Scenes From a Run

Everyone shares the road, and this herd of goats is no exception.
A bunch of goats jogging down the road, babies following, is one
of the cutest things. Alas, the goats didn't care one bit about us.

Home, sweet home, for a family, or two. I heard voices inside
but wasn't brave enough to holler out for conversation.

Yesterday, my friend Jim and I decided to go for a long run. I had one route in mind. He had another.

Jim: "Want to try that path I pointed out last time?"

Me: "You mean up the big hill?"

Jim: "Yeah, but it's not that big."

Me: "No." Jim and I have different ideas about what constitutes a big hill, and he is a lot stronger than I am.

I paused. One rule for myself is to not automatically say no to an idea here. I should at least consider it.

Me: "Ok ... how long is the hill?"

I found out. I couldn't make it up the darn thing, which always frustrates me. (Insert complaining here.)

However, the hill provided its own reward. Just on the other side, true China awaited. We were in the country. No car horns. No construction trucks. No throngs of people. No one yelling, "Laowai", which means foreigner. The sounds of the city were three miles behind us.

The shift from city to country is abrupt. While China is modernizing, many places are still living the old way, as you can see in the photographs.

Across the street from the home are the fields the family likely tends.
These vegetables will show up in my market, a mere three miles away.

We trekked into a small village in search of water. Instead, we found
a small cave and teeny, tiny waterfall. Ok, it was a trickle of a stream. Hundred of
hidden caves are tucked into these mountains. Jim wanted to see how far one
small cavern extended, so he crawled inside to find out. Alas, it didn't go very far.

At the end of our journey, we had four muddy shoes and one scratched eyelid, and the sun came out as we returned to the city. It was a great morning.