Elizabethtown to Hanover

Excitement filled me as I walked into Indiana. It was a fresh start to hold true to the American Discovery Trail. I didn’t want to reroute anymore and I wanted to find value in the nonsensical random twists and turns the trail took me through. As I walked through one of the suburbs near Lawrenceburg, two men were fixing a car on the side of the road and I got to talking to them. They told me that two girls were murdered the week before on the bike trail I was heading towards and the man had not been caught yet. I became concerned but the situation didn’t sound right. Regardless, I decided to play it safe and walk along highway 50. I worried about the heavy traffic and the high speed cars zooming past me but I figured the odds were in my favor. However, there was heavy construction and no where to walk, any side shoulder was decimated and there was barely enough room for the cars. I couldn’t walk that way. My only other option was to walk with traffic on the overpass but I had to get there first. I scrambled up a boulder field to reach the guard rail and then gracefully hopped over when there was a break in traffic. It wasn’t a huge shoulder but it would do. The sound of cars zooming past me didn’t terrify me like I thought it would but instead rose a certain excitement within me. I had a pep in my step and when I came across a Steak and Shake I knew I wanted a milkshake. A chocolate peanut butter shake at that! I walked on 50 until I got to the next town and then rejoined the ADT. I kept walking but made the mistake of resting too long. The day was chilly, consistently in the 30’s, and I was getting cold. My motivation for walking was lacking and I needed to find a warm place to sleep for the night, the temperature was going to drop to 13°F. I pulled out my phone and called one of the men, Daniel, that had been working on the car earlier. He had assured me he could find me a place to stay. He came and got me and took me to his ex-wife’s house but she ended up not being in town. He asked his neighbor and the fellow across the street but everyone said no. He then decided he could maybe find me a place in Elizabethtown, where I started in the morning, but after a quick phone call the answer was still no. Then it started to get a bit strange. Instead of trying to find me a place to stay for the night, I was now on a ride along journey. Daniel stopped at a few places and talked to people, and I was just there witnessing him run his errands for the day. By the time it started to get dark, Daniel told me he was all out of options. He didn’t have anywhere for me to go. I was a bit dumbfounded. I NEEDED shelter for the night. My 20°F sleeping bag was no match for the coming temperatures. I unwillingly told him he could drop me off at a trucker motel. Before I exited the vehicle, he looked at me and said, “Well, I’d help you out with the motel but I’m broke..” I was ready to leave the situation but I needed to confirm that he could come get me in the morning and drive me back to where he picked me up. He assured me he would get me in the morning. He hated people who didn’t keep their word so I was fairly confident he would be back to get me. Once I had wifi in the motel room I looked up the murder case Daniel had told me about. The only story I found that was similar was in Northern Indiana a month before, over a hundred miles from where I was. I was unable to find any information on a murder on the bike trail..

I gathered my things and sent a message to Daniel to let him know I was ready to be picked up. I believed him when he said he would keep his promise. However, after an hour of no response I knew I was on my own. I needed to find a ride or I’d have to rewalk the same path as the day before. Doing that would have been demoralizing so I forced myself to stop waiting for Daniel and walked into the front office to check out. As I began to open the office door, it opened. The front desk clerk had just ended his shift and was on his way home. I quickly asked if he knew where I could get a ride a few towns over and he said I could go with him. He was headed that way! I couldn’t believe my luck. I now only had to rewalk three miles. The town of Friendship was my destination for the evening. I had heard of the town but didn’t know much about it. Yet, I felt inclined to get there. My destination-oriented mind had me reroute on top of a ridge rather than following the scenic river road. As the evening neared, I walked into town straight towards the campground. The only problem was that no one was there. It felt strange being in a massive field with my solo tent and not knowing if or when someone was going to inquire what I was doing. I set my tent up under a tree and as I laid down for the night I heard a squirrel barking at my tent. It didn’t want me there. I opened my tent door and stared at it high above me in the tree. I wondered to myself if I could deter the squirrel away from me. I grabbed a cheap, hand held pepper spray a woman had given me and pushed the button. Nothing happened. Happy that I hadn’t actually needed it, I put it in my trash and continued to stare at the squirrel until it grew tired. When I could no longer bear the cold I cocooned myself in my sleeping bag.

I woke up with the sound of rain pittering and pattering on my tent. I tried to wait for a break in the rain but as soon as I started tearing my tent down it began again. My fingers numbed as I packed up the metal stakes and tent poles. I needed to get warm and try to get information about the weather so I adventured into the only general store in town. That’s where I was greeted by Amy. The first thing she asked me, with concern in her voice, was, “Are you alone?” I sat down at one of the tables and allowed myself to absorb the warmth around me. In a small town, a new face is a curious thing and all the regular customers were intrigued with my out of the ordinary presence. Amy came over to me and told me that she could find me a dry, warm place if I didn’t want to walk in the rain. I was extremely grateful! After a couple hours of conversation with Amy, her husband, son, and the other townsfolk, I disappeared in the little cabin I was going to stay in. As the room warmed up, I began to see shield bugs and lady bugs crawl out of the crevasses they’d been harboring in. I watched them explore their new world and wondered if at any second they’d lose their grip and fall from the ceiling. I wanted to read and work on my blog but sleep overtook me. When the general store closed, Amy and her husband, Scott, gave me a tour of the surrounding towns and took me out to eat so I could try the pork tenderloin Indiana was known for. Afterwards, Amy made sure we drove through the great town of Dewberry and their four-way stop sign. It was great because there was literally nothing else there! Scott and Amy enabled my hankering for ice cream while we were at a grocery store. I searched high and low for a small mint chocolate chip ice cream but there were only the larger tubs. I was about to grab a different type because it was a smaller tub but Scott and Amy just looked at me with smiles on their faces and said, “That one may be good but you WANT the mint chocolate chip.” I gave in to their persuasion and delighted myself with the minty chocolaty taste of the ice cream.

The next morning I walked over to the general store for breakfast before I headed out. The store buzzed with the morning gossip of a nearby car accident and right when Amy saw me she asked if I was staying. I knew she wanted me to but I felt an urgency to keep moving. It was finally time for me to leave and I could see Amy’s face was torn with worry. She grabbed me and hugged me. As I walked out of town I felt like I was leaving a part of me there. I knew I had found another forever family. The day was windy, cold, and gloomy but I did what I knew how to do and kept walking. I passed an amish house with two guys walking out and it sounded like they asked if I wanted a ride. Heck yea, I’d been trying to catch a ride in a horse and buggie! I’d worry about where it was going later. I stopped walking and waited at the edge of their property as the guys disappeared into the barn. A young woman, Bertha, then came out of the house and walked towards me. She conversed with me for a little bit but I saw that she was getting cold. Her two brothers rode out of the barn in their buggie past us and yelled, “You want a ride??” They made no attempt to stop but tauntingly said “C’mon.” I made zero moves to chase after the buggie but the idea and shock value would have been entertaining. Bertha invited me inside so that we both could get warm. Right before I entered the house she told me she had eight brothers and three sisters  and as soon as I walked through the doorway they were all staring at me. An overwhelming feeling began to fill me and even though I had a million questions to ask them I did not know how to ask any. Bertha did a great job facilitating conversation and filling the silence with questions but the uncomfortable silence pervailed. Her brothers slowly disappeared and four more girls from Kentucky arrived. I sat there confused as I listened to them occasionally speak pennsylvania dutch to each other. However, I was content being sheltered from the cold wind, if only briefly. One of the Kentucky girls boldly asked if she could try on my pack. I was enthused to share a small glimpse of the backpacking world with them. I exchanged addresses and promised to send them a letter once I got to the Pacific Coast. I continued walking through the country roads and when it was time to look for a place to sleep I wasn’t having a lot of luck. People either weren’t home, didn’t have a say so on the property, or had a guard dog. I kept walking however and arrived at a quaint home with a picnic table in their yard. I knocked on the door and a woman, Sarah, in a bright pink dress opened the door and exclaimed, “You’re hiking!” She was filled with joy and happily agreed to let me set up my tent while inviting me in for dinner. I started setting up my stuff and a man says, “Hello?” I turned around confused and saw that he was confused. I realized he must be Sarah’s husband, Joni, and hadn’t been inside to know who I was. When I went inside for dinner Joni told me they were mennonites, which I previously gathered from Sarah’s pink dress, and openly shared with me more of what that meant. They were intrigued with my journey and when they invited me to church the following morning, I agreed. I was concerned about not having nice clothes or not knowing the various songs/verses but Sarah reassured me the service was casual.

The morning was much colder than I’d expected and frost covered the tent. I hurriedly packed up my things so I could retreat to the warmth of the house. I went to church with Joni and Sarah and they reassured and guided me the entire time. Joni told me, “We’re all just common people,” and he was right. Sarah told me that the whole church was less than twenty people but I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. My unfamiliar face couldn’t be ignored and when I’m nervous a shyness erupts from me. I was getting worked up over nothing though because everyone was welcoming. The church service was similar to that of any church service except they didn’t currently have a pastor. Instead, members would take turns delivering the lesson/message and then discuss it. I felt the small town vibe and how their viewpoints demonstrated their heritage. There were comparisons with the jewish and amish faiths but the perspectives of an outsider, me, were unknown. I wanted to share my thoughts and ask questions but I didn’t feel like I was educated enough on the bible or the history surrounding it. One statement that did stand out to me however was, “There is opinion and then there is scripture and they don’t always match up. That is something that you have to come to terms with in your own life. ” I wondered too, how my gender, skin color, and religious orientation allowed me the opportunity to get to where I was in the first place. Afterwards, Joni and Sarah dropped me off at a Dollar General in Madison and I felt normal, except  normal was strange for me. I walked down to a pavilion next to the Ohio River to eat a sandwich Sarah had made for me. I happened to look to my right and I saw two people getting out of a vehicle except, I knew that vehicle! It was Scott and Amy. All I could do was laugh. Amy told me it was Scott’s idea to “go for a drive.” They knew roughly where I’d be but they didn’t know if they’d actually find me. I gave them both hugs before they left me, and I continued my walk to the next town. I found myself at a closed public library and sat at the picnic table out front. I hear the words, “You should savor every bite of your food because you never know when you’re going to have it,” as I munched on a granola bar. I turned around and a guy around my age walked towards me and sat across the picnic table. I looked at him and asked if he wanted a granola bar. Without answering, he began to fumble with his pockets and pulled out a set of head phones. He wanted to trade for the granola bar but I declined and gave it to him. He’d come to use the library wifi and although he was strange I could tell he had a good heart. He tried to tell me the roads I could walk to get to the surrounding towns and what ones were fastest. He didn’t understand why I’d walk the long way. He assured me I should take a different road; he knew they could be walked on because he frequently did it. As I continued on the ADT route I found a patch of woods that would be home for the night. I hid my tent behind a glob of vines and knew I’d have a peaceful night.