The observation about hills being unsightly is funny to me. Personally, I find the lack of hills to be horrible and completely soulless. When I’m in the Midwest and the sky meets the trees at eye-level 360 degrees around, I’m in my own personal hell. Nothing interesting about the landscape. Just flat nothingness. Like playing a Minecraft superflat world.

I was driving back the other day and somewhere in or around eastern Ohio or the western PA border, I realized the highway was starting to descend into a valley, and ahead I could see the first of the rolling hills characteristic of the fringes of Appalachia. I felt immediately at home. If I can’t see a hill or a valley, I’m not at peace