Back in the flat lands and corn fields

 After a great dinner and night in Chillicothe, we finally emerged from the socioeconomic area called Appalachia and made it to the corn fields of southern Ohio and southern Indiana.  The change in geography is striking and honestly, appreciated.  I like curves and hills and even mountains but it is nice to drive straight roads for a bit

One thing that I haven't commented on but which has been a topic of conversation in the car is the role of religion in the region.  Man, there are a lot of churches!  And most of them aren't recognizable as mainline Protestant churches that the Upper Midwest has on many corners.  And perish the thought that there would a Papist church along highway 50.

On one level, that is fine. I think that I have told this story before about one of my mentors.  He joined the Mormon church while in college, and he was terrified about telling his father.  He finally gathered the courage to tell him, and his father looked at him and said, "so?"  He was amazed that his father was so accepting of this pretty big change.  He asked him about it, and his father said, "well, you never know if the other guy might be right." 

So who knows?  Maybe some of these churches do have the one answer.  But I suspect that these churches and some of the people are less accepting that I would hope.  The sign that caught my eye stated, "repent to Jesus or go to Hell."  I am guessing that these churches don't follow the secular humanism of "be good, be kind, love one another, and be careful of that log in your own eye.  

But I presume.  I can say for sure that religion is pervasive.  Besides the many churches, we even noticed  it in our hotel room.  The local guide that was on the desk at a pretty good hotel room in Chillicothe listed five local restaurants as possible places to dine.  The same guide listed 27 different churches.

We are now in West Lafayette, IN on a Tuesday night.  I have a bit of PTSD because in my grad school days I always had Tuesday night seminars or classes.  These were three hours of some mean intimidating professor asking if I read the footnotes on page 173.  Don't worry, I am over it.  I think that the fear faded once I was that mean intimidating professor asking about footnotes.

Tomorrow another vowel state as we cross Illinois.  We might even see more corn.