the checkpoint wasn't open.

Today we drove two hours to central Pennsylvania to do two Volkssport walks today. We are working on a county book, and we could hit three counties in one day with two walks. It was an adventure. Who knew that was possible in Pennsylvania?

Bonnie has a new car, Ivy, and she has all kinds of marvelous toys. We were near Leithsville and it made an alarm sound. She forgot to fill the tank. We got off the next exit, and thought once we got to town, we'd find gas. No luck. But we did find a covered bridge! We ended up going back to the highway and getting off the Cabela's exit. Lots of gas to be found.

Then we headed to Selingsgrove.

 Selingsgrove is a cute town. It hosts Susquehanna University, which has a beautiful campus. But the thing we found most interesting were the huge . . .

. . . spider webs hanging from all the signs and banners.

And the banned books display at the university library. I can see how people might have a problem with Harry Potter, or even I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but James and the Giant Peach? Really. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

Both the walks we did today are ending Sept. 30. Never to see the light of day again. More than likely due to lack of interest. (Or due to lack of ease in getting there!) The check-in point was Ross's Restaurant, an ice cream stand. The restaurant doesn't open till 11. We left Bonnie's at 7:45, arrived in Selingsgrove around 10:45, and finished walking before noon. Then we headed the 5 miles or so to Ross's to check in.

When we arrived they weren't open! They had already closed for the season. WTF? Next to a state park and RV camping place at the beginning of prime leaf color season and they weren't open. Now what do we do? Bonnie didn't want to do the second walk, but I told her we drove all this way so we had to do it. We did.

Shikellamy State Park is beautiful. The Susquehanna here is really wide and it forks around the island. The paths are all paved so it's easy to walk. We walked around the park then headed over the bridge into town. The highlight of the town is the Joseph Priestley house. The historic marker said he was a noted scientist. Huge house with a widows walk. This guy had money. But we never heard of him. It was a historic marker with the least amount of information ever—six words plus his name. I googled it when I got home. He discovered oxygen. Oxygen. You'd think that would make it to the sign.

The town is a bit depressed. Looks like south Bethlehem. It has had better days. We headed back to the park. To get the third county we needed to go up to the lookout. This picture does not do it justice.

 

and Bonnie found some swings.

Update 9/30: Received an email back from the Susquehanna Rovers. I'll be mailing our books to be stamped. They had no idea the restaurant was closed.

snakes and skunks and owls oh my!

Today was the Tail On The Trail walk event at the Rt 33 Boat Launch. The D&L runs thru it. Bonnie was sick so had to cancel. We don't know what happened to Dawn. So it was just me and Lydia.

We arrived just in time for the animal demo from Wildlands Conservancy. They brought along a ball python, a skunk and a barred owl. That's me holding the snake. He was a little cold, so he stayed balled up.

The skunk was entertaining. He wanted out of his cage. As soon as she unlatched the door, he didn't come out. Silly skunk. Then, when he realized he was free he tried to make a run for it. This fellow is 40 pounds and only a year old. He's had the good life. Why in the world would he want to go back to nature? Besides, he had his stinker snipped. He wouldn't last a week.

The owl was impressive. He had a broken wing, but that didn't stop him from trying to fly off either. He can squeeze 200pounds of pressure with his talons. Needless to say, the skunk went away before the owl came out. Or the owl might have thought lunch!

Both nocturnal animals have been trained to be awake during the day and sleep at night. Totally against nature. But easier for the caretakers. The owl is about 17. They've had him 15 years and he was full grown when he arrived. That's about 2.

 Before we started we took our pix wearing our matching shirts. But you really can't see them. This was some of the swag we received for doing the challenge. So was the magnet on Lydia's car.

Then we headed down the boat ramp to hit the trail heading towards Freemansburg. Another group headed towards Riverside Park. It didn't matter, it was  two miles each way. The third choices was both sections for close to nine miles with the parking lot and boat ramp.

It didn't take long for Lydia to start shooting pixs. And look! She multi-tasks. Shooting with one hand, talking on the phone with the other.

The first part of the trail, maybe a half mile, was narrow. One person wide. The rest was wide. We walked two miles out and two miles back. The total was closer to 5 miles with the boat ramp and the size of the parking lot.

Then it was off to Hugh Moore Park for the Canal Museum and the locktenders house. We had our tickets from August that we needed to use up. This is the last weekend of the season. I'm my mothers daughter. Tickets do not go unused. Between the walk from the lot to the museum, and the walk from the museum to the locktenders house, and then the walk to the field to see the mules, we added another 1.6 miles.

then, when we arrived home, we took Big A for his walk. All in all it was an almost 7 mile day.

Tomorrow Bonnie and I are headed to Snyder County. We'll do that Volkssport walk, and the Northumberland one, and check 2 more counties off our books. Of course, they may never be filled. 14 counties don't even have walks!

if I put it in writing she can't back out.

 Sunday, during the Volkssport hike, we talked a lot. At some point the conversation landed on the half marathon in November. Lydia said, that's my last long distance walk. Never again. I reminded her that two years ago during the Hershey walk, she wanted to do a 40K when she turned 40.

Ut oh. That's 6 months away.

So we talked about it. How about 40 miles over 3 or 4 days? She agreed. So we have a plan. She would like to go to Salem, Mass. or Savannah, Georgia. Salem, mostly in fall. I guess that's why we settled on Savannah. But it's a 12 hour drive! Boston is only 5 hours.

I've looked up Volkssport walks. The one for Savannah is by the Florida Happy Wanderers.  There are places she wants to go, but I know one is the Garden of Good and Evil. Though I just found out that the statue is now in an art museum and not in the cemetery. The one place I want to go is Juliette Low's house. I've wanted to go there since I was a Brownie. There is only 1 walk in Savannah. There are about 12 walks for Atlanta by the Georgia Walkers. I have no idea how far out of the way that is.

I also looked up Boston. There are several walks. And some near Salem in Danvers. None in Salem proper.

Bottom line. It looks like where going on a road trip. Not sure where. Not sure when.

oh no. look what I signed up for.

A fellow participant from the Sugar Crushers test panel is a "friend" on facebook. We've never met. We connected because she also does Volkssport marches. Anyway I convinced her to do the D&L Half with us in November. She's coming off an injury and will be moving slower. I told her we would be also, because we'd be staying with Lyd so she makes her 4 hour goal. (Last one was 4:23).

Yesterday, she posted on her page that she was doing A "tri" in Lancaster in February. Who want's to come. I clicked on the link. It said:

Sprint Indoor Triathlon Course:
10-minute swim in lap pool
10-minute transition (swim to bike)
30-minute bike (spin bike)
5-minute transition (bike to run)
20-minute treadmill run

I replied back, sorry, can't swim. She replied back, neither can I. I walk/run back and forth in the pool. It's for chariety. I had no more excuses. It's February 9. I'm in the 12:40 wave.

Anybody want to come along and take pixs? We could probably do a Volkksport walk in the morning.

a beer at the top of the mountain

Today was the annual Volkssport walk at Bear Mountain, a ski resort in Macungie. They offer an easy 5K (no mountain climbing), a 5K and a 10K. Both of these take you on the cross country skiing trails on the property.

Basically, you leave the hotel, head up the road, and into the woods. The trails are rocky and full of tree roots. They advise you to wear hiking books and bring walking sticks. I forgot my stick! I remembered half way to Bonnie's. It's because we went out the back, not the front door. Totally missing the umbrella rack where it lives. Oh well. I managed.

Basically you hike thru the woods and go up. And up. And up some more. When you finally see the tree tops you know you are almost there. But you still need to go up to get to the checkpoint.

The checkpoint is at the top of the ski lift. The part where you jump off, and it goes back down. Since this is Octoberfest, there is beer at the top of the mountain. Probably not a good idea while hiking, but I drank one anyway. An Octoberfest brew. It was good, for beer.

Prost!

After I finished my beer, we head on the long road down. For than we went straight down the hill for a bout a mile. Then we headed into the woods. If we would have taken the road the other direction we would have ended up back at the hotel in less than 10 minutes. But we were good and finished the trail.

the next time you come out of the woods you're at the lake. We headed right towards the start point instead of walking around the lake.

simple walk

Today we did what I call the Wegman's Walk. It's a simple walk that can be anywhere from 2-9 miles. It's relatively flat with just a few rolling hills. I used it a lot training for the 3-Day. It has 3 bathrooms,  a parking lot, and a grocery store to stock up on supplies when you run out. Since we are doing the difficult Bear Creek Volkssport walk tomorrow, today we wanted to keep it simple.

The basic route is a big square. We left Wegman's lot and headed down to Stokes Park Road. Headed out Stokes Park to Jacksonville. There were only 3 cows at Koehlers. Where have all the animals gone?

Then we headed out Jacksonville toward Advent church. At some point, my hand hit Lydia's and soon she said, "I'm bleeding!" My nail must have scraped her. It was my first, first aid stop in a long time. Thank goodness the hospitals give out purse size samples at race events. I had one in my backpack. After cleaning her boo-boo, we continued on.

Across from Advent is Hanover Elementary School. The lawn was lined with pinwheels. For the entire length of the property. They participated in Pinwheels for Peace on the 21st. I think every grade must have participated.  A few fell over, or came undone. Bonnie started fixing them. Lydia and I helped. We fixed all but two. The paper was laminated, so the rain right now should not destroy them.

The rest of the walk was uneventful. We turned right onto Crawford Drive and headed toward Wegman's. Then we decidedto add another mile, and took the loop thru the subdivision.

Afterwards, we took Adonis for his walk. Total mileage 4.5.

Yesterday, we walked with Betsy in her neighborhood. We went about 3 miles.

Tomorrow is the 10K at Bear Creek.

.

tail on trail milestone prizes

Yesterday I was working in class and heard the door and a thump. I went to investigate. It was a huge bag. "I didn't order anything." I said to myself. And I didn't. It was the Tail on the Trail Milestone Prizes.

• T-Shirt at 50 miles
• Hat at 100 miles
• Cooler (it's cool, it's a backpack!) at 150 miles
• Zippered fleece at 165 miles.  (the zipper goes all the way to the bottom!)
• One of those oval car magnets with 165 on it.

The picture is from Lyd's facebook page. It didn't occur to me to take one. The fleece and magnet isn't in it. Hers will come in the next package. She missed the "everything in one bag" cut off by a few days.

hellertown adventure

Just got back from our adventure in Hellertown. Who knew the rail trail could be an adventure?

We parked at the Water Street trailhead and decided to walk to toward Bethlehem. Eventually that will connect with the Greenway. But now it doesn't. It only goes about a half mile. However, running next to the rail trail is another trail that goes into the woods. We turned at the end of the rail trail and walked back to the entrance to the woods and followed that.

It began wide, got narrower, and narrower, and soon it was not much more than a deer path that followed the Saucon Creek. It came out on a road with a closed bridge. We crossed the bridge (it was double barricaded!) and looked for a trail going back, but there was none.  We recrossed the bridge, and headed back toward the park. It was then we noticed the trail split, so we took the road less taken and that ultimately looped around and back to the original trail.

It was little like playing hide and seek. It took over an hour and we were just shy of 3 miles.

the week so far ...

I'm sitting here at 7:40 waiting for Bonnie to arrive. We're headed to Hellertown to walk on the rail trail after her bloodwork.  Fall is still three days away and it's only 54 degrees. It's going to be a long, cold winter.

Last night Lydia and I did Michelle's walking clinic. This time we met in West Side Park for hills. We met at 11th and Spring, warmed up and headed to 13th and Lehigh. Then we did intervals on the long, steep hill up to Holy Family Manor. Basically, we walked up a little, and then down. Walked up more, and down. Repeat to the top. Then walked all the way down and all the way up. In theory I will have great thighs and tush if I continue this. I'm not so sure.  Then we walked back up the hill, over to 11th, and down to the cars, cooled off and went home.

During the day I walked to campus three times. I didn't look, but I hope to have reached my 10,000 steps yesterday. It felt like I did.

Tuesday Bonnie and I walked the south Bethlehem 5K Volkssport walk. We made some notes along the way. I need to write up exact directions, and then have someone who doesn't know the route try them. Much like Bonnie and I did on the Allentown park walk. I think I'll ask Lyd and her friend Dawn. I also need to do that for the 10K version. I'm thinking of asking my friend Betsy to test that one.

Monday I didn't walk very much. I walk maybe a half hour at lunch time. It was a wild and crazy day at work.

no disk in the camera.

Oops. We took a lovely picture today at Burnside with the police horses grazing in the background. We knew it was lovely, we saw the preview. When I returned home, I went to remove the disk, and no disk. It was still in the computer. Poop. This one is from last year. Very generic, but nice.

We had a lovely day anyway. And Bonnie will be happy I didn't post a picture. She hates having her pix taken.

We left my place and headed downtown. We parked under the hill to hill bridge and headed up Conastoga to the Monocacy Way trailhead. It's right next to the Union Blvd entrance of Rte 378. When we arrived at Burnside there was a private party scheduled. But we walked thru anyway. The police horses were out grazing in the pasture.

When you come out of Burnside you cross Eaton Avenue and continued. Instead, we headed toward the Compost Center and the Wawa. Then down 8th avenue all the way to Lehigh, back Lehigh to Conastoga.

The walk wasn't quite four miles, so we walked past the car, then turned around and came back to make it 4 miles.

The pony express finally brought Lydia's fridge, so next weekend she'll be walking again. I hope. The next Half is about 6 weeks away.

navigationally challenged.

We should have taken Bonnie's car Ivy, with the GPS named Starr,  to the Volkssport event today. Our google directions failed us. Our old fashion map-reading skills saved us.

We were headed to Peace Valley Park outside of Doylestown. I knew we could get there on 313 but the traffic can be horrible. So I googled it. There was one going down 313, one down 309 and one thru Sellersville. It was a straight line, how could we go wrong?

We took the Sellersville exit off 309 right outside of Richlandtown. We're cruising down the Bethlehem Pike looking for a route number to turn. We get into, and out of, town and still no route. The next sign we see is for another route, west of where we were supposed to be. Clearly, we not only missed the rout, but also started going west. We went way to far west, and had to comeback east and then continue south. I said, just get us to Doylestown, and I can get to the park! Thankfully, Bonnie is almost as good of a map reader as her mother. 

We arrived about 20 minutes late. Most everyone had started walking. The 10K was around the lake. Surprisingly there was a few hills. The battery in my camera dies on the second half, so no picture of us, the 8% grade hill, or the purple elm bore catching boxes. We even made a pit stop at the Nature Center to find out what the purple boxes were.

On the home stretch, we followed the sign for the Volkssport and continued walking. Soon we were on the park road. Say what? What happened to the trail? Ultimately we arrived at the pavilion again, but clearly we were not on the path anymore. At least we were not alone. The road was filled with runner, walkers and bikers.

After the walk there was a picnic. A pot luck, with the club providing the meat—bratwurst, dogs, and burgers. (The chefs were serious grillers. They brought charcoal chimneys to a county park.) I chose a brat,  and was trying to decide what to put on the brat. On the table with the salads was the condiments and rolls. There was a cast iron pot with the lid closed. I peaked inside. I thought it was baked beans. Even better—sauerkraut! My brat was happy.

One of the nice thing about picnics people don't care about calories—the salad table reminded me of the 60s—everything dripping in mayo. No bulgar, brown rice, or quinoa in site. Everything looked artery clogging delish, but I passed. I also passed on the roll.

I think the fullest table was deserts. I picked a brownie, but it was dry and ultimately threw it away. After the picnic was over, people were making doggie bags of ... dessert, of course. I think I brought about half of my bean salad home.

Overall, a nice day with nice people.

a couple of hills

Today Betsy, Bonnie and I moved out of Betsy's suburban neighborhood and went to Jim Thorpe to walk. The JT Volkssport walk is being discontinued after Sept. 30. And we needed Carbon county for our AVA Pennsylvania counties book.

I figured it would take an hour to get there. Except I figured from my house, not Betsy's. We arrived in JT about 1/2 hour before the train station opened. So we walked the D&L for 3 miles, then returned to the station.

After locating the box, we got all signed in, grabbed the instructions, and left. Quickly we realized the instructions were not the same. Some one had mixed up the pages in the folders. The trail we grabbed was for the D&L was 5-10-15K. We wanted the town+ one. A 6 or 10K.

After retrieving the correct directions, we were off, again. First stop, the Packer Mansions. Then up and up and up, and up some more, on Broadway. Final we turned and went up thru the woods and came out in a different section of town. And we went up more. We were all wondering when down would happen. I think it barely the last mile.

We walked about 2.5 hours and went 8 miles.

When we were in a neighborhood, Bonnie talked to a man. He asked why we were in the cemetery. She told him it was part of a route we were following. In our naivete we thought maybe they sent us there to find Jim.  But he wasn't there. The man gave Bonnie directions.

So heading out of town, we went the other way, and found Jim. Said hi, and came home.

coopersburg to upper saucon on the new rail trail

They've extended the Saucon Valley Rail Trail to the outskirts of Coopersburg. It now ends at the Living Memorial Park.

We weren't sure how to get there from The Upper Saucon Park—Lydia and I were unsuccessful a few weeks ago—so we drove and started in Coopersburg. It was easy to find. We were greeted with this lovely hand made sign. Clearly none of the signage is ready yet.

We followed the path and quickly found the trail. Nicely groomed with fencing in place. You'd never know it just opened. I hear there is one more section to go to reach into Coopersburg. I've also heard a rumor that  potentially this path could start at the Bethlehem Greenway and go all the way to Q'town. Exciting.

This section is about 2 miles. We were on the last quarter and I said to Bonnie "is that a covered Bridge?" We determined it was, but it was far away. When we were done we drove looking for it and found it! It's tiny. I think it might be a private bridge.

The trail came out in the ballfields at Upper Saucon Park. Lydia, we walk right past the entrance! We made the loop around the ball park, and headed back to the car. All our little detours stretched this walk to 5 miles.

Tuesday, Bonnie and I will be walking in Bethlehem.

tamaqua

This morning we did a Volkssport walk in Tamaqua. I thought I was walking in south Bethlehem. Houses looked similar. Broken sidewalks. Bricks and slate and nothing at all. Though the hills might have been steeper. And the stores a little emptier.

The Tamaqua Train Station, the meeting point, is beautiful. They've done a lovely job of restoring it.  They were set up outside near some old, rusting rail cars.

One featured PP&L's old Reddy Kilowatt character. It drove us crazy trying to remember his name. Childhood was a long time ago. On the way home Bonnie called her husband. He quickly said Sparky Kilowatt. It sounded right. But the all knowing Wikipedia said it's Reddy. Actually, according to the Wiki, he was used by multiple utilities across the land. PP&L used it from 1935-1981. I think that's about the same time as they lost their &.

This "march" (that's what they call walks) was organized by the Susquehanna Rovers club. (That's Rover in the picture.) They were lovely ladies, and one gentleman, who like to talk. It was hard to leave! The 5K first loop was the town loop. Basically we went up one hill, down another, and back up again. One time we got to walk down 100 steps. There was steps everywhere to manage the hills.

The second loop was on a rail trail—the Schuylkill River Heritage Corridor. I looked it up online when we got home because it was awful not well developed. According to the website, it appears that the Tamaqua section hasn't been improved yet. But even for an not improved trail you would think that there would be signs. There were no trail markers near the streets. When you got to an intersection there was one, but it was facing the trail, not the street. And no parking. Most of the time the trail was one person wide. And there was nothing to look at —except for one intersection—other than weeds. I am so spoiled by the D&L.


We did find a few painted rocks, mostly hidden by weeds.And a lovely intersection with a flag pole and plastic flowers. Maybe that will be the trail head in the future.

When we returned to the train station, a little farm market had popped up. I got peaches and early apples. Bonnie also got peaches, apples, and tomatoes. It's always good to stash cash in your backpack.

After we returned home I took Pat and Sharon to the Russian church for the food festival. Lunch was probably on anybody's diet. I had kilbasa cooked in beer, sauerkraut, a fat roll, and a lager.

Because of the Tamaqua trip, I didn't get to Veg Fest.  Though I heard one of the vendors had an explosion. That's not good.

Tomorrow we will check out the new section of the Saucon Rial Trail, in Coopersburg.

evening, then morning walking

Last night I went to the walking clinic at the Steel. They will be continuing thru the month and maybe into October if, and only if, we have 6 people. Right now we have 5. LYDIA WE NEED YOU. I will feed you, Pat will watch A, and I'll pay the fee. With the half coming up it will be a win win. Pleassssse.

Last night we walked up to the Greenway then headed towards the Skate Park for intervals. We came back and headed toward New Street.  Then we practiced form—heel / toe. First you walkedon our heels (tough!) and then our toes (easy), over and over. Then we worked on posture.

We left the Greenway and headed down to First Street to the parking lots, and worked on intervals again. Finally we stretched and went home. Nice night. I had to walk back up to the Greenway for my water bottle.

This morning Bonnie arrived bright and early and we headed up towards St. Luke's, out Seneca and Brighton, and crossed the Hill to Hill Bridge. We came off the Second Avenue ramp, out Spring, around the park and into Sand Island. We did the one mile loop that includes the D&L, and then went past Fritch Fuel to check out the other side of Sand Island. At no point in that park is a D&L trail head sign. WTF?

On our way back to Lehigh Street Bonnie found this turtle. I thought he was a rock. We rescued him from the street and placed him on the grass facing the river. Hope he makes it home.

Then it was over the Fahy Bridge, down the steps and into the Banana Factory. Walkers (an mothers of toddlers) know where all the bathrooms are. I looked at art. Some was good. Some was dreadful. Then we headed home. Total, about 5 miles.

Tomorrow is the photoshoot for the Sugar Crushers program. I'm supposed to bring this list of clothes that fits. I haven't had clothes that fit in years. I have two sizes, too big and too small. The list includes jeans. Guess I need to go shopping. I have one pair of hand-me-downs left and they have serious baggy butt.

After the dreaded photoshoot, I'll be walking with Betsy and Bonnie in Betsy's hood.

Saturday is the Volkssport 10K in Tamaqua.

It will be a busy weekend!

reflections .... realizations

I've been blogging since about 2007. My brother had started to blog about boomerangs and the blog was free from RCN. I think it was called the RCN Journal. I signed up (Tall and Fat Tales) and had nothing to write about. It laid dormant until that summer when my international student, her friend, Bonnie, my brother and his wife went tubing on the Delaware. The story was unbelievable. I finally had something to blog about. My first post was "Tubing on Willy Wonka's Chocolate River".  It included stories on graffiti on my garage, and the "do not use or you will die" sign on my 50-year old furnace, and some walking adventures. Normal, mundane stuff. Nothing on a regular basis.

Then high blood pressure happened in October of 2008. One of the family curses. I needed to get serious about exercise and diet. I was 256 pounds. My blood pressure was over 200.


I found quickly that I could not just walk for the sake of walking. I bored easily. Everyone who reads this blog knows that. I needed a goal. I saw one of the sappy commercial for the Koman  Breast Cancer 3-Day in winter of 2009, did a little research, and signed up for the 3-Day. My friend Karen was dying of the disease. It was perfect. Plus she lived in Philly. She'd meet me at the finish and I'd collapse at her place. Sadly she died before that could happen.

Regardless, I was motivated and began training. Part of the online fundraising platform was a blog, and it was a way to keep me accountable. If I missed a day of training, and then blogging, my sister was sure to call. "Didn't you walk yesterday?" she'd ask. After it was over, I printed it all out and stuck it in my photo album because once the 3-Day was over, it would be gone.

At the same time the mundane stuff remained on Tall and Fat Tales.

I liked blogging and finally had something to talk about. Training for the 3-day I lost about 10 pounds and 3 dress sizes. In one summer. Clearly I was all fat. (I wonder what the number is. My BMI is still 44!) I gave up drinking massive amounts of soda and started to eat better.

After the 3-day I moved my walking adventures to Tall and Fat Tales. Then the notice came from RCN. No more blogs. It didn't occur to me to make a copy. All that is gone. Now I have books printed.

When I did the Walk Your Butt Off test program in fall 2011-winter 2012 I weighed in at about 236 pounds. I didn't even notice I had lost another 10 pounds. How is that possible?

Still I was discouraged. I was still FAT. I am still fat. Nothing I did — at least in my head—seemed to take the weight off. I was still wearing the same sizes I wore after that first 3-Day.  I was walking my ass off and doing half marathons, climbing stairs, changing my diet over and over, going to nutritionists and to no avail. That's what motivated me to sign up for the Sugar Crushers test panel.

When I started the Sugar Crushers test panel I weighed in again. This time I was about 226. I don't remember. Numbers aren't my thing. But it looks like I had kept off the WYBO weight loss. This time I lost 8 pounds in a month. But dang it was hard. The restrictions nearly drove me screaming down the street. I can't function like that.

That being said, over the weekend the light bulb went off. In four years I have lost 40 pounds and kept it off. (Sorry, no pixs of me in 2007-08. Clearly avoiding camera. Or maybe deleted them.) I'm not really sure if I can see it. (Though I do remember thinking I looked hot in the black and white. Clearly that was a mirage.) I am going to own and embrace that fact. Forty pounds is not insignificant. Perhaps I am not failing at this after all. I'm just doing it really, really, slowly. I only have 18 more pounds to go before I hit my goal of "onederland". Anything after that, pardon the pun, is gravy.

I will do this. Hopefully it won't take two more years.

not quite dead last

Woke up on race day (Saucon Valley 10K) with a thunder storm and torrential rain. Was not thrilled. By the time I left for Bonnie's it was raining normally. At her house it was a drizzle. By the time we reached the race there was no evidence of rain whatsoever. We were in Center Valley. WTF?

It was humid. Really humid. Bonnie regretted immediately wearing a short sleeve shirt. And it was grey. But it didn't rain. A couple times the sun even came out.

We arrived at the race and went to check in. They couldn't find me on the list. I thought I registered weeks ago. Did I? They left me in anyway.

We lined up on the Saucon Valley Rail Trail and waited. That's where we took the picture above. Then the horn blew and we were off. Bonnie chose a pace that was really, really fast. It's like "where's the fire." I was exhausted by the end of mile one. We were walking 4 MPH! That is a 15-minute mile. Holy moley.

Shortly we were passed by Michele, the walking coach. She was about a 12-minute mile. I think secretly Bonnie wants to go that fast. I had to run a few steps to keep up occasionally. We were close to the turn when we saw Michele. I told her if the timers were going to turn off the clock to break their arms. I was only half kidding.

At the turn we were together. When we got around the turn she was 30 feet in front. How the heck did that happen? When I caught up, she was trying to catch the run-walkers in pink. She had met them earlier in the bathroom line.

We returned to the start line, then went down the hill and around the baseball field toward the finish. That's when Bonnie got a second wind and took off. She finished the race about 30 seconds in front of me.

Michele was waiting for us at the finish line, cheering us on.

Bonnie finished in 1:38:28. Me in 1:39 solid. Five minutes below last year's time. A personal best.

louise moore park

Today it looked dastardly outside. The sky was black and when Bonnie called it was raining in Allentown. Prospects for walking did not look good. Bonnie canceled. Lydia arrived. We checked the weather map. It looked like everything would be done in less than a half hour. It was. The sun even came out. But it is so humid you know that the storms will reappear.

The original plan was to do the whole Palmer Bike Trail. Last night when Bonnie and I talked, we thought we'd do an out and back. That was my plan this morning when we headed out in Lydia's car.

She knew we were going to Easton, so she took 22. Not the way I would have gone. So I said, since we're headed this way, let's check out Louise Moore Park. I've never walked there.

Louise Moore is the wife of Hugh Moore. He has a park too. And was the founder of Dixie cups. The park sits on their 125 acre farm (Slate Post Farm). She gave it to the county in 1973, after Hugh's death. Now when I read obits, especially modern ones, where they list a biography, I laugh and think it's foolish. But I have to tell you, hers is fascinating. She was deeply involved in stemming over population.

The park is 125 acres with a road diving it in half. One half has things like pavilions, tennis courts, ball fields. All the things you'd expect to see in a park. The other side has trails including a fitness trail. That's one of the ones we took. And we tried out the stations.

Clearly I'm not going to score any points for form. But it was fun.

We also took the nature path until it became so natural it didn't exist anymore. We exited covered in sticky thorny balls.

We were there over an hour and only walked 2.5 miles.

Tomorrow the Saucon Valley 10K. Last year I finished in 1:44. This year I will be walking with Bonnie. Hopefully it will not be raining. Maybe I can finish in under 1:40.