On the first day running through the corn fields in rural Missouri we followed the historic route 66 to the east, mostly running parallel to I-55. My foot wasn’t doing well at all, but I managed to do about eight miles with David covering the rest for me. That is of course of some concern for me since recovery is going to take time, and most likely I am going to have to deal with it now for the rest of the trip. Later that day we crossed the state line to Illinois, and now we are only one day away from Chicago, our next big city on the way to the east coast.

Our “day off” in Chicago was a busy one. We started out visiting the quite well attended 7 am exchange point in Jasper where we met about forty Dow folks and members from the local Forestry Service. We then continued on with an intended visit of a nursing home which actually turned out to be a rehab center. Although difficult, we did our best to entertain the folks there for a while… Our next stop brought us to a Foot Solution store where we met a local reporter and a photographer for a lengthy interview. The main event in Chicago was the 6 pm exchange point at Grand Park right at the lake front to Lake Michigan. Brynn ran in with a crowd of local runners, greeted by a pretty good crowd, the Lt. Mayor of Chicago, and representatives from Dow and Motorola. The exchange in Chicago was definitely a highlight on our way through the country, too bad we didn’t have more of these events with such good turnout. We concluded the day with a dinner at the open air grill on Michigan Avenue enjoying the magnificent sight of the nightly Chicago skyline.

The next two days we spent running through the countryside of Illinois and Indiana, crossing lots of small town on our way north around Lake Michigan, and on August 24th we arrived in Midland, the town for our next main event. Before checking in at the hotel, all of us drove by at our house in Sanford for a couple of (well deserved!) beers and a hearty late night dinner and I got to spend one night at home – the first one in three months!!!

Our arrival in Midland on the 25th of August - a major milestone on our journey, and the homecoming for myself - happened almost exactly three months to the day since I left home: May 25 was the last day before leaving for Lake Placid; on June 25 we arrived in Smolensk in Russia; and on July 25 was our 1st day in China after crossing the Gobi desert. We have been on the road now for 86 days, and just 8 days are left in our journey. Our team was on the 3 pm shift that day, and I run the first leg which took us to the exchange point at the Tridge in Midland. It was a beautiful sunny day, people were honking their horns and waiving from their cars while I was running down on M-20 towards to park, following three police cars. At the park I joined our CEO Andrew Liveris, Patti Temple Rocks, Mary Chervenak, and a high school cross-country team for the last mile to the exchange point. Our arrival at the Tridge was just phenomenal. More than a thousand people were waiting for us, among them many of my friends and colleagues. The whole place was at a festival atmosphere with live music, food and entertainment, by far the best event since we had left NYC. Also, Midland’s own 5k and 1 mile walk Blue Planet Run was held later on with more than 350 runners participating in the event. All BPR runners were present for a short while that afternoon, a great opportunity for everyone to get to hear some of our stories from the last 86 days. Later that evening I met with friends and colleagues at a local bar downtown before heading out to Port Huron where I rejoined my team for the last few days of our journey. All in all, the Midland event was just phenomenal, a great event worthy the great occasion. I comment everyone involved for organizing this amazing day for us, and thank everyone for giving us such an awesome welcome.