Day 15- Day 16: Valparaiso, IN to somewhere in Illinois (J's Version)

Whoa! Making progress!

Good afternoon! Currently, I'm at a Starbucks in Merrillville, IN. We are on route to Illinois. A town called Hickey is what G is aiming for, but we'll see. It all depends on if there's hotels in the area or if he wants to go further or shorter. Yesterday, he went from Fort Wayne to Valparaiso which was 103 miles!! Two over a hundred miles in two days. Woo hoo! Actually, he wanted to quit at about 70 miles not because he was tired but to catch up blogging. I put my foot down and said, "Keep riding our readers will understand." We compromised, and I got his dinner ahead of time so that would minimize time. Plus, the time zone change worked in our favor because he got an extra hour, so instead of arriving at 6 pm it was only 5, and he did get to catch up on blogging. Make sure to catch up on his latest entries.

Despite our journey on this trek together, there are still many items that we forget to tell each other about our day, so when I read G's new blog entries this morning, it was pretty cool to read about the stuff he forgot to tell me like Ethan the cool D&D worker. I don't think G is even gets to read my entries because there's not enough time. Now, that I think about it, I forgot tell him about the green and black gas pumps.

I just came from Sport's Authority and Dick's. The spandex shorts that G bought are okay, but not as comfy as he had hoped. He wanted me to find a pair that had the shorts and padding separate. I bought one that is baggier like boogie board shorts but inside is a thin spandex underwear type of shorts w/ the padding. We'll find out tomorrow if that kind is better.

This Starbucks is playing Bossa Nova. LOVE IT. The Girl From Ipanema to be exact. 

I never realized that you can tell what region or state you're in by the sports teams that are on display. Living in CT I took all of the Yankees and Red Sox apparel for granted. The past week has been a mix of Buckeye (Ohio), Hoosiers (IN), and now Cubs (Chicago).

Cubbies!

Our friend L (the one that gave us the awesome necklaces we each wear every day on this trip) sent us a link on another cross country person. This guy has been WALKING across the United States for almost a year and should be done in a few days. Here's the kicker. He took on a vow of silence and has not talked for a whole year on his venture. It's a type of protest, and he is not using any technology just his camera to visually document his time. Here's his webpage: Cross Country Walker
I told G about it last night, and we both kind of laughed thinking about G taking a vow of silence on the trip. He is the complete opposite of this man Greg.

The food we've had on the trip has been fine don't get me wrong, but there is a lack of diversity that I mentioned way back in New Hampshire I think. I've been CRAVING real Asian noodles/food sooo badly!! (Panda House does not count) I love love love Asian noodles/soups especially Pho (NOT "faux"). Pho in its simplest terms is a beef or chicken broth based Vietnamese noodle soup, but any version or variety of this is fine for my fix. Also, Asian noodle houses are typically VERY cheap and kind of look like a hole in the wall. If you're in CT, West Hartford,

What Pho typically looks like.

Hartford, Canton, Farmington, and New Haven have several. Every place we've stayed at, I've done my Yelp search for Asian noodles houses and nothingggg comes up except a local Asian take out place which is notttt the same; however, last night Saigon Noodle House came up in Merrillville, IN!!! One of the Yelp reviews was something like, "In North West Indiana, you wouldn't think to find an Asian noodles house, but..." After I finish blogging, I plan to head their for lunch. I might get the Pho to go though, so G and I can eat it together for dinner. PS. Sometimes, it comes with tripe which I don't like. Just pick it out or say "no tripe."    **There WAS a Viet place in Fort Wayne, but they only serve Pho on Sundays! Lame!**

Another Asian culinary dish I'm jonsing is Xiaolongba commonly known by it's street name, soup dumplings. This treat is even harder to find than a noodle house because they are more of a specialty. They originate from the Shanghai area in China (China is HUGE and different regions specialize in different delicacies) There isn't even a place in CT (that I know of. I did find one, but it wasn't good) that has them. My girl K goes to Flushing, NY (Joe's Shanghai Restaurant) to get her fix. I was first introduced to soup dumplings by K and her friends in NYC at another Joe's Shanghai. They asked me if I ever had soup dumplings, and being half Asian I assumed I must have tried them at some point in my life. I was envisioning a bowl of soup with dumplings in it. Boy, was I wrong. I feel like this is the punchline to a Chuck Norris joke: The soup is IN THE DUMPLING.

Joe's Shanghai in NYC. About to lose my soup dumpling virginity.

Seriously, the dumplings come out looking like your "typical" dumpling, but there's actually amazingly tasting soup broth inside of them. You have to be careful when you eat them, and there's different techniques of eating them because you want to make sure you get the soup and not break the wrapping or burn your tongue. I want G to try them SO BADLY. I'm HOPING we come across a place at SOME POINT on our trip that has them.

Time to check out the Saigon Noodle House! Have a good one!

No real point aside from me seeing this on the news and wanting to share it.