Cultures Clashing

One of the best things about the Mid-West is that it's location allows you to enjoy the arts and culture of the northern big cities while indulging your inner red-neck with the simplicity of the southern style backwoods. Take this weekend for example, Friday night after work we made the 2.5 hour drive from here to Indianapolis. We went out that night in a great area called Broad Ripple. There are great bars and restaurants scattered across multiple city blocks. It has a new, modern feel and is just a cool place to go out. The next day we were hoping to tour the downtown area, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was cold and rainy, so we didn't get to spend as much time outside exploring as we would have liked. We made the best of it and chose to drive around the city instead. The weather did cooperate enough so we could go for a walk along the canal path though. Did you know that there are only 2 concrete bottom canals in the world, and that one of them is in Indy? Well now you do. Anyway, they have a walkway built along the canal that leads into a state park the resides within the city limits. It's a pretty nifty setup that doesn't make Indianapolis feel like an over-developed big city. It's quite refreshing.

The Canal Path on a rainy day

Before we headed back to Olney, We stopped at this great creamery that's just 20 minutes outside of Indianapolis for some fresh, home made ice cream. If nothing else we are getting all the ice cream we can handle out here, and it's all REALLY good.

Traders Point Creamery, best ice cream in Indy

After returning to Olney, we geared up for one of the finest "sporting" events Southern Illinois has to offer: The Demolition Derby. The Olney Spring Crash, as it's called, is an annual event at the Olney fair grounds which brings out the who's who of Richland County. It got delayed at one point because of severe weather (lightning, hale, wind, etc.) but once that cleared out the smashing commenced. For those who are not familiar with a demolition derby, it is a spectacle where old, beat up cars, seemingly held together by duct tape (not unlike our bed) enter an arena and collide with one another until only one of them can still move. Think bumper cars on steroids, lots of steroids. The lone survivor is the victor and of course, winner takes all ($4,500 if I remember correctly). It was fantastic. It's a completely unnecessary and ridiculous competition that is the absolute antithesis of environmentally sound thinking, but I loved every second of it. There's mud flying, tempers boiling, and cars on fire. What's not to like?

So as you can see, we are getting a good taste of what the Mid-West has to offer. Everything from a night out on the town to an evening in hillbilly paradise. 

Bluegrass and Beef

Many of you know that I'm not much of a  meat eater.  I usually consider myself a vegetarian.  Unfortunately (or fortunately in Charlie's mind), I am becoming someone who salivates at the idea of eating a good piece of meat.  For example, I consumed ground beef, ribs, pulled pork, grilled chicken and bacon all in one weekend.  What is happening!? 

It all began on Friday night at Syd's Place.  A hole in the wall local bar that happens to serve dynamite tacos every Wednesday & Friday.  If you don't get there before 5pm you'll likely be standing for quite some time.  From what we hear people don't give up their seats for anything, even to someone who is 9 months pregnant!  Luckily we got there by 5, had a seat, and enjoyed some very delicious tacos as we gathered tips from locals who could tell we were new to Syd's. 

The next meat encounter occurred on Saturday, accompanied by good music "in the 'Burgh." This Blues and Bluegrass Festival was a 2 day event (Fri-Sat) in Indiana. We had tickets for Saturday and decided we would take advantage of free camping on Saturday night. It wasn't the nicest day - cloudy, windy and cold; however, we stuck it out and really enjoyed the day.  I was loving the musical variety and creativity this genre of music lends to.  They were playing the banjo, ukulele, Weissenborn (a lap slide guitar), string bass, violin, harmonica, various percussion instruments, etc.  But the best was, by far, the upright bass made out of a gas tank from a truck.  See the video & picture below for evidence of this homemade bass, as well as the incredible talent of the band Split Lip Rayfield.

Anyway, back to eating...
In the afternoon they had an amateur backyard BBQ competition where the audience did the tasting and the voting.  Charlie was all about it and how could I turn down that opportunity?  Next thing I know I've eaten 2 ribs and quite a bit of pulled pork!  Luckily my stomach cooperated, I think I tricked it with the grilled chicken I ate earlier in the day. 

We had a chilly night in the our tent, but were back to Olney drinking hot coffee and eating a hearty breakfast (including bacon for me, sausage for Charlie) by 9:30 am.  

Overall we are getting a kick out of the Midwest and enjoying our short time here.

Until next time...

The Long Journey to Home and Back Again

Random Illinois sighting of the week: A man, who was dressed like a cowboy with a neon yellow vest, was picking trash off the side of a main road with one hand while he held onto a horse that was walking behind him with the other. Just another day in Olney.

I said to Amanda last night the the more time we spend here in the middle of nowhere, the more I like the idea of eventually living in a small town like this. That being said though, coming home this past weekend made me more aware of how much I do miss everyone back in PA. It was great to see everyone and catch up on everything we have missed. The best part about seeing our friends and family this weekend was hearing all of your positive feedback regarding what we are doing. Your encouraging words just reinforce that we are doing the right thing by embarking on this adventure. So thank you once again for your support. Also, thank you Dave and Emily for driving us around all weekend after we made our 11 hour overnight trip from Olney, IL to Ephrata, PA. Let me tell you though, Amanda was a trooper, she drove over 7 hours of the trip from Olney to just over the border of PA. Amanda O'Malley: Machine.

The main event of the weekend was the Rebel Race. It was supposed to be an intense mud run, but there was one problem: No mud. Leave it to New Jersey to host a mud run without mud. There was more dust than mud and more calisthenics than obstacles. Needless to say we were disappointed by the course, but we are still thankful that Dave Saul organized it (and let us crash at his place the night before). It gave us a good excuse to come home, spend time with people, and get a little dirty in the process. Well worth the trip.

What we expected

What we got

We started the drive back to Olney on Sunday morning with the intention of stopping in Indianapolis to watch the Flyers game. We didn't quite make it that far since I woke up late and delayed us by an hour. Oops. It all worked out though, because our stop in Dayton, OH was the best part of the drive. We found what we thought would be a sports bar just off of Route 70, but it turned out to be more of a biker bar than a sports bar. Just picture Amanda and I waltzing into a biker bar filled with grizzled, burly, and otherwise intimidating looking creatures; we were clearly out of our element. There was no time to turn around though, it was game time and I was willing to risk my well-being to watch the Flyers. I had to ask the bartender to change the channel on one of the TVs, since apparently hockey isn't a must-see sport in Dayton. Thankfully, the game ended up being action packed and filled with fights, so the bikers were getting into it. By the end of the game we were chatting it up with all the locals, and more importantly we left unharmed.

We made it safely back to Olney and are currently working through the week to get to the weekend. This weekend we'll be heading to a Blues and Bluegrass Festival near Evansville, IN. I'm sure it will be an interesting experience with an eclectic crowd. Be sure to check in to see how that all goes.

Happy Easter!

I know I'm 2 days late in wishing everyone a Happy Easter, but so be it. It's busy here in Olney. I mean what with actually working and all. That's right, the great state of Illinois (which is actually pronounced "ELLinoy" if you are from around here) finally issued us PT licenses on Monday April 2. It feels good to be a contributing member of the therapy world again. I know we've said it before, but everyone is so nice here, patients, staff, total strangers. It's fantastic.

Amanda has been doing great picking up their outpatient system, but she can tell you all about that if/when she decides to post again. I'm primarily in the hospital, but also doing homecare. Let me tell you though, doing homecare in the middle of nowhere is an education. If the person lives outside of town I have zero confidence that I'll be able to find them. It took me a half hour today to find out where one of my patients lived, and even after that I still wasn't sure where I was going. See, here people don't use street names. The streets have names, people just ignore them. All directions are done by either giving landmarks, a description of the road surface (paved or gravel), and/or cardinal direction (N, S, E, W). GPS is generally useless since no one outside of town will tell you their actual address. It's not bad though, just adding to the adventure.

As for our lives away from work, we are getting ready to come back to PA this upcoming weekend to run the Rebel Race. It's a 5k mud run in New Jersey. You can check the out the course and all the obstacles we will face here. We've been running and biking a good bit. We ran a 5k this past weekend and did well, although the frosted mini-wheats I ate beforehand weren't the best choice for a pre-race meal. I won't be doing that again. We also started biking with one of the doctors from the hospital and his friend who is a professor at Richland County Community College. During our time here they are planning to show us all the good routes to bike around here. One of the PTs we work with, Shannon, said we've done more in Olney over the past 3 weeks than everyone else has combined. Well, when you don't have TV to keep you entertained, it gives you time to do other stuff.

However, despite our lack of TV I did make a friend who gets all the Flyers games, so I'll be able to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs! He's originally from South Jersey, but moved out here because his wife, who we work with, is from here. He's a huge Philly sports fan, so clearly he's a friend of mine. It makes me feel right at home knowing even out in the middle of nowhere there are people who appreciate Philly sports the way I do.

LET'S GO FLYERS!

Getting To Know Olney

You know you're in Olney, IL when:

• The local vineyard is right next to the local junkyard
• The beer distributor has a cooler at the checkout counter labeled "Single Service" where for 89 cents you can buy a can of beer for the road
• The bed in your apartment breaks because the frame was held together with duct tape

The last one is my favorite story from the week. So Amanda and I decide to watch a movie in bed on Friday night. By the way, this is after we worked all day, then had to drive 45 minutes to get to the only open FedEx store, then had to drive back in a crazy thunderstorm. Anyway, we have to move the bed to plug in our laptop (we don't have a TV in the bedroom) and we notice that the one side of the mattress and box spring has fallen down. Upon further inspection I see that the bed frame has separated from the headboard because the duct tape that was holding it together had broken. Fantastic. So now we have to take off the mattress and box spring so I can attempt to put it back together. The only thing I have available is JB Weld, which is a metal epoxy. Why I don't have duct tape in my tool kit is a mystery. Luckily, the JB Weld did the trick and as we speak the bed is still holding together. Such is life in Olney, IL.

Honestly though, we couldn't be happier with how things are going. We are more active than we have been in months with running, biking, hiking, and sightseeing. Everyone has been so welcoming and genuinely nice towards us. We've gotten all sorts of information about where to go and what to see, which has been keeping us busy. For instance, we went to Shawnee National Forest this week to see the Garden of the Gods. It was amazing. It consists of all these ridiculous rock formations that came about during a time when what is now the Mid-West was under an ancient sea. The scenery was unbelievable. And with giant hawks flying overhead, you felt as though you were a part of the wilderness. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip thus far.

Here we are at Garden of the Gods

Who knew such cool stuff was in Southern, IL?

Not bad for farm country

As for work, we did start our orientation this week, although we still don't have our licenses yet. Fingers crossed they'll be in by Monday. It's going to be great working in this clinic because everything is one-to-one treatment and they have a good system in place. The PTs and PTAs really care about providing good therapy, keeping up on the latest research, and taking care of the people in their community. Amanda and I are all about that.

We hope everything is going well with you all back home. We now have internet in our apartment so if anyone wants to Skype, just let us know because we can now make that happen.

• As a side note: A lot of people complained that the email sign-up on the blog wasn't working, so I got rid of that. Sorry for any inconvenience that caused. It seemed like a good idea at the time.