Galesburg, IL

Kiwanis Park

Run time 57:14.5 + 2-minute kick

It was windy in Galesburg. I know – surprise, surprise. We used to live in the Eastern suburbs of Portland, near the entrance to the Columbia Gorge, and we would get the east wind a lot, but it was intermittent. These Northern Central states – they seem to have sustained perpetual wind.

Kiwanis Park is an older well-kept park that sits next to a freeway, which is a drawback, but it was close to the hotel. I ran in the grass alongside a paved path and sidewalks. There was disc golf, which seems more popular than it warrants in the region. It is always encouraging to visit an urban park that, at first glance, looks like it might have passed its peak of popularity, but then you encounter dog walkers and disc golfers and couples holding hands, and you see it remains useful.

The adjacent freeway is the main drawback. Of course, no one wants to breathe carbon monoxide, but the noise is the real shame. Everywhere I travel I see houses, sometimes nice houses, placed right next to a freeway. When my wife and I looked for houses in Grand Rapids, proximity to busy roads was a primary factor, because of the road noise. Who wants to hear traffic? I cannot imagine the oppressiveness of living next to a freeway.

You would get used to it, you might say. Why would I want that? I do not want to get used to the oppressiveness of freeway noise. I wonder what would happen if we had no freeways, if the interstate system had never been built. I suppose it would slow down the movement of goods. Would that be a bad thing? If all the roads were two- or four-lane, would we drive less? I think we would.

Perhaps we would have regional markets, where the food we ate and the goods we bought were grown or produced locally. Perhaps we would travel by train to visit relatives or to make trips to the city or to recreate. The freeway system is an avenue (so to speak) of commerce and has helped us burn more fossil fuels, but has it made our lives richer?

I am just dreaming of a world where you walk through Kiwanis Park in Galesburg, Illinois, and all you hear is the wind in the trees, and the dogs at the white house across the street barking at you while they wag their tails, and, if it is a spring afternoon, maybe a baseball bat striking a baseball, followed by cheering.