Day 19: Dayton, OH

June 24, 2020

Day 19: Dayton, OH

The things we think we need...

One of the things that struck me during this whole trip is that I way overpacked. My car is full of things that would be "good to have," "just in case," "if you have time," and "glad you had it."

And I didn't use any of it.

I brought all kinds of stuff that's been sitting in my trunk for the duration of the trip. I've only worn half of the clothes I bought. I realize I really don't need that much and part of it comes with the "burden" of having a house or apartment: if you have the space, you're going to fill it with something.

All I ever really use are the essentials and toiletries in my backpack and a fresh set of clothes. The rest is just stuff.

Anyway, this morning was a bit weird. The WiFi was really spotty at the hotel so I was out the door around 9:30am and headed to downtown Indianapolis. I had a real hard time finding place where I could work until I finally found a quiet, empty coffee shop with decent WiFi.

I set up there for a few hours until I migrated to a sandwich shop for lunch. As I was sitting in the window eating a sandwich and watching people walk by, I realized it was the first time in months that I had been in a real city environment. Tourists, panhandlers, businesspeople, all the chaotic energy of lunch time in a big city.

There was a strange incident in which a black man was walking around with a large, laminated posted that read in large letters, "JESUS WAS BLACK." It was the kind of poster that had multiple laminated boards all bound together, like the man who stand outside Fenway Park with signs that say, "The end is near."

Well, this sign apparently pushed some buttons on another man, a white guy who looked homeless, who was confronting the man with the posted. I couldn't hear their conversation through the glass but the white man was seemingly very upset, presumably about the poster, and it looked like there was a heated argument. Others were stopping and watching the confrontation and I honestly thought it would come to blows. The white guy was really, really upset. Luckily, it de-escalated and they parted ways.

After work, I walked around for a few minutes and realized that downtown really looked like a war zone. The riots had been really bad in Indy and almost every building was boarded up. Many had been destroyed in the riots.