Tales from the Trail #26: Oddly honored in the Olive Garden …
I had made my way bit by bit & hobble by hobble through the northern Indianapolis “suburb” of College Park to Highway 421 (my pilgrimage’s next primary thoroughfare), and was ambling along the same and heading out of town when I came to the local Olive Garden restaurant. I knew from previous online check-ins that this place was going to be one of the last air-conditioned rest-stops I could make before the road again turned relatively desolate, so even though the walking was going relatively well at that point I entered said establishment nonetheless, told the wait staff there about my Walk (whereupon more than one mouth literally fell agape), and asked if I could simply sit somewhere and drink some water watch some football until the traffic outside lessened and the heat of the day subsided. The manager of the place – Wes – was then summoned and, after hearing my same tale, told me (in a quite cool & calculated, if not maybe even callous manner) that I could have a seat at the bar and chill there for as long as I wished. Oddly enough, I was then left completely alone for the next several hours, with all the wait staff and even the bartender herself essentially pretending I was not there at all …
Now this in & of itself wasn’t too odd (we humans do tend to ignore what makes us uncomfortable, and we Peace Pilgrims by our very nature do tend to inspire feelings of disquiet & uneasiness), and yet what certainly was odd was that just as I was about to get up and leave, Wes seemingly decided that I was somehow “legit” and at that unusual moment offered to provide me with a large salad and an order of bread-sticks on the house. And so it was that I finished the same with gusto, watched the end of what was a pretty good game on TV (Ole Miss vs Tulane), and finally thanked a suddenly warm & effusive Wes for his hospitality and kindness. Yes, this was indeed a weird ending to a mostly distanced visit, and yet it was a sincerely warm ending as well – and that was all that truly mattered.
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