Video of the first month in USA

Before leaving Des Moines, Salil, Francesco and I were again treated to a wonderful meal by John Dion who also put us up for the night in his very roomy and comfortable townhouse in West Des Moines. He was a superb host and a great friend.

Having breakfast at the Old Country Buffet in Des Moines, we were joined by John’s daughter Diane and her husband Mark. They were so kind and friendly as they have been each time we visit here. While we were taking photos with them in the parking lot before leaving town, a group of people having a high school reunion stopped by to ask about the Harmony Run.

Their interest and enthusiasm was uplifting to us and we included them in our photos. Most of them were from the Brewster family and have been holding reunions since their graduation in 1962. It was inspiring to see how a family and other friends can create harmony in their group by having this type of meeting together.

As we were driving up to Minnesota to get back on the running route towards Minneapolis, our two other teams of runners were already running on the route towards Mankato. In Madelia, one of the teams was met by Jim from KEYC-TV of Mankato, a CBS affiliate. Erik, our runner from Chicago, offers his view of the experience:

“Jim pulled up during my run and filmed me running in a few spots. Then he stopped to talk some of the other guys and interviewed Julian for the evening news. Jim had come all the way down from Mankato, about 17 miles away, just to cover our story. On a hot and humid day such as this it was very inspiring that they came down here just to meet us.”

Our small team of three finally made it to the route and started our run in very hot and humid weather. I felt it may have reached the high 90’s F but the humidity made it feel even hotter. Luckily we had a bit of a breeze to make it a little more comfortable, but running with a lit torch did not help with the heat at all either. I think most people driving by thought we were a little strange even though quite a few people waved or honked their car horns.

There was a nice article on the front page of the Worthington Daily Globe (www.dglobe.com) this morning, so some of the people may have been responding to that. It always helps when we get some media coverage as many more people can relate to and understand what we are doing when they see us running on the highways with a flaming torch.

Finishing in Mankato, the temperature soared to 100F. We were able to beat the heat for the rest of the day as we had to drive up to Minneapolis in our air-conditioned mini-van to meet up with the rest of the team. Our good friend Yuyudhan, put us up in his building where we had two apartments available to us. Another good friend who lives there, Dr. M. Roth, also met up with us and took us out to dinner at the Kinhdo Vietnamese Restaurant. They offered us really delicious food at a discount which Dr. Roth paid for so kindly and generously as his offering to the Run.

We had an unusual day today with high heat and humidity, lots of driving to get back on course, but some great friends to make the day more pleasant and enjoyable for us. With three months completed and one month to go until the end, we can reflect upon all those wonderful moments and great people who have been valuable and even indispensable to the success and progress of the World Harmony Run here in the U.S.A. as well as abroad.

Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude from,

Arpan and Team Harmony

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