What do I do with this blog?

I don’t know what to do with this blog. Over the years there have been readers from 140+ countries. Many were one-time visitors, some were occasional and others constant. I assume all had/have at least a passing interest in Peru. Some have sent emails to me with questions about Peru regarding just about every topic you could think of. I’m proud to say that I was able to answer the majority of their questions. Several Americans have told me that they retired to communities in Peru based in part on information I had given them. All of the information and opinions I offered to those who wrote to me and in this blog came from first-hand exposure. I saw, felt and experienced nearly everything I wrote about. Name a major city in Peru and I’ve been there, with Tumbes being the single exception. Name a tiny remote desert village in the Lambayeque Region and chances are I can name the school teacher and president of the parent’s association. Now I no longer live in Peru.

The question is, what do I do with a blog titled ‘My Slice of Peru’ when I am no longer in Peru? I could continue it…I have friends and family in Peru, and I do read several Peruvian on-line newspapers so I am informed and could write about happenings in Peru, but second-hand information is not the same. If I can’t see, smell and feel something first-hand I can’t bring life to the words I write. I’ve discovered this with Maribel’s sister Magali sending reports to me about villages she’s visited as our Promesa Peru representative. Taking her words and trying to describe a village, school or person I haven’t seen feels to me like I’m writing blind.

I enjoy writing. When I come across something of interest to me I like to share it with anyone else who might have similar interests. I’ve been asking myself if anyone would be interested in a blog titled My Slice of Rossville, Georgia. Certainly the people who live in this area don’t need to read about it, and it really isn’t all that different from anywhere else in the country anyway. So what do I do? While I’m trying to decide, let me talk a bit about our life here in Rossville so far.

We don’t really live in the city of Rossville. As far as I can tell we live in the township of Rossville. We have city water but because we don’t live in the city we have to pay a private contractor to remove trash. That’s okay with me. Our house is in a semi country setting. The only noise we hear is lawn mowers on weekends, an occasional dog barking and if the wind is right the distant sound of traffic on US 2, otherwise known as Battlefield Parkway. The quiet is one major difference from Chiclayo, and is much appreciated.

Speaking of battlefield, the Chickamauga Battlefield Park is an eight-minute drive from our house. It is a huge parcel of land comprised of fields and forests. There is a visitor center with knowledgeable park rangers. There are free maps of auto tour routes and hiking trails. Everywhere in the park, even in the thickest parts of the forest are monuments to various military units, indicating which unit, what action they were involved in and the date and time. There are other monuments erected by the various states honoring soldiers and units from their states. Walking one of the trails during the early morning or late afternoon and sharing paths with deer that are unafraid of humans is an uplifting experience. We do this two or three times each week.

Working in our backyard, getting it to be what we want is another enjoyable activity. I cut a lot of brush and scrub trees during the first month here, which resulted in a huge brush pile. Burning regulations in Georgia are strict, so we’re burning the pile a little at a time in the outdoor grill we built. We both like to sit outside at sunset, watching the smoke from the dying fire twirl slowly into the air and enjoying the aroma of a wood fire.

A couple times each week we drive into the city (sounds like a country bumpkin, doesn’t it?). The city is downtown Chattanooga, only 15 minutes from our house. There really isn’t much to downtown Chattanooga but what there is is worth seeing. The area at the north end of Broad Street is centered around the aquarium; probably the top attraction in Chattanooga. There are nice views of the Tennessee River to be had from many vantage points. Broad and Market streets offer many restaurants, some jewelry stores and a few novelty shops, but there is a disappointing lack of boutiques and other businesses that would attract tourists and local shoppers to the area. Or maybe we just haven’t found them yet.

Serious shoppers go to the Hamilton Place commercial district. The center piece is the enclosed two-level mall featuring the usual selection of mall shops and a food court. Surrounding the mall are many large chain stores…Kohls, Target, Walmart, Pier1 and a host of others. Restaurants include Red Lobster, Outback Steak House and others. To walk through every store in the district  would probably take from two to three days.  

There are many antique shops in the area, some small, others the size of a mall. We like to walk through these shops, not looking for anything in particular though we did buy a vintage telephone table and hall mirror to use as a sort of memorial to Maribel’s mother. We were surprised at how rapidly items in the stores disappear, to be replaced by other things. The old adage, ‘one person’s junk is another person’s treasure’ certainly applies here.

There are several changes we want to make to the house. Neither of us will be fully comfortable calling it “home” until those changes are made, though we have no regrets about buying it. And we have no regrets about returning to the USA. That said, we are talking more lately about planning a visit to our home in Chiclayo, but that’s a way off yet. In the meantime, what do I do with this blog?