Sunday, June 30, 2019
By the time I left the hotel in Shelbyville, it was 8 am and the temperature was almost 25 C ( 77 F ) and the skies were clear.
As I drove towards Indianapolis, an Indiana state trooper raced passed me and shortly afterwards put on his lights as he continued to drive down the highway at high speed. Even at the posted speed of 70 mph, I lost sight of him and soon 2 other state troopers raced by me with their lights on. About 5 minutes later I saw the lights from the cars of the three state troopers at the right side of the road, behind an older small car. As I drove by, I saw one of the troopers walking towards the car with his gun drawn and pointed at the drivers door. Not wanting to attract attention, I casually drove by and continued my journey. The incident made me think of the song, ” Indiana wants me “, and I didn’t want that to be my theme song.
As I drove through southwest Indiana I past into the CDT time zone and I ‘ gained ‘ an hour. The clock on my phone automatically changed from 9:30 am to 8:30 am.
The rest of the 9 hour drive was uneventful and I arrived in Springdale, Arkansas at 4:30 pm. I found the Fairfield Inn I had booked and checked in.
It wasn’t long before I received a call from Daniel Swartzentruber, one of the men who was in Saipan with me back in 2015. He called to find out what my plans were and invited me to their church’s Vacation Bible School closing ceremonies at 8 pm. It was a 35 minute drive east, to the Huntsville area where the church was located and I arrived at Daniel’s father-in-law’s house where I met him, his father-in-law, his wife Karen, his daughter Carmen and her family. From there we drove to the church together and watched each of the VBS classes present some verses and songs that they had learned during the past week. Then it was time for ice cream and socializing.
I met several of the church members and discussed common experiences in Saipan with some of them. I also met a young lady in the church who was from El Mira, Ontario, Canada. She had gone to Ireland on a missions trip in 2015 and met a young man from the Huntsville, Arkansas area, who was visiting the area where his family had lived. They married a few years later and now live in Huntsville, where it’s much warmer than El Mira.
It was almost 10 pm when we drove back to the house and I visited with Daniel and his family for a while before heading back to the hotel. It was 11 pm CDT ( 12 pm EDT ) by the time I got back. I could sleep in, if I wanted to, because I don’t have any specific plans for Monday, however, Daniel has to get up early.
A local company supplies Daniel with 8800 free range chickens per barn that he houses in three large barns. Daniel sells the eggs back to the company where they hatch the eggs and raise the chickens. Daniel has to get up at 5:30 am to feed the chickens and make sure that everything is in order before attending to his other job as a free-lance appliance repairmen.
I was hoping to visit with a friends, Don & Carey Woods from Cabot, Arkansas, who I had met in Hawaii. Unfortunately he had left on Sunday for a business trip to Jackson, MS and wouldn’t be back until Tuesday morning, so that might not be possible.
In all it was a good day and the climate was similar to the previous day except that it wasn’t as cloudy.
For those who like to see maps, the picture below shows the route I had taken.
Ralf Hamm 