Post 11- Final Post, Chicago to Martha's Vineyard

So it has been a while since I last posted, the reason for this is that I have been keeping a journal and relearning the freedom of writing by hand, plus I have not always had convenient internet access. I have written nearly forty pages since I left Chicago so I am only going to give you the bare bones of what happened:

I left Chicago heading South along the Lakefront Pike Path, to Gary, Indiana. It was an industrial nightmare and there was a lot of glass on the street that I had to avoid. I went to South Bend and stayed with a couchsurfer there. He showed me Notre Dame campus and I walked around.
I left towards Toledo the next morning and when I got to Elkhart, I met a man in a parking lot who wanted to know all about my trip. I told him about it and then he said he wanted to give me a free chiropractic adjustment. I got his business card and tried to find his shop but it I got lost, so I headed back towards the center of town and called him telling him that I wasn't going to make it, but that I really appreciated it. I left town and about a mile down the road, there he was in his suburban, stopped at the same light as me. He pulled over and gave me a free adjustment on the side of the road! I couldn't believe that he would take the time out of his day to do that. He then handed me something rolled up and said, "I want you to have this". When I looked at what it was, I saaw that it was a wad of cash. Tears welled up in my eyes and he explained to me that people don't take the time to slow down and that what I was doing was incredible and he wanted to support my cause and my spiritual journey. He then left just as fast as he came and I got back on my bike with the biggest smile on my face. I rode my bike to Pokagen state park, and had the campground to myself. I walked down to the lake and found a private dock; I had a bottle of wine, a loaf of amish bread and the setting sun all to myself. When I went back to my campground, I saw little lights flickering on and off in amongst the trees. I saw this phenomenon once before, at a campground on the Mississippi , but this time I felt like there were little spirits watching over me, trailing their traces of light behind them as they floated around me. That day was magical, it brought me back to that place in myself that I found in North Dakota: there was nothing else in the world that mattered at that moment. This was the meaning of my journey.
I left early in the morning and rode through countryside crossing into Michigan, and Ohio; had a several dogs chase me and asked for directions to town until I reached the outskirts of Toledo and called my host, Adrienne. Toledo was boring and my host was out of sorts, I stayed with her and her parents. I had an uneasy feeling but it went away when their huge dog finally started to like me. In the morning I went to the post office to see if my eyeglasses had arrived, I had my friend Ian send them from Eastern Washington. They weren't there, and I had to bite my tongue because I really needed to be able to read again. I hoped that I would just get them one day.
I rode to Sandusky that day, but I had to hitchhike across highway 2 a few miles to get over the inlet there. I found a fire station a couple of miles away from Cedar Point Park to set my tent up at. I was in the midst of the roller coaster/ water park capitol of the world.
After saying goodbye to the nice fire fighters that put me up for the night, I left town headed to Cleveland. I somehow made it to Cleveland by noon and I called Jamie's friend, Dan. I met him at his house and we started drinking a couple of hours later, I knew that we would get along because he was drinking Sparks. We went to a place called Whiskey Point on the lake and climbed to the top of an abandoned lighthouse, and drank Sparks. While I stayed in Cleveland, I felt like I was in Portland, mainly because of the area I was in, Lakewood. Also Dan and his friends did everything together, we played volleyball, baseball, went dancing, sang karaoke, ate amazing food, drank at bars, and I even went swimming in Lake Erie during a rainstorm. It was a great time, but the weather turned gray and the rain came down in torrents so I changed my plans and decided to take a bus to Pittsburgh 100 miles away and visit a friend, Ret.
I went to Pittsburgh and while I was there, I hung out at the bar she worked at, met her friend Chris, practiced juggling, and went to the Andy Warhol Museum. Ret and I also ate the largest slices of pizza that I had ever seen. I put my bike back together (I had to disassemble it to get it on the bus), and headed in the general direction of Philadelphia. I originally was supposed to go to Buffalo and take highway 5 East to Boston, but this sounded like more fun. I found a crazy route through the hills of Pittsburgh out of town and ended up in Mckeesport. I saw a bike path sign and somehow had found the Great Allegheny Passage Trail. This route goes all the way to Washington, D.C. It would take me mostly in the right direction, so I just decided to follow it for a couple of hundred miles.
I went through Cumberland, into Williamsport, Gettysburg, York, lost in Amish land, then into Philly for a couple of days to see the Liberty Bell and some history. Went to Jersey City from there, took the Chinatown bus to Boston, then rode my bike to Wood's Hole and took the ferry into Martha's Vinyard where I have been for the last ten days.