cruz’s website is in all capitals – it even transcribed what I inserted into all caps. Everything must be very important to that man.
  2. Carly Fiona, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul’s sites are impenetrable; there is no way to contact them except to give money, not even through facebook. I resorted to asking my question via tweet.
  3. Mike Huckabee scores points of humor, his ‘Human Validation’ is not some odd array of characters, but a check box that says, “I am not a robot.”
  4. Marco Rubio really ought to answer my question, since his Facebook page sports a faded picture of Hillary with the headline, “Yesterday is STILL over”. A guy so sure of yesterday must have the pulse of tomorrow.
  5. The best website, by far, is Lindsey Graham’s. He not only has a press contact section, but also a button called ‘share’. That is so refreshing after so many buttons with variations of ‘fight’. Hillary Clinton’s website proclaims ‘four fights’. I am so tired of the ‘fight’ word. I’m considering casting my vote for any candidate who expunges that word from his or her rhetoric. About as much chance of that happening as GM or Exxon offering to sponsor my trip.

After noting the ‘not yet official candidates (I’ll ask Jeb in a day or two after his hoopla settles), I cycled 20 miles past beautiful farms where all the cows turned their heads to watch me pass, and small towns where the local folks sitting under the canvas tents set up in front of their garages did the same. I passed a parade of old tractors and another of vintage autos. Cycling on a Sunday requires a lot of waving. In Calmar I shifted to the bike path to Cresco. I don’t know why the bike path is paved while the adjacent county road is dirt. For once I got a smoother ride than the pick-ups along my side.

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Cresco, like so many Iowa towns, could have been the setting for The Music Man. Harold Hill could parade along the wide main street with its rows of American flags. Marian would be quite at home in the stately public library on North Elm Street, the town’s most prosperous. My warmshowers host, Duane, offered me a tasty Greek salad and a beer, good conversation, and a welcome bed.

 

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