Norwich City Manager Bob Zarnetske, carries the flame through his historic town on the second to the last day of the Run in America.

Our good friends and faithful supporters Frank Morosky and Bill Champagne, both from the eastern Connecticut area, came to our cabins at the Tamarac Lodge this morning to make sure we were ready to run to Norwich.

A long time friend of the Harmony Run, Bill Champagne savors his miles with the torch every time it comes through Connecticut.

Bill supplied us with some breakfast items and was so kind and generous to have helped to supply these very peaceful cabin accommodations as well. Frank also donated much in the way of accommodating us in his ‘neck of the woods’ and also came out to put in some miles of running with the Torch.

Frank Morosky joined the festivities on a perfectly clear and sunny New England morning.

As Frank started his miles from Beach Pond at the Connecticut / Rhode Island border, I jumped into the small lake for an early morning ‘wake up’ swim. It was a chilly morning, and my two teammates, Julian and Francesco, bundled up in warm clothes, thought I was a bit crazy for jumping in the water. But it was quite comfortable and very invigorating to start the day in this way and it also gave me an immediate sense of harmony with nature.

Our team ran all the way to the city of Norwich, the largest city in this part of Connecticut. We were greeted there by City Manager Bob Zarnetske and two other local runners, Paul Andruskiewicz and his son Noah, who have joined us in Norwich in the past. They all ran through the center of town with our runner and the Torch. We are grateful for such sincere participation which also helped to get us through yet another city without getting lost.

It was a short day, only about 52 miles to run, which took us to downtown New Haven. This is the city I was born in and raised nearby in the town of Hamden. The central and downtown area of New Haven makes up most of the Yale University campus. Hundreds of buildings are part of one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Established over 300 years ago, Yale has grown into one of the foremost Universities for law, drama, sciences, philosophy and religion.

The Peabody Museum is a very well known and prestigious museum of science, natural history and geology which has developed one of the foremost displays of dinosaurs in the world. Irene Armstong and some of the other employees there welcomed us warmly along with local attendees of the museum.

Also present when we ran to the museum just outside of the downtown area were the Cablevision 12 television reporter, the New Haven Register newspaper reporter, our good friend Archee who arranged this wonderful meeting and last but not least my own mother, Lydia DeAngelo.

We had an outdoor presentation and ceremony by the entrance of the museum and then we were cordially invited inside and given a small tour of the main dinosaur display, which is usually the biggest attraction. I remember many times in my childhood that I had visited here, always going to the dinosaur exhibit first. We also got to see the exhibit of Machu Pichu, the ancient Aztec civilization of Peru and various other exhibits of animals and nature. We are very grateful to the supervisor of the museum Patricia Brunetto, for this wonderful experience, and to all the staff that were so kind to us there.

Arpan’s sister Lori and her family treated the team to a great barbecue dinner in their beautiful home.

After the museum, we headed to my sister Lori’s home and her family, husband Austin, and their two daughters, Jessica and Marissa. Unfortunately my nieces Marissa was away for the week, but Lori and the family were very kind in helping us to prepare a wonderful meal, ‘cookout’ style, and providing much space for relaxation and even a few games of ping pong, or table tennis.

In Oregon, my younger brother Giribar and his family joined us for over a week, and then my older brother Alfred and his son Michael had visited us a couple of days ago in Boston for dinner. Now the rest of my family was here to see us on our last day which was a very special treat for me. We all slept at my mother’s home, the house where I grew up until moving out to attend College. It was nice to be back here with my whole team of runners who have really done great job in sharing the miles and the harmony as we carried the Torch over 10,000 miles to this point.

Administrators from the Yale Peabody Museum warmly greeted the runners to New Haven, and gave them an inspiring tour of their world famous facility.

With only one more day and less than 50 miles to run, we feel that our successful journey could not have been completed without the kind generosity of people like my family and all those preceding them who supplied us with accommodations, food, and wonderful ceremonies.

Jessica, Mom, Lori, Austen and Arpan glow in the warmth of the of the flame that just covered ten thousand miles to their door.

With all of these fine people we have shared very important, meaningful and fruitful experiences of love and harmony which will obviously grow and spread as we keep up our united efforts to stress the value of these qualities in our own personal lives.

Arpan and the Harmony Family

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