the walk that wasn't

Some days you get up with great intentions to exercise and it doesn't happen. Yesterday was one of those day.

But we had fun anyway.

Angel was working, the child needed to work on her Bronze Project. I volunteered to help with the Bronze, and watch the child. It was a win-win. I decided that since my niece was a similar age, I'd take both girls. They would have each other to help with Bronze and Silver projects, then we could go for a Volkssport walk. Simple right? Wrong.

Angel arrived at 8:15 am to drop off the child. Traffic on the southside was a bottleneck. The Hill to Hill Bridge was closed for a multi-car accident. Thankfully Angel knew the workarounds. On my part, it should have been an omen. But I never listen. You know that.

I messaged my niece that we'd be over after the traffic cleared. She didn't reply. Hmmm. Texted her mom. Oh, she still sleeping. Normally the child is up before 6 every day.

Child and I ran some errands before picking up niece. Last stop was the farm for eggs and corn. The way this day was going, I should have known that they were still out picking the corn, and there weren't any eggs yet. Everyone was out picking corn. The child asked if she could visit the cows. It rained hard the night before, so the farmer said it wasn't a good idea it was really muddy. But she took her to the pens with the baby, let's make that child, cows. Child liked that. Then I went for the car and picked her up at the chicken coop. She had asked to check out the chickens!

At this point I was still optimistic.

We picked up the niece and headed to my house. I taught the girls a bit about Photoshop and InDesign (and typography too). The Bronze Award items were done in two hours.  Then we walked up to Junk Park to check out how dirty it was for the Silver Project. Around the hoops court there was litter—mostly recyclables. However, the rest of the park was pretty clean. But all the playground equipment has graffiti on it, especially inside on the backs. Child mentioned there were dirty words. I kind of knew that. It looks like the city might have cleaned the exterior at the beginning of the season. Yeah, finally a location for niece's the Silver Project. Hope the girls in the troop like walking hills!

It was after 12:30 and it was back to my house to grab the car, get some grub, and finally go for the walk.  It was bright, sunny and warm.

Niece didn't care where we ate. Child wanted a big fat greasy 5 Guys burger. But 5 Guys was in the other direction. We were headed toward Dorney. As it turned out, none of those shopping centers had a 5 Guys. We compromised on pizza. We were there a half hour. Maybe. When we went in the sky was blue and there was no clouds. When we came out, the clouds had arrived and it started to drizzle.

The rain was a little harder when we arrived at the Comfort Suites to check in, but the cloud was small. I figured it would blow over quickly. 

Child asked the desk clerk for the Walkbox.  Clerk had no idea what a 'walk box" was.  She finds it, then opens it and starts digging thru it! Finally I said, just give me the whole box. As anticipated, it was done raining when we came out.

By the time we reached Cedar Creek, it was bright and sunny again. The girls played on the fitness trail equipment. Another clue that this walk wasn't happening. But I'm slow. And they were exercising. I wasn't.

That brief period of rain made it humid, and the cool creek was calling the girls. Soon they were asking if they could get their feet wet. I thought this would be a 5 minute adventure. Clearly I don't know 11-13 year olds. I could barely get them out of the creek. They'd come out and go back in. I kept saying, please don't fall in. You mothers will kill me. Especially the Child. She is quite the daredevil and totally fearless. I reminded her that she had to be caredul with me. I didn't want to lose a friend because her child hurt herself (or worse) on my watch.

Besides, that creek is filled with algee. It's gross.

 Niece took 165 pictures with my vintage iPod. You get to see five.

It took 45 minutes to do the first mile. At this rate there would be no 5K today. I was still however hoping for the second loop. Which only had a rose garden as a distraction.

But I needed the bathroom. (I-2.5) And the playground is at the bathroom. They went to play while waiting for me. Two minutes after I came out, with no apparent clouds in the sky, it starts to rain. Within seconds it's pouring. Niece puts up umbrella. Child decides she's already wet she was staying out and continued to play. Plastic slides are fast in the rain. I wouldn't be surprised if her bum was black and blue.

The rain stopped, and we gave up on the walk and came home. We played Clue until pickup time. I haven't palyed in a long time. It was fun.