northeast bethlehem

I'm looking for new routes to walk. I'm getting tired of the same old, same old. So I decided we'd walk in northeast Bethlehem.

We started at the CVS by Liberty High School and headed out Linden to Butztown, out Butztown to East Blvd, then back Easton avenue. It was a huge triangle.

When I was mapping routes I did a bunch. I could have sworn this one was 3.185. miles. About a 5K. Clearly I was wrong. Lydia's phone had it at about 4.125 and she went back to the car about 5 blocks before the end. I rempapped it on Google pedometer and it was 4.5 miles. Oops.

I can report that the sidewalks on the north side are almost as bad as the south side. But there are no garbage cans or other obstacles t walk around. It was a relatively flat walk, but pretty uneventful.

We all shared Lyd's bottle of water while walking. Bonnie and I both left ours at my house. So when we arrived back at CVS she went inside for some. She came out with BIG CHILL. She bought it because the bottle was cool. My typographic obsessions are rubbing off.

It turns out to be distilled, and the CVS brand. It was wet and did it's job. Nothing to write home about.

After the water break it was off to the butcher to pick up Bonnie's Easter ham, and home.

Of course, we took Adonis out for his walk.

Total mileage for today. 5 miles.

Next weekend we have a 10K on Saturday (6.2 miles) and a 10 mile race in Harrisburg on Sunday.

 A yard on our route. There was more against the house.

impossible!

Tomorrow the Iditawalk ends. Barb has arrived without Dave! And we haven't heard from Bonnie in awhile. I think we need to send out a search party.

I just checked the finishers rosters to see who is in first place and I'm astonished. How do they do it?

The top finisher has logged 23,658 minutes in two months. That is my goal for the round the world "trip". Divided by 58 days (Feb. 1 to March 30) that is 408 minutes a day—over 6-3/4 hours a day! Every day. For two months.

The next couple has 19,377 or 5-3/4 hours a day.

When do they work? Are they retired or training for the 3-Day? But even training for marathons and the 3-Day you only do one mega walk a week, and take at least two days off to rest your body and prevent injuries.

Oddly the one person that I do know that is walking cross country is in 7th place walking 3-4 hours a day and logging 12,385 minutes.

I hope Dave and Bonnie get here soon. Easter dawn service in "Nome" might be cool. Hope they don't miss it.

---------

Update!  (2:37 pm Nome time)

Bonnie has "arrived" in Nome. Looks like we'll have company for Easter services. We have a choice between Baptist, Morman, Catholic, Nazarene, Evangelical, Lutheran and Methodist. (I've had a lot of time on my hands. Not much to do in Nome other than snowshoe.) The Methodist church appears to have a large native Alaskan congregation. The sunrise services begins at 8. The sun rises at 8:20. The Lutheran church doesn't begin their services until noon. Clearly we'll be Methodist for the day.

Update!  4/1 
Dave has been hiding in plain site all along.

new signs

I teach at the local community college. It's 95% commuter students. And part of the campus is on the other side of the street.  Needless to say there are pedestrian accidents. At least one a term.

To curb them,  they have added the lime green flashing signs before crosswalks, and the white little bobble sign guy in the middle of the street. Still there are accidents.

Today I parked in the other side of the street lot. Before class I shopped for Easter basket stuff, and that lot is the most efficient from the shopping district. Normally I park in the far away remote parking lot and crossing the street isn't necessary.

I aprked my car, went around the solar panels and headed down the path to the street. I was about to cross the street when I noticed these new signs. When I started looking, they are everywhere. If you look carefully, you can see the sign on both sides of the street. All the signs are double sided! How cool is that?

Pedestrian warnings. Driver warnings. Will that curb the accidents? I doubt it.

todays paper

You can tell it's spring. Everywhere you look — television, radio, papers, magazines, companies — are all trying you to get fit and outside.

Last week I discovered the Passport to Health. Today I opened the paper and saw this:

(Yes, I will be the last person on earth reading a paper.) It even has a QR code. But then I have a stupid phone, so it's useless.

I went to the website and this is the featured trail of the week. So far, it's really the only one on the site. There is an index of walks, but none of the pages have been made public yet. My guess is this will roll out very slowly all spring.

Many we've walked. Some we haven't. The D&L is there. But we haven't done all the sections. The Appalachian is there too. But Pa.'s part is ROCKY. So beware. Rodale park is there also. And the state parks. And the Water Gap. Gorgeous in fall. Crowed too. Oh and the Historic Bethlehem Trail.

Where haven't we been? The Daniel Boone Homestead (Birdsboro), Hawk Mtn (Kempton), Jim Thorpe, the Game Preserve,  Peace Valley (Doylestown), Schuykill Trail (Hamburg) and my favorite name— the Gravity Trail in Reading. As you can see these, and some others on the list require a drive. Maybe up towards an hour drive. But that's okay.

I went to the Reading Trails site—who knew— and found the listing for the gravity trail. It is described as "the newest trail in the City of Reading. The trail goes from Mount Penn to the county-owned Antietam Lake. This moderate to strenuous trail explores the Mt. Penn Gravity Railroad historic sites and Antietam Lake. You can start the hike from Neversink Mountain or any of the city-owned parks such as Pendora, Mineral Spring, or Egelman Park." I'm downloading the map now. My favorite word is strenuous. It looks like it is four miles, so that's an 8 mile round trip. But it looks like it is out and back, so we could turn at any point. Oh, and the best part? It's near the Pagoda!

Tomorrow I walk with Betsy, and have my last shift at the homeless shelter.  Winter's over and they are back on their own. It seems time. They appear to be getting on each others nerves. By this time they know what buttons to push. 

Tomorrow the "Walk to Jerusalem" group is also having their symbolic finish the last mile together walk. But because of my commitment at the shelter, I won't be going. It's a 3 in Lehighton. No way to make it back in time.

Saturday I think Bonnie and Lydia and I will walk. I received a email from the Liberty Bell Wanderers that they are doing Doylestown walk tomorrow. Maybe we can do that. It isn't too far.

Sunday we're taking a break. Though I will have Z all day. We might just take a walk and look at the neighborhood. Experience America on foot. She returns to Yemen in May.

breaking in Lyds new sneakers

Lydia has finally bought new sneakers. Today we broke them in. On the southside of course. We did about 3.25 miles, then another half mile with the dog. I didn't even suggest Jacobsburg when I saw the new sneaks!

We did Sioux, Summit, Lehigh U, Packer, Filmore, ArtsQuest, 2nd and 3rd Streets, and Broadway. I don't think you need a detailed description. We've done variations of this walk before.

Then this afternoon I went to Wegman's to pick up out Passports. But there's one per customer, so every time I drive past a Wegman's, I'll need to stop! Bonnie and Lyd both need one.

There's 10 trails. Some short. Some long. Clearly we'll be able to combo some. Or go other places with some. I like that the trail markers are not at the start or end of the trail. You've got to walk to get to them. And bring a pencil or crayon.

• Hugh Moore Park. Three mile trail one way to the Delaware. That's a six mile loop. We've done this before.
• Lower Mt Bethel Township Trail in Bangor, 4 miles, one way. We could also go to Columcille Megalith Park while in Bangor. Bonnie and Lyd would find tat so cool.
• The Monocacy Nature Trail. This is a 1 mile loop on the longer trail which we've done before.
• South Bethlehem Greenway. been there. Done that.
• Jacobsburg State Park. We keep saying we are going there, but don't. This is for the Henry Wood trail which is 1.9 miles. But there is other trails.
• Lehigh Gap Nature Center Osprey Loop Trail in Slatington. 2.5 miles w/steep hill. We've done the D&L there.
• Wildlands Conservancy has many trails. The passport is for the Boardwalk loop. 3/10 mile! We can do that! Maybe even walking backwards.
• South Mountain Gateway Trail. Oddly we have never done this. It's only .7 miles
• Trexler Nature Preserve. (aka Game Preserve.) There's many trails there, but the passport is for the covered bridge trail at only 1.2 miles
• Sand Island. The loop 1 mile loops we've done a zillion—okay I'm exaggerating—times.

We could probably do the nature trail, Greenway and sand island in one day. And the Conservancy and South Mountain another.

the wegman's walk!

It's been a long time since I've done the "Wegman's walk". It's a great walk. It can be anywhere from 2 miles to 10 miles. The hills are rolling, and the walking easy.

We parked at Wegman's, and headed left into the subdivision. This one, I'd say, was built in the early 90s. Big houses, small lots, but not McMansions. Subdivision are great places to walk because often the have one main curved road going thru the middle.  That's the road we took. When we returned to the main road, we crossed and went into the 80s sub-division. The trees and landscapes were more mature and the house were smaller. Again, we returned to the road. We had been walking 45 minutes and were still two blocks from Wegman's.

We finally arrived at Crawford Drive. The plan was to walk one block to Harriet, up to Ashley, and back to Crawford. But there was a park, and a path and of course we took it. I thought the path would circle back to the comfort station. But it didn't. The park was J shapped and we kept walking until we got to Hanoverville Road.

We thought we were back on track but quickly discovered we were not. I am so glad I printed the map. It took a little while longer but we finally returned to Crawford, and then went left onto Jacksonville.

Jacksonville is where we took the picture. It's in front of a house that says it's the "original" school house, with a 17xx something date.

We walked down to Stokes Park Road, then back to Wegman's. Approximately 6 miles. But we weren't done yet!

Bonnie had a few things to pick up in the store. In the produce department was a guy selling Vitamix Blenders. Bonnie started with the old Vitamix tongue twister and somehow we got roped into watching his presentation. The soup was really good. We finally got away from the Vitamix guy and shopped till we dropped.

When we returned home Adonis was at the house and we took him for a walk. And two hours later I took him again.

When I checked facebook, I saw this post about "the Passport To Family Wellness" on the Lehigh Valley Live website (Express Times). You know we will walk at all 10 parks, and take our little books. We're Girls Scouts after all. I wish I would have known when I was at Wegman's, I would have gotten us passports. Now I'm itching to go back.

Memo to self. Put crayons in backpack to do rubbings.

I think tomorrow when Lyd and I walk, we'll stop at Wegman's, get books, and head to Jacobsburg.

bunnies!

Our Friday walks thru Betsy's sub-division often net holiday decorations. Today we found bunnies. And from the extension cords they light up! Their nest of eggs is a little beaten from the wind and the storm but still cute. This is the same house that had the "lucky" reindeer at Easter-time.

-----

The "Walk" to Jerusalem is over. Wednesday we received word that we "reached" Israel, and Father John sent us an itinerary for while we were there. The religious among us will be very busy Holy Week. On Friday afternoon they are all meeting for real in Lehighton, and walking the last mile to the crucifixion. Since I'm on duty at the homeless shelter at 5:30, I won't be going. It would have been nice to meet Father John. He's quite the humorous writer.

----

My persistent sore muscle in my upper leg butt is getting to be a pain in the butt. Looking at an anatomy chart online, it is not the hamstring or the glutes as my minimal science thought. I'd say it's the biceps femoris or the adductor magnus. Sadly, that and a $1.50 will get me a cup of coffee. That particular body part shows up on none of the walking websites. Clearly it's because I'm stressing it out with my weight. Doctors, x-rays, CT scans, MRIs are all out. They are expensive. No insurance, remember? Friends have suggested massage (about $100) or a chiropractor first. I'm considering it.

art walk

I'm in Easton today doing job #1, graphic designer. Everyday we walk on campus or on College Hill. It looks beautiful this first day of spring, but the wind is cold.

Today's walks had purpose. First stop, Skillman Library for (free!) lunch and a lecture on illustrator Frank E. Schoonover. Part of the Pyle school, his work is ultra realism, and reminds me a lot of NC Wyeth. Food was good, and the lecture was great. A former schoolteacher, she used a pointer. I am making one this week for my classes. I'm going to wrap a 3 foot dowel with scraps of yarn. Hers was plain wood. There's nothing in my life that is plain.

After the lecture I walked thru the library looking at the book art, the Schoonover show, and a WWI exhibit by Christy. Good day in the library. There was also a sign for edible book contest. Think I'm going to do it. But what book. Hmm.

I left the library and headed to the Williams Arts Center. I had a meeting on the second floor on a book project. Then down to the lobby for a display of masks and Curlee Holton's exhibit in the gallery.

Sadly, after all the art, I had to walk back to work. I took the scenic route.

All images borrowed from lafayette.edu.

st. pats 5k

Today was the St. Patty's Day 5K in west Allentown. It follows the same route as the parade, but twice around.

We were the first—and last—walkers to cross the finish line. There was another pair of walkers, but they left after the first loop. So, we received a bicycle escort.

Like at the themed 5K's there was plenty of silly costumes. One tall man was even dressed as a leprechaun (pictured). Lots of strollers, a couple wheelchairs. They all beat us.

Bonnie finished in 49:43 and me at 49:44. Hopefully the 50s are behind us!

Yesterday I walked in the snow with Sharon. Bonnie and Lydia had other plans. It snowed all day and nothing stuck. It stuck barely to the trees and grass. But it was pretty. That's when we saw the "everything s possible sign." I had a Lydia moment. I had to take a pix with the fence points sticking into my arm pits. Lyd loves that inspirational stuff.

Friday I walked with Betsy.

All week during spring break, I walked at least an hour. Usually to do errands. It was nice. Reality bites. It's back to work and back to grading.

another long walk

Since Lydia is still a sick-o-gal, we canned the 3.5 planned walk and made it longer. What were we thinking?

After Lyd called I was still planning on doing the 3.5 thru fountain Hill and south Bethlehem. But remember the stop at the outlet mall yesterday? Bonnie walks in and says "we're going to the Sands!"  And holds up her credit card and coupons.

Now a normal person would have changed the route, but noooo, not me. I just tacked it on the end. Really Gayle. Do you have no common sense? A long walk is followed by a short one. Your body needs time to recoop. Right? Right.

So off we went. Out Itaska, then Cherry and Sioux. If Lyd would have been with use we would have gone down Lechauweki and out Stanley Ave. Probably with a stop at the swings. But no, macho girl needs to walk up the Dodson Street hill to Graham, and down Graham Street. Then it was out Jeter to Clewell, cross Delaware and out Seneca past the old house.

Once we reached Fourth, we headed down the hill, out Graham Place, to New and out Third Street to Sands Boulevard.

Then we shopped. Bonnie spent enough to get a free tote bag, so we had the clerk take it out of the plastic bag, and put her purchases in it. Then we took turns carrying home. Dig out your teal and peach. Those are the hot colors for spring.

We left the outlet mall, walked around the casino, and crossed Daly to the skateboard park. It had lots of boys using it. Bonnie took some pixs, but this one was the best. Getting moving pictures is hard.

We took the Greenway back to Fourth, then Broadway, then wove our way up the hill and home.

Total mileage = seven.

Lydia, I'm sure, is happy she didn't come along. I was whining a bit at the end. Than goodness I didn't have to take Adonis for a walk.

------

Update on Nome virtual walk:
Arrivals—Gayle, Lydia and Adonis, Sharon, and Megan. Bonnie, Dave and Barb are still on the trail. I heard something about a whiteout slowing them down. I know for sure Bonnie is playing with the dogs. Lydia only stayed in Nome one night, and returned to Anchorage. They are almost back.

Update on Jerusalem virtual walk: 
The last update from Father John had us making land in Morocco around Wednesday. It should be no problem getting to Jerusalem in time for Good Friday.

Update on Dave Brown's Cross Country Trip:
He's past Baltimore in Cooksville, Md. Wish I would have ordered a shirt. When the Liberty Bell Wanderers sent out the order there was no pix so I didn't order. Now I've seen them in photos and I'm sorry I didn't get one. Cute logo.

Logo decision:
With a whopping three votes, the winning logo is "Vitrual Walk Around The World."

spring has arrived at my house!

Yes, I know. It is totally irrelevant to walking. Or is it? Nice weather means more and longer walks, doesn't it?

overachiever kind of day

It makes me think I can do that ultra walk. I have 10 miles in so far today and it's only 2 pm. Though taxes are at three, so nothing more is likely to happen.

First, I walked with Sharon to the Fountain Hill Wawa, she got the bus to Allentown, I walked home. I saw some crocuses and didn't have a camera.

Lydia emailed yesterday that she was a sick-o camper and wouldn't walk today. So Bonnie and I decided to do 6 miles. What were we thinking?

We started at my house, went out Itaska and down Wyandotte, and back up the other side. We crossed the hill-to-hill bridge and went down the stairs and out Lehigh street. Then we went up the Center Street hill and out Church and Market to the Minis Trail Bridge. Once back on the southside, we headed left and walked around the casino. Bonnie needed a restroom, so we went into the outlet mall. We checked out Corning, Peeps, and Dress Barn while we were there.

Then we headed down First Street, thru ArtsQuest and turn up Webster to the Greenway. At New, we took the alley to Brodhead, and went up to Lehigh. Who puts a big hill at the end of a 6-mile walk? Oh, that would be me.

At the top of the hill, we went out Warren, up Montclair, out Summit and up Wyandotte to Sioux. Back Sioux to Bishopthorpe and home.

We were barely home five minutes when sick-o arrived with her germs and the dog. So I took the dog out for a long walk.

whatcha think?

Which one or none? For my round the world "trip".

Also thinking about doing this walk around Manhattan. It's the same distance as the One Day.

irt loop

When Bonnie called last night about walking today, she mentioned she wanted to go to the Mall to use some really good coupons. So I said how about the Ironton Rail Trail. Then I thought I sent Lyd an email, and clearly didn't. But we connected anyway.

This morning Bonnie picked up me, and then we picked up Lyd and went to the trail head.  Nothing out of the ordinary. We took pixs of choo-choos (daddy would be thrilled) but not the limestone kilns. Bonnie was always in the lead.

We were walking at least 45 minutes when we ran into the detour sign. On a trail. They took us out an alley and around the construction area. It looks like they took down an overpass.

The excitement over, we forged ahead.

Near the end we had lost Lyd, she kept falling further behind. So we doubled back and picked her up. I stayed with her, and Bonnie zoomed on ahead.

 Early in the walk Lydia asked me how far it was, I said more than 3 less than 6. In all honesty I really did think the loop was 5 miles. Turns out it was 5.5. Lydia was not happy with me. She didn't whine much—just pouted a little— and she finished it! We need to build her physical-fitness self esteem. (I know, I should talk.)

Since I picked her up there was no after-walk dog walking.

really walking the walk

I've walked to Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the middle east, Nome, and come July 1, around the world. When I was training for the 3-Day, I almost made past Nashville, and the next year almost made it to Des Moines. But I really haven't walked anywhere. It's was just virtual tracking. Mile for mile or minute for mile...how the crow flies.

Dave Brown (in safety green) is a member of the Liberty Bell Wanderers, the Volkssport group I belong to. He set-off yesterday on a eight-month journey from Atlantic City to San Francisco to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer Research, in memory of his wife Joan. Real walking. 14-miles a day. It takes a lot of planning, fund-raising, walking and coordination.

I really had wanted to go to AC yesterday with the rest of the group and walk that first 14 mile leg. But I had two jobs yesterday so it wasn't possible.

God speed Dave. Safe journey. Raise that $110K and kick cancer's butt.

If you want to follow Dave's journey, here's the blog or follow him on FB. All the hash tags in the FB posts (#) make me think there is a twitter feed, but I didn't see any. Also there's this interview on Fox. (I borrowed the photo from the blog.)

Me, I haven't even done much walking this week. I'm barely getting 8K steps in a day. I'm in full up-to-my-ears in grading and other commitments time. Today I did a long walk with Betsy and have finally cracked the 10K barrier, but I won't make 15K.

However, it's now the "month that shall not be names" and Bonnie begins training for her mini this weekend, so that mileage should start piling up. Now that it's getting light earlier, and staying light longer, I'll also be able to go back to my first thing in the am walks. So much better. Do it and done. No excuses.

No walks for me Saturday, though. I have an all day GS event, and then I'm driving friends to the airport.

The St. Patrick's Day 5K is on the 17th. Hope I'm ready.