Well, it all started when I, David Milligan, decided to complete a fundraiser for Isaac Walton, Nicole Gland and the Gland Family. The plan was to go through GiveForward.com and raise funds by running across the State of Indiana. Specifically, I started on the Illinois border and was to run 17-23 miles a day and finish on the Ohio border in eight days. To complete this task, I had to camp at various campgrounds along the way, therefore I carried a backpack with a tent and other necessities throughout my journey.
I began my journey with a 20-mile evening run. On day two, I woke up early to start my run and complete 25 percent of the run, which in hind-sight was not a good idea because I should have rested longer. About 10 miles into the run, on my way to the Michigan City Campground, my entire body started to cramp. I immediately called my girlfriend Tammy McEuen, and had her drop me off Gatorade and pickles. I finished my run to highway 421 but it was difficult.
The sodium from the pickles saved me that day. After making camp for the night, I spoke with my friend Bernie, the Chesterton High School athletic trainer, who informed me that pickle juice would help me avoid cramping. So, I swore, for the remainder of the run, I would always have pickles and a bottle of pickle juice in my pack. Thanks to this, I never cramped again.
After the seventh day of running, I arrived at Yogi Bear Campground in Angola, Indiana, after completing yet another 15 miles. On that day, the temperature reached over 90 degrees with humidity, thus I decided not to camp. I called the Holiday Inn, which is 2.7 miles away, told them about the fundraiser and they gave me a discounted room. In order to get to the hotel, I called a taxi service, but the car never arrived. Therefore, I decided to run the remaining 2.7 miles.
I put the address in my GPS, but due to poor phone service, I ended up getting lost on a back road. As I ran back and forth, I noticed a man standing in his front yard staring at me. I decided to walk up to him and ask him for directions to my hotel. Instead of pointing me in the right direction, he laughed and told me that he would drive me to my destination. Since I was sweating profusely, I was reluctant to get in his vehicle, but he insisted.
We talked during the drive and I mentioned the fundraiser, which in turn led us to talk about the run across the state. I told the man about how I started eating pickles and drinking pickle juice in order to avoid cramping, and out of nowhere the man starts laughing. Ironically enough, he pulled out a business card, handed it to me and said, “I own a pickle company.” We casually laughed about the situation but as we arrived to the hotel, I said thank you and moved on.
Because of the generosity, I kept the man’s card decided to send him a gift card after my run. When I finished my run, I called the number on the card, which is for Rickle’s Pickles. I told him that I finished the run, and everything went well over a voicemail. A few days later I emailed him, and eventually I received a response from his wife, telling me her husband, Rick, was on a business trip.
Rick responded to me eventually and I told him I wanted to send him a gift for the ride he gave me. Rick declined the offer, but we struck up a conversation and I mentioned to him the love I have for making salsa and how my passion ties into him and his wife’s passion for canning pickles. Rick told me he would be in New Buffalo, Michigan and offered to meet me and Tammy for dinner, and told me to bring my hot and mild salsa.
We met in a hotel lobby in New Buffalo for dinner and shared some Rickle’s Pickles produce and Milligan's Island Salsa. Rick immediately fell for the salsa and offered to send it to Scherger’s Farms, a distributor in Shipshewana, Indiana. The next day Rick called me and said the owner of Scherger’s Farms wanted to distribute Milligan’s Island Salsa. That evening, we drove to Rick’s house for dinner, and the next day we went to Scherger Farms. And, to make a long story very short, that is how Milligan’s Island Salsa got its start. The rest is history.