Flat land adventures

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to the mid-west. Specifically, to two states I don't think very highly of, largely due to their lack of differentiation in elevation between any two points: Ohio and Indiana. GM had a training scheduled in Indiana, so I bookended the trip with visits to friends and family in the area to make it more fun. First stop: Columbus.

(http://www.curvemag.com/Visit%20columbus%20postcard(1).jpg)

Some friends from Calvin have a cool co-owned house in a neat neighborhood within the city but outside of downtown. They invited me to crash with them for a couple nights and took the day to show me the town. I was introduced to the Short North, a district between the capitol building and "the" Ohio State University. We drank great coffee, played cooperative and cutthroat board games at Kingmakers, ate delicious Cajun food, and ran an obstacle course (including metal monkey bars) in sub-freezing temperatures. All that capped off by tater-tot poutine and pizza at the end of the day. 

Monday I had to say goodbye to my friends, but I couldn't leave Columbus without dropping in at Rogue and slipped a workout in at CrossFit Grandview. My luggage was already borderline in weight, else I would have been tempted to bring home gear! 

Buckley at the Fort

The Indiana part of the trip was a little strange to me. Ft Wayne does actually have a fort. The fort is named after Anthony Wayne, who fought in the Revolutionary and Northwest Indian wars. Ft Wayne also has a fairly impressive set of walking and biking paths, to the point where I could imagine training for a half or full marathon there. Even so, I was confused by things like the photo below. Someone needs to inform Indiana that a dike across a marsh does not constitute a continental divide! 

 That high point across the marshy lowland made for a great 5k jog. It was the warmest day of the week, almost 40*f (and only a little wind!) and the sun tried to break through the winter clouds. I spotted hawks, whitetail deer, and flocks of Candad geese. I also enjoyed not running hills, which I can't avoid when running at home!

My last stop at the end of the week was to stop by M's sister's house and meet her new baby. I got to hang out with little T between his naps, which meant that most of the time we spent together he was in the zoned-out state most of us inhabit between our alarms going off and actually getting out of bed.