It's hard to train for a hike in the Himalayas in Indiana. I went for a run among the cornfields Saturday, but the terrain is totally flat. My mom was going to pick me up after an hour, but I took the wrong road back, and it took her an hour to find me, so I got a good two hours in, one running, one walking. It all looks pretty much the same: cornfields as far as the eye can see. Actually, the corn is pretty high, so the eye can’t see too far, but you can see over the soybean fields, and they go on forever. I had a suspicion I made a wrong turn when the dog that chased me on the way out was nowhere around on the way back. I didn’t grow up in Monticello (pronounced Monti-sello, not Monti-cello, like Thomas Jefferson’s home), which is why I don’t know my way around. The “town” I grew up in is about an hour away, and consists of a post office, a tavern, and a grain elevator.

There is a hill not too far from the house, so Sunday I ran to it, then ran up and down it about ten times. Then tonight I ran through town for an hour. It’s good to have the time to exercise every day, hopefully I will be in shape in a month. Of course I’ll probably lose the conditioning in New Zealand and Australia, but at least it keeps me busy.