The part that seems to need emphasis is that the author happened to walk inside this neighborhood cafe while just walking his dog. To many Americans, the idea of just walking into a cafe is probably alien (you need to drive everywhere).

▲

johnnyanmac 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

The one downside of non-urban life (and crappy public transportation). It's overall quieter than if I lived downtown and I appreciate that. But in terms of walking, I have a Mexican joint and then everything else takes effort.

The Wal Mart plaza is only a mile away, but unfortunately its a fully uphill mile that has me going 200 feet in elevation. And in terms of cafe, it's simply a tiny corner Starbucks. The local joints are about 3 miles out east or west as a start.

▲

fencepost 3 days ago | parent [-]

If this is something you want to do you might consider a bike. A 6 mile round trip on for for coffee seems a bit much, but 3 miles each way on a bike shouldn't be bad unless you're in a city (in which case there should be things closer). You could also do this same thing with a thermos of coffee/tea and a local park.

	▲	johnnyanmac 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Once the job situation is out of the way (which sadly might take a while in this market), I wouldn't mind that idea. It plays double duty in helping to loa weight I really need to lose as well. Any hesitation I have to bike around a few miles is entirely my own fault in terms of health, so I should buck that mentality. My nearest park is 6-7 miles away, meanwhile. I don't know about going there for coffee, but it'd be a nice little bike route. My city does fortunately have quite a few dedicated bike paths as some solace against the usual car centric society.

▲

nicbou 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This is why I'll never move back to Canada. A cafe will be a few red lights away on these ugly wide roads, in the middle of a parking lot surrounded by box stores.

It's not just the driving that sucks, but the ugly environment it created.