the 165 mile challenge is back!

I received an email today. The 165 mile challenge is back. This year it runs from May 1 to Nov. 1. I'll start this challenge off with the 32 mile "Great Saunter".

Here's the email for those who might want to register. They are being very vague about prizes. Actually it says Prize. Singular. Last year we received 5. Bet they won't be plentiful like last year. I, of course, will reach the 500 mark. No problem. (Now I have to do it. I put it in writing.

Dear Tail on the Trail Participant,

Our Spring 2014 Challenge is here! This Thursday, May 1, our NEW 165 Mile Spring Challenge begins.

The six month challenge will begin May 1 and end November 2, 2014. Get outdoors, get active and explore nature by walking, running or biking the D&L Trail — 165 total miles of natural beauty in your own backyard! We encourage you to walk, run or bike the 165 miles on the D&L Trail but the goal is to get healthy along the way — however you decide to achieve it.

Sound familiar? It is. For completing the 165 Mile Challenge all participants will receive a prize. However — this year we are offering a Super Challenge! Double (330) or Triple (495) your miles and earn extra prizes!

There is no registration process for all participants already enrolled in our Tail on the Trail program. Simply begin tracking your miles on May 1 via our Trail Tracker and join us for our special events throughout the season.

We listened to your feedback from last year's challenge and have upgraded our website. Beginning May 1, the "Other" option listed on the Trail Tracker has been enhanced so our participants can enter non-D&L trail locations they are using to track their miles. In addition, this year we have added a family registration feature where a parent will be able to register and track miles for their minor children.

All details about our Spring Challenge and our 2014 Event Schedule can be found on our website: www.tailonthetrail.org.

Now, where is the 2014 Passport For Fitness?

we beat beethoven

Sunday was the Reading Symphonies "Beat Beethoven" race. Beethoven was there. And the town crier was there. And the young people's symphony was there playing their little fingers off.

It was a beautiful day for a race. And they changed the course. That horrible uphill to the stadium was gone. Lydia, it's safe for you to go back. The big hills are all gone!!!

Bonnie and I arrived about 20 minutes early and walked around a bit. Then it was off to the races. The new course allows you to hear the music at several locations. That's because they have it piped thru the athletic fields sound system. After the race we got a snow cone and listened to the rest of the concert. A few 10k-ers did not beat Beethoven. But they played the 5th, again, for the kids fun race.

At one time Beethoven conducted the orchestra. The baton flew out of his hand and hit a violinist. Oops. At that point the conductor took his baton back.

Bonnie finished in 51:05, I think, and I finished a minute later. If I would have moved just a bit faster and stayed with the group of 10K=ers, she would not have seen me and sped up. For a change I could have won!

(Left: Bonnie chats with a dead man.)

hippie dippy earth day 5k

Okay, Earth Day was Tuesday. They should have had this last week. But it got a lot of people to the new Lehighton Trail head for the dedication today.

Lydia, Bonnie and I did the Earth Day Hippie 5k. And we dressed the part. Bonnie's tie-dye was almost vintage--almost 13 years old--straight out of her husbands drawer. Mine I made last year at Musikfest. Lydia made hers at the Kutztown Folk Festival. (Maybe we should Maria's girls here when they are up....)

Aren't these little ones cute? Mom pushed the stroller wearing tye-dye from head to toe (plus Birks!)  But these little gals walked almost the whole thing.

There was about 1/3 walkers. Probably more. 

The trail started at the new Lehighton trailhead. This is the new "end of trail" for now. It needs to be connected to the Weissport trail and the Jim Thorpe section. Little by little the trail grows. Soon it will be 165 miles.

It was out and back. It seemed long. The weather was beautiful. Bonnie finished in 52. Me in 52:16, and Lydia in 54! Way to go Lydia. She even ran over the finish to get the solid number.

We were there probably a half hour after the race waiting out the awards. I ate two oranges and was still very hungry when we arrived at the retro diner. This place has not been remodeled since the 1970s. Of course, it's located in a economically depressed town.

The decorations were retro. The plates were retro. Even the candy was retro—Ludens, Denytene, Chicklets and about 15 flavors of lifesavers. When we ordered a Coke, she asked it RC was okay. RC! I haven't heard of that in decades. Frankly I thought they went out of business. Clearly not. A retro diner with retro soda. Nice end of the day.

Yesterday Bonnie and I walked with Betsy. Bonnie's watch said it was 3.5 miles.

Tomorrow Bonnie and I are doing the Beat Beethoven 5K. You have to be back before the symphony is over. Hopefully Beethoven will be there again this year. As you can guess, the race benefits the Reading Symphony.

My camera comes home from Africa tomorrow. I hope it had a good time.

benefits fair

Yesterday was the Benefits Fair at Lafayette. In reality, we just go for the free massage, lunch and the organic smoothies. (Green yummy. Pink sour.) I guess a lot of other people did too, so this year they switched it up and gave you a passport to have stamped. It worked. We stop at nearly every stand. And got a free umbrella at the end. (I lose umbrellas like bread crumbs.)

It was so big this year it spilled into the hall. We signed in and the massages were in the lobby this year. Our timing was perfect and we were next up. Then inside to have our "energy" read. I didn't buy it. You have your hand on this mouse-thing for five minutes and it told you what your body needed. I don't believe a chiropractor. Why would I believe in an herbalist and her wacky computer?

The yoga lady, and her energy balls was good. Penaut and almond butter, oats, cocunut, coca, and who knows what else. Yummy.

We also had our thyroids and neck artery's checked. Mine were fine. My balance, not as much.  My blood pressure was good. We also picked up lots of pens, paper, ate a lot and spent nearly 90 minutes there. Oh, and a collapsible water bottle.

Of course we had lunch and smoothies.

Tuesday, Bonnie, Megan, the baby, and I walked the Greenway and the ArtsQuest/Casino loop. About 3 miles. Then he met is other Great aunties. Thanksfully he didn't wake up till the end. Don't want to scare him. Me, I'm his "Too Great Aunt, Gayle". Too great, indeed.

Today, Bonnie and I walked in her neighborhood and found some trails in Laubach Park. And we played on the slides and the swings. The slide was the old-fashioned metal one. I barely fit. Clearly it's designed for 10 years olds.

easter walks!

Yesterday Lydia wasn't sure if she'd have time to walk today. She arrived shortly before noon. I was still dressed for dawn church service. I put on my sneakers and went.

Lydia had wanted to go places she's never been. Our first stop was Lehigh Parkway.Yes, she's been there plenty of times. She has not done the eastern fitness loop. It's about 1.75 miles and we saw a blue heron. Lyd took the photo, and all the photos on her phone. My camera is in Africa. Long story.

Then we headed to Big Rock Park on top of South Mountain. It is what it says it is. A big rock. Covered with graffiti. The trail is a hair longer than a 1/4 mile. Up hill.

Just in case you couldn't see the huge thing, someone wrote directions on a rock. We climbed around a bit, and then came back down. .6 miles.

Lydia is the spec on the left in the photo above. This might be a fun place to take Maria's girls when they visit Aunt Bonnie this summer.

My final walk today was to take the dog out. That's a half mile. Grand total equals 2.85 miles. Not a great total. But it is a holiday.

HAPPY EASTER!

allentown parks volkssport walk

Today was the Allentown parks Volkssport walk.  Lydia arrived here by 9, and we arrived at Bonnies by 9:15. We were early. That's okay. Megs is visiting with the baby so we got to play with the baby.

Since the car seat takes up too much room in the car, we needed to take two cars to the Comfort Suites. I used 309 instead of MLK....it still gives me the heebie jib-bees. Visions of the village idiot running a stop sign and making a left turn kind of haunt me. (But I got the check today! Amazing. Lydia won the pool.)

There was a lot of people today. Maybe 16.

Baby Bjørn was clearly the youngest one there.And he was all signed up for his first walk. We could have gotten him a book. But that would be silly. Mommy is more interested in racing.

The path is simple. It makes a loop around Lake Muhlenberg, and across Ott to the Rose Garden. At the barn you are supposed to go up to Chew. But there was construction, and the hill on the other side was too steep for the stroller, so we just looped back around and made a figure 8. We were only 1/10 short of a 5K.

The ice cream truck was parked at the playground, so we had ice cream for lunch!

Then Lyd and I headed home for Adonis. We hopped into the car and went looking for a park. At one time it was the Archibald Johnson estate.  We found it. But there was ''no trespassing" signs everywhere.

We ended up pulling into a businesses parking lot and walking the dog around the building. He would have never made it home otherwise.

Not sure what the Easter walk will be. I'm headed to church at 5:30 am. Then I have laundry and a boat load of grading to do.

finishers certificate arrived

My finishers certificate arrived today. I think they are getting more and more creative with them.

Dave Brown told me I beat him from the Volkssport group. This is the man that walked half-way across the country.

south bethlehem volkssport walk

Today was the first group walk for the south Bethlehem Volkssport walk. Bonnie, Megs and the wee one were supposed to come, but Megs though 6K would be too much for him. So I went to meet the gang.

I arrived at the Comfort Suites at 9:50 and only Dave, the president, was there. They left late, will be here in 20 minutes. I turned out to be an hour. They got lost.  Ultimately ended up on the north side. They all began arriving shortly before 11. By the time everyone signed in it was maybe 11:15 went we set out.

The walk went well. I played tour guide. Living in south Bethlehem my entire life comes in handy, sometimes.

One section of the directions is a little fuzzy. So we had Carol try them out. She turned wrong, so they do need to be modified. I will do that this weekend.

We didn't arrive at the outlet mall till 12:30. So I bid the group goodbye. I need to eat, shower and go to work!

last car post. promise.

Yesterday Bonnie and I walked in Fountain Hill in the drizzle. Then I went car shopping. In a downpour.

I ended up buying a 2014 Ford Focus. Same car, different year. Between the accident and the new car my insurance bill shall skyrocket. Guess it's good I didn't buy healthcare. My budget will be on life support next year when that happens.

I still haven't heard from the insurance adjuster. I know they came and looked at the car. I found that out when I went for my plate at the tow truck garage. (My plate is the "save wildlife" original owl version. It's been retired. The new version is a river otter. Not nearly as cute.)

I had little time to research. I wanted to return the rental. It was sucking money out of my account. The storage fees for Aretha are also sucking out money. ($50/day!) I had found some 2014 used cars—my guess test drive cars with under 5k miles—but they were gone by the time I could get there. Daddy used to buy used cars and they were major headaches. Mama used to say "that you bought someone else's problems". So I went with new.

The new version has all kinds of screens, it even counts down your gas level.  It has built in hands free calling. The guy set it up before I left. I don't anticipate using it. I can't multi-task and drive. Even with full concentration, bozos run stop signs and I run into them.

Sorry camera is on it's way to Africa on vacation. My stuff is so well traveled.  I had to use my phone for the pix.

Today I'll be walking across campus for the benefits fair. More on that later. Lunchtime massage. Can't wait.

------

Benefits Fair is next week. Oops. Went, nobody there.

walnutport's canal trail

Today Lydia and I walked in Walnutport. We parked at the Slatington Trailhead for the D&L and walked across the bridge to Walnutport.

Sometimes the D&L follows the canal. Other times, it follows the old railroad bed near the canal. That is what happens in Northampton and Slatington. So both Northampton and Walnutport have canal paths that follow the canal. Saltington also has what they call a slate heritage trail.

I've never done Walnutport's path before. It was nice. It's divided by Main Street, and runs north for about 1.5 miles, and south for maybe 2 miles. So all in all it is a 10K round trip.

We walked on the one side to the first lock, then turned around, crossed Main Street, and went down the other side. We went past another lock and the lock tenders house, a totem pole, a waterfall and some white ducks.

Now I've walked all three paths in that area. Today we did a little more than 3 miles.

Before I went to Lydia's, I stopped at the airport to return my rental car. I was planning on rerenting without the insurance to get the cost down.

Previously when I rented a car, I reserved, I researched, I planned ahead. Clearly I don't do well with emergency renting. I returned the car. When I checked it out they told me there was a chip in the windshield.  When the girl examined it there was scratches at two places on the bumper. I drove it from their lot home and back. I did not look at it before I drove away. Stupid. Clearly the over priced insurance paid off. I am responsible for the "damage".  The one set can be buffed out. The other there is paint removed. Now either my neighbors are horrible at parking, or that damage was there when I took the car. I think it was the later.

I returned the car, and re-rented it. With the "damage" clearly marked. I didn't want to take any insurance because at $55 a day it's expensive. But clearly it just saved my butt. Normally I tell them I'll use my personal insurance. But I have a super large claim in right now. I don't need more complications. So I just took the smallest amount they have. Just in case something else happens.

The crappy weekend continues.

not quite the plan

 An un-funny thing happened on the way to my walk on Friday. Meet Aretha. She was my car. Now she's going to the junk yard.

I picked up Bonnie as usual and we headed up to Betsy's. It was warm, bright and sunny. It was going to be a fun walk. The dogs were coming. We are headed out MLK drive an in an instant there was a dark car blocking the road. I didn't have enough time to stop.

I don't remember what happened between slamming on the breaks and the airbag exploding in my face. Boy did it stink. There was smoke everywhere.

Bonnie was the responsible one and got right on the telephone. Did you know you could dial 9-1-1 without unlocking it? It took a few minutes but I got my whits about me and called Betsy and the roomie.

Police arrive. Ambulances arrived. Stories were told. Tow trucks arrived. (Storage for my car is $50 day!)

I've been told that my car will be totaled. And I'll get less than 5K for it. Alan thinks about 2.5K Kelly Blue Book says a fair purchase prices is $6K. Bottom line a new Focus is about $17K. Used are about $12K. I'm pretty much screwed.

Plus I didn't get to walk.

Today we walked the Wegman's loop and then went shopping.  Lydia was interested in ways to make it longer, so I told her a couple. There were no animals out at the stables. Very odd indeed.

It was probably well over 10K steps. But I won't know. I forgot to put my FitBit on.

Afterwards I went for a rental car. The first place wasn't open. Then we went to the airport. I think the rates are higher there anyway. In hindsight the clerk gave me no prices up front. That wasn't right. But I was too stressed to think about it. I was not thinking clear and said yes to their insurance. I never do that. The insurance gives me $20 a day. My bill for 5 days was nearly $600. 

Tomorrow I'm taking the car back, and re-renting w/o insurance. The car rental is $208 for 5 days. The rest is the insurance. (That's an entire quarters payment for my regular insurance, plus some.) If they won't rent to me I'll go to the next place. I'm also going to look for a coupon. Then Lydia and I are walking the Walnutport canal path. Maybe I can also get to Bed Bath and Beyond for a CO2 canister for my soda stream.

Bubbles might help make up for a crappy weekend.

clear cut!

Today Bonnie and I did the loop around Fountain Hill.  We went up Dodson to Jeter and then up to Graham. We came down Graham and said, wow, they cut down the trees at the barn. It's easy to see it's right past the cemeteries.

Soon it became clear. They clear cut the trees all the way down the hill. It will no longer be a shady walk. Pity the home owners. Their electric bills will soar this summer.

Sadly, we we too lazy to walk up the hill to shoot the devastation.

All in all we did three miles.

(Some of the wood pile between the barn and the edge of the cemetery.)

tibetian monks

The monks are back. This time they are on the Lafayette campus. So yesterday I decided to walk over and see the sand mandela.

The campus is awash in Tibetian flags blowing in the wind. And national flags because it's international student month. The quad was pretty.

 The first thing I encountered was this couch. The lawn was filled with people enjoying the sun. Every chair was filled. Not this couch. The sign says "the conversation couch". They want you to have a dialogue about faith issues. Clearly nobody was interested.

When I arrived a Hogg Hall they told me to take off my shoes. These are my type of people. Sadly, they were giving a lecture so I couldn't see the mandela. I stayed for awhile and then finished my walk.

sugar crushers final publication

Do you remember in mid-December I did the 2nd photo shoot for that Sugar Crushers panel? Of course you don't. It was snowing. I got lost. I was very late. Yada, yada, yada.

I've been watching for it in the grocery store and haven't seen anything. About a week ago I received an email asking if I wanted a copy. I said yes.

When I posted about the photo shoot I noted that the stylist knew how to dress fat people. I was so right. This picture is so much better than the one in the book. Of course it is all smoke and mirrors.

The group picture was taken at our book launch dinner in December.

This publication will be on the newsstands till August. It's called Sugar Detox Made Easy. It's a Prevention magazine. Very little traditional advertising which is refreshing—except for the full book of course. Though the graphic designer in me thinks that the list of packaged foods without sugar might just be product placement. Call me jaded.

Walking wise, I didn't walk much Monday. Just on campus. And mostly to get from point A to point B.

Yesterday Bonnie and I did about 3.5 miles in a mist. Of course, by 10 am it was bright and sunny. I also signed up for the D&L Half Marathon.

president's challenge update

Almost a year ago—April 13— I reached gold status on the president's challenge. 160,000 points. I need a million for Platinum.

Today I still need 605,457 points. In a year I achieved less than 250,000 points. That's a quarter of a million points and I'm not even to forty percent yet.

I'm actually kind of tired of logging my points, but I so want to kick the million points butt. There are several people on the list that get it yearly. Yearly. Clearly they don't work. Or maybe they work at someplace like Costco where they walk 30K a night. I just don't see how it's possible.

My goal for the next year, another 1/4 million. Then maybe, just maybe I'll finish this by 2017.

fountain hill

Today we did the loop of Fountain Hill. One of our regular walks. Even though we didn't talk to each other, we were all wearing our Tail on the Trail swag! How funny is that. It lasted about halfway thru the walk.

We went out Itaska, then out the alley to Sioux, then off toLackawanna Avenue and down to Broadway. Yep, we had the native American tribes covered. They don't call this neighborhood Indian Hills for nothing.

We crossed Broadway and went out Smile and then Stanley. The FOuntain Hill walk would not be complete without a stop at the Stanley Avenue Recreation Area (aka Ft. hill playground) for SWINGS! How we love swings. Though there were children there today so we didn't stay very long.

 

Ultimately we ended up on Ostrum, past the hospital, then on to Brighton were we encountered spring. These irises are really early.

From Brighton we crossed the bridge, went down the ramp and headed home out Broadway.

Then it was time for Adonis' walk. All in all it was about 4 miles.

trykes for tots 10K

The Trykes for Tots 10K is one of the few races in the valley that offer a 10K option for walkers. We've done it several years.

It takes place on the Iron Rail Trail and the Whitehall Parkway and raises money for tricycles for differently-abled children. The cool part is they give out and fit the bikes after the adult race. Then the children have a 1 mile fun run / walk / ride. This year Pretzel City Sports left the clock on for the children. When they called for the children's race to begin, they were still fitting bikes. So they had two! The children could run both if they wanted too. While they were racing we waited for a free massage. Wonderbar.

No escort this year until about mile 6. He brought us water because the mile 4 water station closed early. We left him in our dust. However, w did not beat last year's times. Oh well. We still came in in 1:44

My camera was "exhausted" again, so Bonnie took pictures on her phone.It was my turn to have closed eyes.

I came home to a dead mouse in the downstairs bathroom. Anyone who knows me know that I have a low tolerance for dead animals. My brother Henry used to come by and clean them up. Sadly, I had to call Bonnie to come rescue me.

Friday I walked with Betsy in Bethlehem. She was setting up a Girl Scout event at the Luckenbach Mill. So we started at the mill, crossed Sand Island and walked the D&L to the Minsi Trail Bridge. Then we climbed the stairs and came back Market and Church street, with a detour into Nisky Hill Cemetary.

Thursday, I walked back and forth to the dentist. When did dentist start doing full oral exams? In addition to my teeth she checked my tongue, my pallet, my jaw, the whole works.

Wednesday was National Walking Day. I walked across campus and back. It's my 15 hour day and squeezing in a 15 minute walk is the best I could do.

Tuesday, Bonnie and I walked in her neighborhood. Just under three miles.

All in all, a good week. I think I was over 10K steps all but one day.