Day 55

Slept well but it was so cold when I woke up. I went over to the bath house to take a shower hoping that it would warm me up but it was just annoying. Wasn’t warm enough and I left my soap back at my campsite so it was all a waste. Should’ve just kept my clothes on. Oh well. It was supposed to be warm today so I tried to focus on the fact that I’d be in a tshirt within a few hours.

Went back and packed everything up and then called the newspaper guy. Thanks to all of the messages I got this morning haha! We set up a place to meet and I walked there.

It was a papa Johns pizza restaurant and I ordered one while I waited for him. He came and we did the interview and then me and Domino ate pizza before getting started today. I had a choice to make. I could either walk on hwy 50 and almost die every 4 seconds or walk an extra 2.5 miles and stay on back roads. I picked back roads.

I went through a tiny town named Hayden. It had an old service station and a tiny little post office. After that I saw about 8000 corn fields. They are pretty this time of the year though because they all have wildflowers grown up. I guess it’s not time to plow yet.

While being semi bored I started thinking about random stuff. One of them was that I wished that I had learned how to do gardening instead of math in school. Something that I could actually use ya know lol.

Out here in Indiana there are dogs everywhere. Similar to West Virginia but in Indiana they aren’t on leashes at all. I prefer that. I hate to see a dog chained up. Dogs were running up to me and Domino all day. I try to play with them all a little and give them a treat and then make sure they turn around so they don’t follow us too far from home. One dog peed on the front wheel of Lieutenant Dan. He didn’t get a treat.

Later in the day I stopped for a break at a crossroads. Just found a spot on the grass and sat down. There was a man with a metal detector and a huge knife walking around trying to find anything I guess. I’ve always wanted to do that haha. He was interested in what the heck I was doing so I told him. He’d also lost a sister to an overdose. I hate the fact that most people I encounter are affected by this but I can’t help but wonder if things were aligned for it to be that way. A guy walking across America and a guy randomly looking for treasure with a metal detector cross paths in the middle of nowhere and both have lost a sister to drugs.

Moved on and finally made it to Seymour. Birthplace of John Mellencamp. It’s a little town off the interstate with an outlet mall and a few hotels and restaurants. I booked a hotel between a cracker barrel and a walmart. Cross country hiker heaven! I’m taking tomorrow off to do some resupply shopping and to hopefully find some temporary arch support for my feet until I can get to a podiatrist. Domino needs a break too.

I am about an hour drive from the Kentucky Derby which is tomorrow so everything around here is crazy. Probably best to stay off of the roads anyways.