Survey says...

The answer to this weeks survey: having to put the toilet tissue in the bin, and flushing with minimal water pressure...

I've been looking for day hikes within a bus ride distance from Valpo- in doing so I ran across a website of a young married couple whom I think are from Chicagoland. They spent a year traveling through Central and South America. I added the link because I find Lonely Planet guides to be a little dry. Well, a lot dry. I mean, everyone who goes anywhere goes to Barnes and Nobles and looks at what they might see and do and where they might stay when they get there, but they're cold, and the industry is known for recycling material and not being exhaustive in their research. Bessie and Kyle probably spent a lot of time looking through these guides, so I assume in their travels they covered the important stuff, and instead of reading them for yourself you can see a first hand account with pictures and what-not. 

Today I decided there were 2 things I miss about my homeland. One is being able to flush the toilet with paper in it, and the other is being able to run outside with varying terrain. There is basically one long boulevard ending at the Paris store, but there and back is only about 30 min, it's completely flat and really monotonous; my only other option is to scramble around streets but it's not the kind of jog where you get in a grove and zone into your jogging, it's awkward, difficult footing because of dog poop and deep and uneven crevices and broken steps, and it's easy to get sort of but not really lost.  The day before I left I stayed at my aunt Nancy's in the Chicago suburbs; they have a young golden retriever who is well-trained and I took her on a jog the night before I left. They live in a nice suburb and we jogged on the sidewalk and through a nearby park; I hadn't done anything like that since I was in high school when I trained for track and cross country navigating icy footing and hot summer nights in the neighborhood I grew up in. I loved running with a dog, and in some ways the familiarity of those suburban blocks (because all suburban blocks are cut of the same cloth, are they not?) and the companionship of a golden retriever were more welcome than I had expected.  Maybe it's that my parent's home is no longer the one I grew up in and hasn't been for a longtime, so I actually never really "go home" and there's part of me I guess, that sometimes wishes I could...