We had to leave Des Moines and ‘John Dion’s Hangar’ this morning after a wonderful breakfast with our good friend and supporter who spent much time and resources to make sure we had a great experience in his city. We must say that it all turned out better than we could have imagined. We are grateful to him and all those who helped him.

Today the temperature started soaring again but did not quite reach 100 F. It was 97F or about 34C, hot enough for a difficult run through the western part of Iowa and the southern part of Minnesota. Prabhakar and I ran through Le Mars, Iowa: ‘the ice cream capital of the world.’

The Blue Bunny Ice Cream Company has its headquarters there and a great ice cream shop that we visited after our run. Damon and Atulya were able to procure some complimentary ice cream dishes for the four of us as the women’s teams was running much further up the road in Minnesota.

We are very grateful to the Blue Bunny ice cream shop for a great treat on a very hot day. The ice cream was delicious and fresh, as they make it right there in town.

I am now sitting in my own room at the Shalom Hill Farm as I write this report late at night which will soon become early tomorrow morning. The only sounds are the crickets and other night insects outside my window and the sound of this computer fan. We drove about ten miles out of the town of Windom to get to this very modern and spacious facility which is set out in the middle of a huge farm of corn and soy. If you ever wondered where all the soy products or all the corn and corn oil come from, you would have no question if you were to come out to this part of Minnesota or northern Iowa. It is just endless deep green corn and soy farms, for hundreds of miles. It is very peaceful here where we are as well, being far removed from major highways or traffic of any kind.

All this was due to the kindness of the mayor of Windom, Tom Reardon. When he was told recently about our arrival in his town, he enthusiastically and selflessly took up the task of setting up a nice barbecue for us and these wonderful accommodations afterwards. Tom and his son, Joel, even came out to run with the Torch into town before our delightful picnic.

Kent and Kevin, two very nice officers of the Windom police force, very kindly escorted the runners to the Cottonwood County Courthouse in the center of town. Dave, from the Cottonwood Citizen Newspaper also kindly showed up to cover the story.

We were then escorted to the Cottonwood Lake where we had a barbecue picnic with the Mayor and his son and Don Gerard, a local man who saw the women running through town.

We had a great session of tossing footballs and frizbees with Tom and Joel as well. They are both quite athletic and fit, especially in American football.

Afterwards, they escorted us in our cars here to Shalom Hill Farm. We were warmly greeted by Mark and Margaret who founded this very peaceful retreat. It is a place for: “education in rural life and rural ministry, advocacy for rural life and the environment, experiencing town and country ministry, continuing education, retreat and renewal, meetings and conferences.”

Right now, we are enjoying the short retreat and renewal aspect before we have to set off early in the morning for another long, hot day of running the highways of harmony as we head to Minneapolis on the way to the east coast. We are so grateful to Tom and all those from Windom and our friend Yuyudhan from Minneapolis for making a long hot day a memorable and fulfilling one yet again.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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