Last Night in Yorkville

“Same” View from Yorkville - The weather is beconning westward.

Clear skies tonight after the predicted rain rolled in during the morning hours, gave the town a good soaking, and rolled right back out.

If all goes as planned, this will be the last night in Yorkville.  It’s been good to get some rest, but I’m ready to get back out on the road and making progress.

I’m not really sure where this journey will end. Perhaps, we’ll make it to the west coast as hoped, or perhaps we’ll be stopped by the Rockies and the onset of snow in the early spring. It’s hard to tell.

I can tell you that this trip has been a calling of mine for some time, and for whatever reason, I don’t think it’s through with the lessons it has been teaching me so far.

Once again, I was confronted with a random act of kindness today. I walked down to a meeting of a fraternal organization I’ve been associated with for a number of years, and after the meeting adjourned a guy with some pretty fierce sleeve and neck tattoos asked me my story and what I was doing in town.  I went through a short version and told him that the adventure continues tomorrow. He asked me where I was staying, and I have no doubt that if I didn’t have arrangements he was going to offer to help me find some.

Instead he offered me a ride back to the motel, and I’m grateful he spared me another mile of walking in the dusk.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but the message that I’m getting from the Universe is, “Press on.” “Who knows what lies around the next bend in the road, but it’s your work tomorrow to go find out.”

Summer Nights

Sunset with Low Clouds - Yorkville, IL

Same view as the Summer Solstice sunset shot. Today, the vibrant colors of the setting sun were meant for someone else, and we got low clouds. They’re probably a preview of the rain predicted tomorrow, but we’ll have to wait and see.

We’re still in a bit of a lull, but we’re hoping to be back pounding the asphalt pretty soon. It’s been good for me to have some time to think and reflect. To slow down a little more from even our relatively consistent snail like pace. To sit.

While I was sitting on a big pile of gravel trying to bottle the sunset, I heard the distinctive pop and crack of a string of firecrackers being set off in the neighborhood just over my left shoulder.  I glanced in that direction, and was rewarded with the high pitched whine and sharp pop associated with bottle rockets.

Probably kids dipping into the Fourth of July supply a little early on a cool summer evening. It brought me back to a simpler time when me and my best friend Scott would spend summer evening outside well after sunset. We’d poke around the neighborhood playing war and peeking in windows. Wearing our camouflage so we wouldn’t get caught, and finally learning the the light inside a house creates a reflection on the inside of the windows that greatly concealed our exploits from those inside.

The air would be cool, and maybe even a little damp as the stifling humidity from earlier in the day chilled. Warm radiance from the concrete and asphalt would be the only reminder of the hot afternoon that hand preceded the coolness of the evening.

I remember thinking how much I wanted to do when I finally grew up. To drive, and to go where I wanted. To work and have money and buy the things I believed would make me happy. To be my own person and set my own rules.

I was looking forward so much, that I didn’t recognize that I had all those things at the time, except maybe the car. I also didn’t have the car insurance which nobody really explains to you when you’re twelve.

Anyway, it was a good nostalgic day where I was able to recapture some of the freedom of my youth that I didn’t fully appreciate back when I had it.

Connection and a Concert

One of the underlying reasons I decided to take a long walk was a desire to reconnect with the country. Sounds a little hokey when I put it down in print, but that sense of connection was something I thought about frequently during the planning stages of the pilgrimage.

Would the connection exist, or would we just be two other people wandering through the chaotic distractions of modern day life? Would our politics, or job, or race, or family history, or sexual orientation, or homelessness matter? Would we be questioned and tested, or would we make that connection with people naturally a freely as fellow humans travelling a winding and sometimes broken path?

As some of my previous stories have indicated, the real love and acceptance and connection with people we’ve met along the path has been truly beyond my wildest expectations. Everywhere we go, there is someone to offer and encouraging word, a bottle of water, something to eat, a hand of friendship, and the connection that I believe we’d find out here on the road.

Today, as Dad was off consulting a doctor he knows about a bit of a foot problem, I found myself once again in Yorkville, Illinois with some time on my hands. The town and a local watering hole called the Law Office Pub were hosting the Yorkville Summer Solstice Indie Music Festival, so I decided to amble down the road a check it out.

Yorkville Summer Solstice Indie Music Festival Where the Theme was Connection

It was a fantastic experience. Artists representing blues, country, rock, folk, soul, and pop filled the park at the edge of the Fox River with great sound during perfect early summer weather. They hailed from Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Kansas City, South Dakota, Atlanta, Albuquerque, and Kentucky.  The crown was as diverse as the artists cwith the old and the young, wealthy and struggling, races and ethnicities of every description, bikers, and pride activists, and I suspect a few sinners and saints.

I spent four hours down in the park taking in the music, talking to the bands, walking along the river, and watching the sunset. Band after band mounted the stage, and a theme that was consistent through the whole event was connection. There was a raffle to support suicide awareness and prevention, and the MC stood on stage and said that Yorkville is talking about suicide because mental health challenges are something that has to come out of the shadows so we can talk straight to each other and solve the problems.

The front man for the band Szlachetka talked about what he and the band had seen out on the road. “"As we travel around the country, east coast, west coast....doesn't matter, I see a different picture than the division described on the news.  I'm seeing people with a whole lot more in common than their differences."

My experience has been the same. The news from the front is good. I sense a growing movement of connection. People coming together to solve tough problems.  People reaching out a helping hand to complete strangers. People showing real love and respect toward each other with a generous and encouraging spirit.

The connection I sought at the beginning of this trip is the movement toward connection that I see gaining traction everywhere I go, and I, for one, am quite optimistic about where this movement will take us all going forward.