So despite Kristi and I having technique practicals and tests this week, we decided that we really needed to get away over the last weekend. We decided to go to Galena, IL, about an hour and a half up the mississippi. If you've never been to the Driftless Area of Northwest Illinois, Northeast Iowa, Southwest Wisconsin, and Southeast Minnesota, you really need to go. It is a beautiful area. It's called the driftless area because during the last ice age, when glaciers scraped and leveled all the northern area of the states, they somehow missed this area completely. So instead of the typical flatlands or rolling plains of the Midwest, there's a rugged topography with steep hills several hundred feet in height, rocky outcroppings of limestone, and deeply carved river valleys with a canyon effect. It's not anything you'de expect in the midwest. Galena is a historic town that was untouched by the modern developements of the post-war era, due to it's local depression of economy during that time. It's height of prosperity was the mid-1800's, and the architecture reflects that. Awesome Victorian, Romanensque, Greek Revival, Federal, and Vernacular architectural styles predominate the town, with 85% of the town listed on the National Historic Register. The Main St. area, where we stayed, has over 200 storefronts, all built in brick, 3 to 5 stories in height. The buildings create one continuous brick wall on each side of Main for about a mile. I've never been in a town quite like it. When I first visited there about 15 years ago, I fell in love with it, and I've been going back regularly ever since. This time we took our friends, Paul and Sharron. We've been friends with Paul for years, Kristi has known him for about twenty years. They're newlyweds, Paul married Sharron last January. Sharron is a perfect match for Paul. We don't get to hang out as much as we used to , as they used to live right across the street, but in the summer they moved further away, still in town, but before we'de see them about every day, and now we have to make plans to get together. With all of our busy schedules, it's been difficult to make plans. I'de say we see them about once a month now. This last weekend was great, as we really got to spend a lot of time with them, and we really got to know Sharron a lot better. It was a realxing weekend, mostly casually walking up and down Main, looking in the shops, and eating great food. We shared a two bedroom suite with a big living room , and we stayed up late watching movies on the flatscreen TV. We don't have cable, and neither do they, as life is usually too busy to watch TV anyway, so it was a treat for all of us! We're already talking about going back!



So back to reality this morning. Had a practical in thoracolumbar monday morning. I nearly did perfect, except I answered a question regarding one of my set-ups wrong. they ask you things like what's your DS, SCP, SP, CP, SSP, SP, STAB, PP, etc. They stand for things like patient placement, doctor stance, segmental contact point, segmental stabilization point, and so on. Well the teacher asked me SP and gave him the SSP on accident. Oh well, just one point missed out of 25, and a simple mistake. Not a big deal I guess.

Wednesday afternoon I had my first written exam in PT. It went OK, but I did struggle with keeping straight the different voltages and frequencies for different therapies. I'll need to review it more, obviously, before I start hooking electrodes up to people!

Thanksgiving today, as I'm finishing up this blog that I started monday morning... So happy Thanksgiving everone! Heading over to Kristi's cousin's house for dinner #1, then leaving from there to my Dad's house for dinner #2... I'm going to be stuffed by the end of the day! Well gotta go, have to load the van up.