Murrs Across America

At scrabble the night before Michael insisted that, “anarchists use the scrabble dictionary too,” which pretty much sums up our visit at the Emmaus House, a restored historic Victorian-style residence that provides free food and lodging to folks visiting loved ones at local institutions, mainly prisions. The ideals of providing service, building community, and participating in active nonviolence (and the idea that these things are just the right thing to do—like using the scrabble dictionary—regardless of institutional directives) are personal tenants of Michael’s. They are diligently, yet comfortably, accessible for guests through the Emmaus House art, board games, refrigerator magnets, and gentle hospitality.

The women and children who stay at the Emmaus house typically travel and do not have resources to pay for a hotel room. They may be visiting loved ones in any of the four prisons in the Yankton area, one of which really caught my attention because before its transition to a federal prison camp in 1986 it was a liberal arts college. The facility is completely service-oriented and sustained by Michael and others who give of their time and resources in the spirit of community: in other words, it isn’t a not-for-profit organization or a business, but a volunteer organization. None of the volunteers are paid, and they describe themselves as “…just some folks trying to live out our faith”.

Michael works tirelessly to provide clean rooms and meals for free. He lives in a room off the kitchen where guests gather to eat and wash dishes, an activity that often plants the seeds of community between guests. He says his wife, Beth, who is a nurse that was away on business when we visited, brings home the cash that makes their service possible. He tells stories about leaving his home in Indiana at an early age, encountering positive mentors through the Catholic Worker movement, and devoting his life to active nonviolence and promotion of peace. He tells of his incarceration for civil disobedience and the rewarding experience of disarming hostility. These days this primarily includes watching Emmaus House guests begin to melt into support of one another and learn from each other in the quiet house. Beneath vaulted ceilings and among houseplants, with the aroma of home cooked meals and dryer sheets meeting the needs of safety and comfort, much more is generously and humbly, offered at the Emmaus House, where a depth of service contributes to the sincere hospitality we had the pleasure to experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Emmaus House or supporting this ministry, please contact Michael at PO Box 353 Yakton, SD 57078 or by phone at 605-664-3662.

Here are my notes for the rest of this day:

Breakfast at Emmaus house
Yankton bike shop (Ace Hardware & bike shop)
A dip in the lake
Biking to Springfield, SD
Libby’s Steakhouse and Spiderman III
Camp set up
Rescue from storm by Tim, the guy at the gas station
Evening with Tim and Sandy
Constant lightning

The morning of the summer solstice I had a conference call with my colleagues at UPsidEo. It was the one-year anniversary of our company, which despite challenges is positioned firmly upon a fantastic foundation to do good work to help develop the leaders who are changing the world. You can check out our website, if you like, here.

Perhaps the most important “to do” item on the list for the day, however, was to make the pilgrimage back to main street to visit Edgar’s Pharmacy and Soda Fountain. We’ve been to a couple of soda fountains on this trip: Stuart’s Corner Café in Tennessee and Bell Brothers in Atchison, KS. However, Edgar’s was definitely in it’s own cherry-sweet category at the tip-top of soda fountain glory.

Here’s where I would like Stuart to write something about growing up as a soda jerk on Main Street in Cabool. If he doesn’t write something here I’ll explain that he was a soda jerk, that they had very good ice cream and pulled soda and mixed pop from syrups and used the old-fashioned spoons and glasses. They did the same at Edgars. Here the polite and efficient soda jerk explains how to properly make a cherry soda, Stuart’s favorite.

We said fond farewells to the Giorgios and biked to Vermillion, which also had quite a bit of construction going on just off of their Main Street. We played in the park where we called a friend of the Giorgios in Yankton, Michael, at the Emmaus house. He had heard from the Giorgios we might be coming, so when Stuart called, he informed us that he had our room ready and we would be eating dinner at the house. The Gorgios were invited too. Rather than press on through the heat then, we decided that I should go work on the blog at the local coffee shop and Stuart and the kids would hit the library. We would wait for the Giorgios to come through town and pick us up on the way to Yankton.

Our plan was thwarted, however, when Stuart came crashing off his bike. While falling off my bike is not an infrequent occurrence, Stuart hadn’t wrecked a single time on the journey. Turns out a rather stout stick, about six inches long, had wedged into his front spoke and pushed his fender up into a mangled mess. This halted his forward progress and landed him on the sidewalk of the sleepy neighborhood street. He was stunned, but fine, and we quickly figured out what the problem was. One of his spokes was a little bent, but not broken, and the rumpled fender smoothed nicely back in to place. Still, we thought we should go consult the local bike mechanic to make sure everything was still safe.

The bike shop man was just closing up shop, but he took a look at Stuart’s bike anyway, pronouncing it road-trip-ready. The Giorgios showed up and whisked us away to Yankton, which is how we arrived, poetically, at our half-way point on the summer solstice, a day of equilibrium if not balance.

From Terry and Jane’s yard in Sioux City we set out toward Vermillion with a tailwind, mostly. We enjoyed the river path in Sioux City, which led us to brunch at Bev’s on the Water where we met Tina and Mr. Wright. They were curious about our adventure so we dined together and they graciously picked up our tab. The two were training for RAGBRI and interested in our training regime for the trip (none). Bev showed us pictures of her kids, and at one point said our message of family engagement, health, environmental mindfulness really got her thinking. The meal and the fellowship was a fantastic Father’s Day treat.

In Elk Point, where Main Street was completely excavated and impassible, we visited the grocery store and sat down to have a yogurt snack in the parking lot. My very big boy told me that he needed to go potty and afterward ran up to a stranger in the parking lot and exclaimed loudly: “My goed poo-poo in the potty!” The stranger was Amy Giorgio, and she was tickled pink about Brady’s achievement. She asked us about our journey, told us her father was a cyclist, and invited us to come camp at her house. She was on her way to pick up beans at the local Mexican restaurant, they were having fajitas for dinner, and we should come right over.

At the Giorgio’s we were met by four of the sweetest, most well behaved children ever put on the planet. Jane immediately formed a special bond with Sophie, another five-year-old, and the older kids all helped prepare dinner and set the table.  The family sang a prayer set to the Superman theme song before we chowed down on a lovely dinner. We shared stories, took turns playing the piano and dancing, and gave bike tours.  Kathryn (sp?), the teenager, gave up her bed in the basement for Stuart and I, and the little ones nested on the floor. As per house custom, Papa Giorgio read a couple of chapters aloud from the second “Story of the World” book, and we learned about the Trail of Tears and slave uprisings in the south.

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On this day we hitched a ride out of Omaha with Kayla, a friend of the Richards. We met Francis, the cook at Kings Crossing, out back as we were parking our bikes. He bought us a fantastic chicken fried steak lunch, and Brady learned about tractors from the farmers in the booth behind us.

We rode with tailwinds to Onawa. It was a beautiful day. At one point, a cloud of yellow butterflies fluttered around me for about half a mile.

We stopped to rest at the beautiful historic library in Onawa, where the kids and I read a stack of Margaret Wise Brown books including one about storks I hadn’t previously read: neat story and characteristically gorgeous language, moms.

We camped at the Onawa KOA and dined on rainbow pasta (whole wheat pasta with crushed tomatoes, orange peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, black beans, garlic, onions) and a tomato the neighbor camper gave us.

June 19

Lunch in Sloan at the Pizza Post (freezing, great cinnamon bread sticks)

Ride to Sioux City

Camping in Terry and Jane’s yard

Storm & a Movie (Toy Story 3 – scary)

The kids and Stuart visited the Children’s Museum while Kate posted trip photos. We packed to leave in the evening when Blake would be returning from work and able to drop us off on our route outside of town.

Here is an interview with the Omaha news: http://www.wowt.com/backpack/headlines/96619434.html

We appreciated visiting with LeAnne and sharing a positive story with Nebraska. Check out the comments on this post because my mom seriously rocks, and you’ll probably enjoy her opinion. For more comments on this, check out our Facebook thread here:

The forecast changed to a Tornado Watch so after the interview, we opted to spend the night again at Blake and Sarah’s, who hit the town to celebrate their wedding anniversary. We visited the old market district of Omaha and later I sat on the porch and watched the approaching storm.