Day Totals: 12 hrs, 20.9 kms

Actual date: Nov 18, 2015

West of Carlisle lies several square miles of farmland turned into huge, boxy warehouses and factories--some just a couple of years old. This has turned Carlisle from a place people commute from to a place people commute to to go to work. I pass one warehouse where I worked back in 2008. I literally spoke in four languages while working there... Spanish with the Latinos... Arabic with the Moroccans... French with the West Africans and English with everyone else.---including a large number of Bosnians who still hadn't learned English after some 13 years in the country!

The work was grueling and dangerous... several of the Moroccans and West Africans said they lamented ever coming to this country--they would have been better off staying in their countries where they enjoyed a better quality of life. I guess it all depends on what situation you come from... if in your native country you have household servants doing all the chores for you and a laid back job in the family business, the yeah... America is not going to be an easy transition. But if you come from a situation where you have no work, or you work and never know if you'll get paid... and no real prospects of a better future... than a job at a warehouse in Carlisle might very well be your gateway to paradise.

Several of the West Africans were studying in college while working full time--so my guess is that they're not still working warehouse jobs today...

I wouldn't have anything against industrial zones like this, with its well trimmed lawns and presentable facades... if it weren't for the question... why here? I've passed through a lot of rusting industrial zones, just sitting there abandoned... why not clean those up and reuse them?

The answer is simple: it's a lot cheaper to build a warehouse on a flat piece of farmland than it is to tear down an old factory and build a warehouse there. And since most townships here are eager to bring in tax revenue and jobs, there's not much incentive to make sensible rules as to where warehouses can be built.

It's basically like the slash and burn farming method: burn down the forest... farm intensely until you wear out hte soil... then burn some more forest...

Past the village of Plainfield, I duck into a little antique shop hoping for a little taste of culture. The lady inside bemoans the rapidly changing scenery.

"As child I used to be able to ride my bicycle on this road... not anymore... too dangerous."

"These warehouses and developments just started popping up a few years ago. In 10 years all our farmland will be gone... But you've got to blame the farmers too--price of land goes up, and they figure they'll just sell their land instead of keeping farming it--the young folks don't want to farm anymore--just have their noses stuck in their phones"

She finishes with sad conclusion "I'm just glad I won't be around to see what this place will be like in another 30 years... I'll be gone to heaven"

Hmm... to prefer death rather than see farmland turned to industry... a tad dramatic--but I get her point...