Flatlanders

The Hound took the young pups on a tour of Illinois institutions of higher learning. We all agreed it was a long way to look at cornfields.

The drive from Lake County to Urbana-Champaign, where the University of Illinois is located is one of the world's worst drives, bar none. Once south of Kankakee, we in the Land of Lincoln understand why Wisconsinites call us flatlanders. Is it flat, or what?

For miles one sees farm fields, and with in this economy that probably means corn for ethanol. The Hound has only seen one thing flatter than that drive down Interstate 57. That would be a pool table and at least there was some green on it. No wonder Jon Scheyer opted for Duke over the Illini.

After a look at the U of I campus, our next stop was Carbondale and Southern Illinois University. Do you know they have oil wells in southern Illinois? The Hound has learned that Illinois is the nation's sixth largest producer of oil. Let's drop some cricket pumps in Lake County and see what type of Texas tea we come up with.

From there the convoy headed to Western Illlinois University. Talk about your land that time forgot. McDonough County? Argyle Lake? Outside of pig farms, what exactly is western Illinois good for. It, too, is flat.

What did the pups learn from this sojourn to scope out their future universities? Either go out of state or head to Northern Illinois University. DeKalb certainly is a shorter distance to look at cornfields.

After a quick