Video of the first month in USA

Our day today was a somewhat different than normal days where our schedule follows a continuous flow. Two teams did run a continuous route through northwestern Iowa while a separate team of Salil and Francesco and I took a side trip to Des Moines, the State Capital.

Erik was one of the runners on the team running north. He writes:

“A fine day of running from Sioux City IA, to Worthington, MN. We started on route 60 north exiting the business area of the city and entering into the agricultural section.

Iowa farmers Ralph and Darlene Feller came out to welcome us to their community after we stopped in front of their vast corn and soy bean fields to service the runner

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“Along the way we met Ralph and Darlene Fellar, a couple of fine folks who are from the area and make their living farming the land. They raise corn and soybeans, and also sell the corn seeds. They were very kind and good natured people and came out to greet us as we were running in front of their farm.

“The impressions from the run were of heat and humidity. It was actually not very hot when I started, only around 70 F, but it was so humid that I was sweating much more than the usual. The temperature climbed to over 80 F as the day progressed.

Known as “The Ice Cream Capitol of the World”, the town of La Mars is the home of the teams favorite desert.

“Midway in our run we stopped in LeMars, IA, the “Ice Cream Capital of the World”. We were one hour early for our appointment with the local paper, the LeMars Centennial, but somebody who saw us running called the reporter and he came out to greet us early. We were parked right in front of the historic Blue Bunny Ice Cream Museum and Cafe when the reporter met us and took pictures and got our story. This town actually has three large ice cream factories.

Our first day in Minnesota was full of encounters with many friendly and helpful folks that showed our international team the true goodness of the American Heartland.

After the interview we stopped into the cafe for some great ice cream. Edi had a huge ice cream sundae with brownies, pecans, and caramel; shortly afterward he was running his miles. Nothing like running on ice cream.

Darlene Macklin, Executive Director of the Worthington Chamber of Commerce, and Sunny Patel, General Manager of The Travelodge, our host hotel, present the team with T-shirts from their town’s running club.

“When we reached Worthington we had a few great experiences. We had a great meeting with the press at our hotel. Later, at a car parts shop, the clerk named Jim, recognized us from the television news, and while he held the torch in the parking lot another man named Brett recognized us from a previous run.

Worthington Daily Globe Reporter Justine Wettschreck took copious notes about our international team’s varied experiences on the road across America.

He told us that he had hosted us a couple times in the past in Windom and was very supportive of us.

That evening we were treated to a fantastic dinner at the Pizza Ranch. Robert, the manager, treated us all to a very nice dinner buffet. The food was fantastic, the service was great and the gesture was pure self-giving.

Young members of the Worthington Trojans Soccer Team made new friends from around the world after sitting in the table next to us at the local Pizza Ranch.

We also met a family and some soccer teammates at the restaurant, they were interested in our run and we shared our hopes of harmony with them.

Our special thanks to Sunny Patel for hosting us on very short notice at the Travel Lodge. He was as very gracious host.”

In Des Moines, my team met with our good friend and supporter John Dion and his lovely colleague, Georgia Pierson. After being welcomed warmly into John’s home, John treated us all to a wonderful meal at Tandoor, a local Indian food restaurant. John and Georgia had to get back to work as the rest of us went to the YMCA in Des Moines to meet some of the staff there. Cliff Harris, the Director of the ‘Y’ and some of his staff met with us as we discussed our journey and shared some ideas about harmony.

The motto of the ‘Y’ on the wall in bold letters was, “We build strong kids, Strong families, Strong communities.” This is very similar to our belief that strong communities begin with the strong individual, especially the children. Harmony on a large scale begins with harmony in the individual. Even though the children were away on a field trip, it was nice to share these ideas and ideals with some of the staff there at the YMCA which has welcomed us in other cities. They all work hard to influence children of all ages in a positive and harmonious direction.

Returning to John’s house for a home cooked dinner, we again felt very welcome as we have been in the past whenever we come to visit John and his friends, workers and family. Georgia and John prepared a wonderful Italian style meal for us with the help of our ‘real’ Italian runner, Francesco. With fresh tomato sauce on Angel hair pasta and a great salad with fresh garlic bread, and corn on the cob, we were too full to get right to the dessert, an old Italian favorite, Tiramisu.

We are ever so grateful to all that John and Georgia have done to support the World Harmony Run. Only five weeks of recovery after a major heart operation, John is as enthusiastic as ever and seems to be getting stronger by the hour.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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