Week 8: The Amish, the Meanest Librarian in the World, and Chicago! (June 3, 2001)

The Fool is now in state number FIVE (Illinois) on his journey, and shortly will hit number SIX (Wisconsin)!

After leaving Napanee, IN, he walked through Amish Acres. Amish Acres is quite a curious place - there are really no Amish people there. There ARE lots of Amish craft shops and even a Christmas shop. He checked out some of the Amish crafts, and briefly considered buying an Amish hoe, but then he realized that his tent really only has room for himself, and he can probably pick up a pretty good hoe when he gets back to NYC.

The Fool spent a little time chatting with various people in Amish Acres, mainly just asking anyone he saw "Are you Amish?" The most excitemenmt came when he asked this big biker dude with lots of tattoos if he was Amish. His two female friends chatted and giggled with him, while the biker just sat there and flexed his muscles over and over, saying nothing. When the WF finally admitted that he knew that the biker was not Amish, since the Amish do not "desecrate" their bodies with tattoos, the dude responded "Yeah how about if I desecrate your face?! Huh?! Your face! I'll desecrate your face! Huh?!" Things calmed down quckly, and as the Fool was leaving these nice folks, the biker dude said something in spanish. All the Fool could catch was "tu madre" (meaning 'your mother') - and he assured the dude that he was keeping in regular contact with his mother, so that she wouldn't worry about him.

Earlier, the Walking Fool actually saw a couple of Amish people getting McFlurries as McDonalds, which either means that they've loosened up the rules, or they work at the Amish nick-nack store at the mall.

The Fool stopped for a snack at a Subway in Walkerton, IN, and ended up chatting with two nice old guys, who bought him a sub, after listening to some stories of his journey. One old guy said he knew a guy who had walked around the world (?) and had to fight off bandits with machetes. After he got his sandwich from the Subway server, the Fool noticed a wall plug near one of the tables, so decided that this would be a great oppurtunity to recharge his phone and camera batteries. Unfortuantely he keeps the camera charger at the very bottom of his pack, so he had to take everything out of his pack to get to it. So there he was, surrounded by piles of VERY dirty laundry, and all his other belongings, and then the MANAGER comes strolling over and say "Looks like you're moving in!" Our fumbling fool got kind of nervous, but then the guy sat down and started asking him where he was going, where he came from, blah blah blah. (PHEW!) The manager was so psyched for the Fool, he loaded him up with a couple of bags of free chips, and some free cookies, as well as a bunch of Subway coupons.

The only noticeable incident in Westville was the Fool's encounter with the meanest librarian in the world. It had been a week or more since he had been able to check his email and read the guestbook, and he was anxious to check in, but the librarian told him that without a library card he was out of luck. And he couldn't get a library card if he wasn't from the town. THE BOARD had decreed it. THE BOARD made the rules. THE RULES could not be broken. The Fool did his best to remain polite, and tried to tell her that he was walking across the country, etc etc, but, in the Fool's words, "As I tried to explain my story, she just looked at me as if I was holding a porno magazine open in front of her, and was saying 'hey - how about this one? - whaddayathink of this one? huh? huh?' " The scowl on her face just got deeper and deeper, and the WF left the library, and left Westville.

This entire week has been very cold and rainy - and so has most of the WF's time in Indiana. Thursday night found The Fool in Griffith, IN, where he supped upon the 12 dollar rip-off steak at Ponderosa. And to cap off that crappy meal, he stayed in the Motel 6, to get a break from his damp tent, where he was offered no discount.

The Fool slept in a bit on Friday, and then headed towards the border between Indiana and Illinois, going through the town of East Chicago, IL. Friday afternoon also marked the Fool's first radio interview (called in by phone), on a Chicago AM station (arranged by his handler, Bill, back in NYC).

Friday afternoon, the Walking Fool entered the south side of Chicago, which several people had "warned him" about. While he found some areas that were full of boarded up storefronts, he didn't have any problems, and enjoyed the long walk along the lake that took him into downtown Chicago. He headed for the home of his Webmaster's sister-in-law, where Gitte and her husband Charles served him some of that fine Chicago pizza pie. He stayed in Chicago until Monday morning, staying with Gitte and Charles, and also with Gitte's cousin Julie and her roommates. He caught a movie and did a little shopping in Chicago, picking up some new sneakers, the new Depeche Mode tape, and the South Park Movie soundtrack. He gives the DM tape a big thumbs-up, but he gives "The Animal" with Rob Schneider and Colleen from Survivor a big thumbs down (with raspberry noise.)

OTHER STUFF:

* Some Fool fans have been expressing concern that the Fool is eating too much fast food, and he gave his Web Development Team some insight into his diet. He is trying to eat well, but he's also burning a heck of a lot of calories, so he's not too worried about eating too much fast food. Fast food restaurants also provide a dry and warm place to sit and rest, and often have a handy electrical outlet where he can recharge his phone and camera. Fast food is also pretty cheap - cheaper than other kinds of restaurants, which is definitely a concern. The Fool doesn't eat fast food every day, but it's also sort of hard to carry and keep lots of tasty and healthy food from supermarkets - so he often ends up eating deli-type-sandwiches from mini-marts. He also tries to eat some fruit every day, and grabs salads whenever he comes upon them.
* The Fool is actually thinking of writing to Burger king to tell them how much he has appreciated their restaurants and their fine 99 cent menu on his trip. The Chicken Tender Sandwich is definitely his favorite item, and he says the Jalapeno Poppers are pretty good too. (They're much better than the ones at Arby's which cost 3 times as much, and taste kind of funny.) He says the mozzarella sticks are good if they're fresh.

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