Wisconsin 1 Step at a Time by Bradley Carlson

Author:Bradley Carlson [Carlson, Bradley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462069446
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 1969-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Cities 401–453

What Followed the Flag?

The next hundred cities of our expedition kicked off in June 2007 in Combined Locks. We had just completed our four-hundredth community and celebrated at the “Nation’s Largest Flag Day Parade.” Our return to new cities would be welcomed with an interesting adventure all of us may have faced at one time or another.

On June 9, 2007, Jen Feuling and I arrived in Combined Locks and began our search for where we wanted to walk. Energetic baseball games at the huge Civic Center Memorial Park attracted us to start there. Jen and I jumped out ready to explore. However, just yards from the van, I had an awful revelation while reaching into my pocket to check if I had brought my cell phone—it was not there. I turned all my pockets inside out, and then reality set in. I was no longer worried about the cell phone because the van keys were also not in any pocket. We found them in the ignition of the locked van less than a foot away from both our cell phones.

I sent Jen looking for a pay phone to get help, while I stood with a branch from a tree and the walking stick trying to figure how to turn them into a key for the door. Jen would soon realize the word pay phone was the equivalent of the word dinosaur in 2007. Meanwhile, I was beating on the side window, hoping to pop it open. This did not work, however, I was able to loosen the clamp just a little. This allowed me to put the tree branch inside the edge of the window. Ten minutes of wiggling the branch opened it enough to get the walking stick into the gap since my hand would not fit. I was able to reach the door lock on the front door with the nose of the walking stick, and voila, the lock popped open. So the greatest memory of our walk was learning how to break into a van. Jen came back unsuccessful in the attempt to call for help, completely surprised because I had the door open.

We enjoyed a walk on the Memorial Hiking Trail before a fun stroll through the baseball games on the way to the post office, where I proudly posed with van keys for a picture. A short neighborhood visit on Wallace Street wrapped up with a walk back to the van. Walking around the front of the park, we learned that the parking lot where we had been locked out of the van was directly behind nothing less than the police department.

The home of the Papermakers was our next destination. Kimberly was home to Stora Enso, and the downtown is right by it. From Tootsie’s Café, we began to notice horse heads stuck atop fence posts right by a park bench. They were facsimile hitching posts, and they livened up the front of the store. Kimberly Chiropractic and the bank were about the only places with people at them in this quiet town.

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