Sunday drive

[owenkrout]

I actually got a day off yesterday so we took a drive around the area. No particular destination, just a short drive to view the area. My wife Rose was very interested in the rural area as it turns out since she grew up in rural Heilongjiang Province.

 

We got a chance to stop along the side of the road and watch them combining corn and soybeans which rather amazed her. She told me of being required as a high school student to go out into the fields to help harvest soybeans by hand. Seems one uncle is a village head man and he had asked her to find out if Americans really used big machines to farm with. She said that she had heard that they did, but that she had not believed it. The size of the area that each family farms amazes her.

 

The friendliness of people has surprised her too. People drive by and wave and if you drive by their homes they wave. The farmer in the combine gave her a big smile and wave.

 

She has announced that all Americans are rich. Compared to how even the middle class live in China outside of the few main cities like Shanghai and Beijing, she is not far from wrong.

[Mick]

Li and I have taken many drives through the countryside here in southern Tennessee and across the border in Alabama. She has seen large soybean farms, cotton farms, and corn fields. Probably not unlike Kansas except for the hills and mountains. She has often expressed how much she enjoys being out in nature. Good thing, seeings how the nearest town, about a mile and a half away, has a population of around 900.

 

Looking forward to taking more of these nature rides. The leaves are just beginning to change color on the mountains around here. Really beautiful to see, especially early in the morning.

 

Glad to hear Rose is adjusting well Owen. Please give our regards to your very special wife. I miss her impromptu singing. Maybe she can compose a song for our expected baby....