He’s done for the first leg of his journey. He seemed in good spirits although a little soggy from a storm during the last mile of the trip.
His trek today took him through the south side of Chicago where he left course a bit to walk through the park at Rainbow Beach a location very familiar from his youth, yet not familiar at all because it’s grown and changed over the years. He was struck by how well maintained it was and just how lovely that stretch of park is along our lakeshore.
From there the trek headed into Indiana and parts of Indiana that are very close, yet very unfamiliar. The enormity of the BP refinery in Whiting. He remarked that he was gawking like a tourist in East Chicago and Hammond.
The Gary Chicago Airport was yet another sight along the way and to him seemed completely empty and unused, but also seemed to take forever to pass by.
The path also took him past many of the abandoned and shuttered steel plants that once employed so many people in that region. So much of it is very sad to see. In Gary which again has many sad sights, he saw buildings that are familiar sights from the Indiana Toll Road on those many trips to Owasippe from a very different perspective.
The last few miles took him along Dunes Highway and he actually finished a total of about 26.5 miles today.
