The week started with a heavy rain overnight. Fortunately, I set up the tent where the forest floor featured thick, water-absorbing litter and soil. Heavy mists enveloped the following morning, as if we were walking through the set for a horror movie.
The River to River Trail came onto a road that we followed to Goreville Waterfall. After checking out the engorged waterfall, the flooded road in the area suggested that this would be a good time to heed the trail closure warnings. Our route instead followed a road where we encountered a road sign proclaiming Goreville to have won the Governor’s Home Town Award of 2001. Given the mission, I naturally had to find out what that was about.
We stopped at Carroll’s Food Market, a family run operation, to grab a snack and ask why Goreville garnered such an honor. The clerk at the check-out told us to go in the back for coffee and to ask proprietor about the award. Steve Carroll did not know the official answer, but asserted that Goreville was a place where people took care of their own, including his own food market helping out people in need.
While we were in the back we were invited to join Steve’s Mom and two employees for lunch. The man who cooked us all hamburgs was not an employee nor a family member; he was taking a break from his own work nearby to cook for everyone in the back. This added to the neighborly aura of Goreville.
Ky picked us up in Goreville to bring us to the Zion UCC in Marion, Illinois. This would be the end of the serendipitous chain that began at the Copper Mountain resort in Colorado. To recap one last time: because we met Andy Held at Copper Mountain we ended up in Frisco; because we met Ardie and Gretchen at the Frisco Visitor Center we ended up spending several days in Kansas City; because we stayed with Lorene Miller in Kansas City she took us to her church’s KristKindl Markt; because we met the Missouri UCC conference minister at the Kristkindl Markt we stayed with UCC churches all across Missouri. Jeff Whitman also put us in the conference newsletter, which was read by John Holst of the Zion UCC in Marion, Illinois. John contacted me via email and invited us to speak at his church and learn about the vibrant community initiatives in Marion.
We had lunch at a community meals program hosted by Marion”s Ministerial Alliance. While we encountered several Ministerial Alliances already, this one extended beyond churches. For example, when facility repairs were needed the Lions Club stepped in. On the flip side, they refused any type of government funding at a higher level, preserving the autonomy to provide assistance in the best way they saw fit. This vibrant alliance contrasted with Grand Tower, a town that remained anemic after the automation of a power plant despite a federally funded stimulus program.
After lunch we visited the Lighthouse Shelter, an initiative to help the homeless. Wanda Zwick started the shelter because of a few people she knew to be homeless, acquiring and converting an abandoned elementary school. Little did she know that “a few” people would turn into hundreds per year. They house men, women and children for up to a month, while working with partners to find jobs and homes, also providing training when possible. Residents leave with appliances, small furniture and food for their new homes. Fifty volunteers help out at the Lighthouse Shelter, which is funded mainly by local churches and foundations.
During our stay in Marion a snowstorm enabled us to spend some cozy family time with the Holsts. Throughout our journey we avoided hiking during snowstorms pretty well, but this was the best time spent of all. Drinking hot chocolate, eating pizza, chatting and playing games with a family conjured warm images of being home. Even for two stout adventurers such as Cindy and myself the lure of the family hearth always resides within.
I gave two presentations to Zion UCC while in Marion to two different audiences. For the youth group I talked about our hike; for confirmands and their parents I spoke about kindness and community. They received the presentations well, but upon returning to the trailhead for the River to River Trail we met our most enthusiastic audience. Three college students out for a birthday hike received the message about kindness and community involvement with the same enthusiasm as Dan Brunson, the young adult who convinced me to start presenting to colleges. Unfortunately, after four speaking engagements at colleges in Colorado, I had no further engagements since.
Some of my best memories hiking are about waiting out storms with Cindy in our tent, but as we continued hiking on the River to River Trail I acquired some of my worst memories of hiking, caused by being in a tent. To beat the dark we had to start putting up the tent around 4:30 pm. While daylight arrived a little before 8:00 am, ice-coated January mornings delayed our starts to no earlier than 9:00 am, often later. That meant being inside a tent for 16 hours. Add to that the cold I caught on this stretch, keeping me awake with a runny nose, and the nights became pure torture.
On our final day in the backcountry of the River to River Trail we hiked through an area of rock formations called the Garden of the Gods. A lost Basset Hound adopted and followed us as we came out of the backcountry onto roads. Occasionally the dog would go charging off and then come back to us with an expectant look that seemed to say: “What is wrong with you guys?! I just tracked down something great!”
As we neared , we flagged down a motorist to make contact with the owner indicated on the dog’s collar. She was able to contact the father of the dog owner, who came out to meet us. He said that when the dog ran off in the Garden of the Gods, he put out an overcoat for the scent to attract the dog overnight, but the next morning the coat was gone.
On this last stretch of the River to River Trail people asked us several times to buy us lunch or bring us home, but having spent a rest day in Marion due to the snowstorm we declined. We also encountered the private landowner who makes his spring available to RtR hikers. Reuniting a dog with its owner gave us the rare opportunity to pay back the abundant kindness bestowed upon us throughout the journey.
