Click below to see each completed day in the journey.
—Next destination: Indianapolis, Indiana, to…
(…My field notes from the day…)
“… Fell asleep for just 5 hours past midnight, leaving as soon as I can…
It is what it is… as the saying goes, I’m gettin’ the hell outta Dodge, knowing I’ve received Indianapolis’s point for me with nothing else to give. I’m done with corn and more corn...
“… but still have to drive some more for the next three hours to Columbus. Once again, I’m not even bothering with my hotel’s usual sodas, muffins, grain cereals and crap as a continental breakfast….
—
” Just stopped at the nicer-end rest stop in Greens Fork …was nice enough…
“… spent a bit in Dayton, Ohio… …. an hour or so… The energies felt nicer to me… if most likely because I’d stopped nearest the local university— nicer landscapes of such areas usually ARE nicer-through-money… For yesterday’s squirrel and pigeons, I saw more pigeons eating an apple…
“… I’m HAPPY for them getting to eat some actual produce instead of more human junk food...
“…gotta get MORE nut snacks, green juice, fruit… salad… water… stretch, finish language practice and music practice for the road…
“Scenery’s scenery…. sunny… nice trees and nice buildings….getting a little colder…
—
“… at least proud… I elevated my once again burger patty to FOOD… WITH things like kale, curry powder, garlic, spinach, and PLUMS with my otherwise just lettuce, onion, and tomato and avocado this time… ((I)) back home had something I sense… isn’t easy to find everyday if you’re not where it’s from… a Central Market import? ‘Red Tamarillo?’ Delicious… but not as accessible to me as plums…
“…Plums were surprisingly tasty with the burger patty, so I’m taking note of that for my guidebook…”
—
“…Received another message to my mind’s eye… check these three restaurants next when I get to Colombus… I wondered if the point was to eat at those restaurants this time: did they have sweet potato fries, perhaps?
“…I took another wrong turn again… but I wasn’t stressed… could still see what I NEEDED to see with enough time….
“…First restaurant was nearby a THEME PARK of all things—making me think of |Wu|, of course, her love for theme parks…
“…before I could shower, I had to check in with family and friends. Ate the last of my salad and nuts… and it was nice to sit and watch from the window of my hotel.…
—
“…Few minutes past 4PM now… Need to get going… just want to make sure I’ve calibrated everything correctly. By the time I get back to the hotel tonight… I need to get all of my ducks in a row. … I’ll have to be ready to drive to Cleveland tomorrow…
“…I get one hour. I’ll include the theme park as my last stop…. for |Wu|…. No, wait… I realize there’s no reason to. it’s just a FALSE fairground. it’s not the same thing as her *actual* happiness now…
—
“… Back to the hotel with my sweet potato fries and burger-again… just got back from the restaurants… my intended destinations…
“…otherwise, I noticed how much starch-fat-sugar AS EVER they had… and chicken…
“…just… so much chicken, fried… every restaurant… then a dear friend called, and I recognized the link— why Universe had me see this…
“… told me about the ‘organic’ chicken of it all being false, as we both know… corrupted practices of factory farmed chickens for cheapness…
“Hang on… going to eat more of my… sigh… VERY salty-butt sweet potato fries (but at least it’s dinner enough and I can add cooked broccoli to it…) saw every menu to be basically the same… just with far less desserts, and less vegetables to have at ALL than the slightly higher-end place. I just captured the restaurant’s molten lava cake from their menu online… things like bundt cake molds can help me shape things nicely when I bake them.
“… took pictures of the dessert designs that looked the most appealing to me. I skipped what didn’t, while waiting for my to-go meal…
—
“And now… I’m sitting here at the hotel… and I know what I have to do.
” X( … because I remembered what came to my mind’s eye FIRST THING this morning… no matter how nerve-wracking to trust…
“… Money is not what matters most when you know what you have to do… when you know you have to put the links first.
“…So, no matter the ‘drop fee’ I’d have to pay for returning the rental car early now… no matter the bed I could sleep on tonight if I actually stay for what I’ve paid for…
“What would be |Wu’s| theme park here teaches me— no. There isn’t anything good enough to this… under any name, just more commercialism…
“I’m leaving Ohio as soon as I can. I can feel ((myself)) agreeing with me. Let’s get to the airport NOW…
“Laundry… if I have enough clean for one more day, then I do— I can wash properly at my AirBnB later. WORST case scenario, I’ll buy clothes if I have to. Spices and seasonings are ALL used up. (Food was as bland and unchanging as hell otherwise!!!!) I’m sure I can donate my cooler SOMEWHERE before I go. Worse comes to worse, leave a note and say it’s free on the nearest corner. It will be fine, no one will complain about a free cooler.
“Haven’t bought any items here other to keep… toiletries I may still need , I can buy at the airport.
“… only one last thing to do… whether or not Ohio even has a state produce AT ALL —I’ll even take fruit at this rate– pawpaw… neat… but it’ll have to be plums from Ohio’s true energy to me, because I can’t find pawpaws at home…
—
“… I steeled my resolve…
“… made calls…
“… canceled…
“…paid online…
“… drove straight and quickly….
“Paid my fee…
“…good news is… got here on time… strained… but handled everything…
“GETTING A FLIGHT TO CLEVELAND’S AIRPORT EARLY. Cleveland may ‘rock’ as the song does go, but I don’t have time to hear it…
“… Going from Colombus… layover in Detroit first… definitely wasn’t expecting to go Detroit on this trip…
“Ohhhh the exhaustion is already starting to kick in. But… I have work to do.”
11:50 PM
And as I now had a long, overnight stretch to wait in the Cleveland International Airport… I was able to reflect to myself quietly– typing yet more notes on my phone from a stable location.
“So… continuing from my fields notes of the day… I now get to wait all night here for my next flight. The good news is, I got here. Did everything I had to do, and made it just fine. And I’ll never get tired of the thrill of being on a plane when it takes off.
“Believe it or not, the airport of Detroit had a place for me to get last research too!!!!! That is, I flipped through a cake-baking magazine at the Supply Co. It was just there. Universe turned me to it, and so I bought it. The recipes seem perfect to study and adapt with produce. My one physical souvenir on this trip so far, I think… Haha… unless you count a Canadian quarter, some bus-pamphlets, and a scratched-out dining guide for Pocatello.
“It’s approaching closing time for everything here now. Glad I could get some tea first… For what it’s worth, I’m now listening to ‘Cleveland Rocks’ anyway before I leave Ohio… it always will be a fun tune.
“Next stop… Poland. Łódź specifically. And, hey, whatever comes next, at least my AirBnB where I can FINALLY, FINAAAAAALLLLLYYYY cook my own food again for once.“
I made one last note for myself before this day officially ended and another dark-thirty-AM began:
“If you know things have to change for a situation to ever improve, then once you recognize it… you just can’t waste any further time staying in it.“
“Raised the Bar”
If I get this going
Do you think that our kids
Won’t ever have to struggle with
Aging like we did?
That they’ll stay young for as long as they should
And they can say that their lives have been good
I hope that they’ll be fine
I hope the reason that they stay
Is because we raised the bar
-Day 6: End-