I thought this was the journey that wasn’t going to be, my plane being delayed from Thursday night to Friday morning. Friday morning on the plane we sat at the gate for 30 minutes until we were told there was a problem with a gage. Was this the trip that never was? Once the plane was cleared we went to Houston where they changed my gate to the other side of Hobby and we were running late, lucky for me it’s not a big airport.
Made it to Indianapolis, drove for 2 hours through Indiana to Ft. Wayne and right to my Airbnb. Renting an Airbnb is a great way to go if you are in Ft. Wayne, close enough to the Embassy Theatre to walk if I had wanted to. It was a cute house that sat on an acre of land so I could practice and play to my hearts content, which I did. An Airbnb is easier if you are an instrumentalist and need to practice unencumbered. If you are on audition, competition, or gig Airbnb is the way to go.
So it is Saturday morning and I notice there is a small shrine on the property of the Airbnb. As I walk out the front door of my bnb I see written in chalk “Justice for April” all down the sidewalk to the shrine. An 8 year old girl was abducted in the area in 1988 and she was assaulted and dumped like so much trash in a ditch. They have DNA but as of yet it is still an unsolved crime. In 2015 the man who owns the land next to my Airbnb put up the shrine. The good people of Ft. Wayne donated money there are bricks with the names of the donors adorning the walkway. It is a sad reminder of the abuse that happens to children in America. We just buried a child who was the victim of domestic abuse that went to my school. It is hard to know when a child is a victim, it is often hard to admit that an adult you know and might even be a friend is abusing a child. Someone knew the man who abducted and assaulted April Tinsley, the girl with the shrine, it’s called “April’s Garden.”
I am not much of a blogger so I will continue tomorrow with the NABBA contest tomorrow. I need to check out of my Airbnb now and get on the road back to Texas.