fitness adventures 2016 -- birthday edition

The twins turned 14  and the tween turned 12 in the same week in June. Not being a fan of conspicuous consumption, I'm very into giving experiences for gifts. Today was the day. Since the boy picked last year, the girls picked kayaking for this year.

We took the L.L.Bean Discovery Course at Lake Nockamixon.  I could have just rented kayaks, but we would have been clueless. At least I would have been. And with the coupon code it was only $2.50 more than a plain rental. So worth the money.

We had about a half hour of instruction—life vest fitting (Yes, it should be uncomfortable. Yes, you should be able to breath.) How to hold the paddle and use it. Stop and turn. All those types of things. Then it was time to sink or swim.

I have to tell you I was worried. My last group water activity did not go well. Ask my brother Dave, he'll tell you the story. I was also worried I'd be too fat to fit, and not flexible enough to get in...and out.

And none of that happened! I waited till the end because I didn't want to hold up the line. But I was able to get in on the first try. The kids were already out in the water, masters of the kayak.  I very rarely saw them again. I was always lagging at the back.

We were told to move our torso, but I found myself slipping into using my arms. Now they hurt. The instructor says it's typical for novices, and they call it bicycling.

Darrell was on shore taking pictures. Until we got to far away.

After coming back to shore, we ate a picnic lunch and then went for birthday ice cream. Then children were returned to their parents  and I went home.

Bathrooms L-3. They stunk. Like hold you nose stinky. And there was flies galore. But the actual business end of the latrine was clean.

country run 2016

I haven't done a race in a long time, April at the Yungeling, I think. Race fees are no longer in the budget so I do very few. If you are a long-time reader, you'll remember this one was a random act of kindness back in February.

I had so much fun at this race last year, so it was one that I had planned to do again.—it's only $10, which is very reasonable for a race. Yesterday I picked up the t-shirt and bib. While I was there I had noticed that the fair wasn't being set up. Odd.

The race starts at 8:30, and it's at Stabler. I left the house at 7:30 hoping to score one of the parking spaces in the shade. And I did. But that was more time to wait.

There was a lot of water coolers near the start line, and a table of ribbons. Odd. Those were by the fair last year. Then I noticed that the fair was moved into the field house. Mystery solved.

We warmed up with the opera singing cow girl. For the aerobics, she talked. I don't know how she did it with all those clothes on.  When she sang the Star Spangled Banner we all discovered she had a really good voice. Inflatable cows (top) greeted us at the start.

And the man on stilts was there. I took a forward facing shot, but the sun was behind him, so you can't see him. Bummer. You'll see he's wearing a lime green bandana. So were many other people. I think the lady forgot to give me mine. I wore my red one from last year. I rung it out at the end of the race.

The course changed some what but all the stations were there. I didn't stop and take pics this year. Nothing was different. There was hay bales to climb, the pig pen, the cows, the chicken and roosters, and the John Deere tractors and a place to hop thru the tires.

 My actual time might be a minute less. I didn't have a timing chip. The chip people went first. I like a race that ends with a giant whoopie pie. (There is a male too!) Not the best time. But not awful. Better than my 63 minutes at the Yuengling.

After crossing the finish we received our ribbons and cold water. The water is never cold when I reach the finish. Upon entering the field house we received our string bags. Really nice ones, blue this year. I took a pix but it won't load.

The fair was about the same as last year. Sponsors giving out samples and free non-nutritious food. The center was carnival games. And then there was a country band playing on stage. I think I liked it better last year outside.

Last year I took everything handed to me. This year I didn't. Three-quarters of it I gave away. This time I only took what I wanted and would use/eat. But I noticed some greedy people. Like one lady who was filling her stroller with oranges. She was told to put them back, only take one. There was another guy who I guess pulled the child/children in a wagon during the race. It was bulging with 6-8 full bags of products. And he was just standing there waiting. Were the rest of his team getting more? I made a second round of the fair to be sure I didn't miss anything (I didn't), and went out to my car. A family across the road closed the trunk and headed back toward the field house. They had with them empty bags. I pray they were not going to refill them.

Bathrooms: Port-O-Potties with a sink and soap station. P-3.5

a helluva day

Bonnie and I decided to do a few of the Montco Trail Challenge walks yesterday. She left me plan the route. That was our first mistake. Then we took my car. That was the second.

Our first stop was the Wissihickon Green River trail. It had three trail heads. One was in North Wales. I chose that one so that we could hop on over to Skippack and grab that one, and then go to Lower Perk Community park and get the Perkiomen Trail. Nothing went as planned.

I chose Rt. 309 because I didn't want to get caught on the Turnpike, at rush hour, in 90 degree weather. Good thing we didn't go that way. A shrimp truck had overturned and spilled it's cargo on the highway.

We never found the street to turn on off 309. We saw North Wales Road,  knew it was close, but totally missed it. After parking in an Ethan Allen lot, we reviewed maps and picked a new route. Everything looked familiar, including a park. It's where I had done the Deja Vue Half. We pulled in there to see if someone could get on course. A runner checked the GPS on her phone and we were so close. We went 1 block and were back on our directions. We turned, and the directions were gone. Bonnie tries to figure out her GPS and I turn the car around. I thought maybe we went the wrong way. Nope. We were right. We go back and forth several times and FINALLY find the road. It says a half mile. There is no trail head anywhere. Forty five minutes had elapsed since with talked to runner girl. We could see the trail but couldn't park. I was a little more than frustrated.

Finally we threw in the towel and went to Lower Perkiomen Park. I was worried at first that the sunny trail would continue, but ultimately we reached the shade. It was a nice walk. At this point the Perkiomen and Schuylkill river trails run together. It splits at Valley Forge. Perkiomen goes to VF and Schuylkill goes to Philly. We just came back. We already had two miles in, so four miles at 11 am on a 90 degree day is plenty.

Since the trailhead didn't specify which walk we were on, we thought the sun icon was for the Perkiomen Trail. We drove to another entrance of the park to see if we could verify. No trail head sign.

This park is adjacent to Rt. 422. We were about 2 miles from VF so we decided to drive there and see if we could figure out which trail the sun icon was for.  But nada. There was a lot of signage, but none from Montco.  I wanted to go over the new pedestrian bridge really badly, but it didn't open until today. Poop. We explored a bit, then hopped back in the car and took Rt. 422 to Rt. 29.

When we turned on Rt. 22, we could go left or right. Right would take us home. Left would take us to a trail head in Phoenixville. We decided to go there. It's a cool little town. Very hipster. (I think that's the new work for yuppie.) There we saw canal lock 60 and lots of algae.

I was glad we went there because of this mural. And the parking lot I took the photo from was a distillery with fantastic signage. But they didn't open till 3. Lunch idea ruined. We ended up eating in Collegeville.

Here's another mural from where we turned around.  It is the most beautiful phoenix.

Then it was up 29 to got to Skippack. The road was closed. Clearly, the universe was telling us that this was the wrong day to do this trip! We stopped at the Perkiomen trail head in Graterford and found out for sure that the Perkiomen trail is a purple diamond. So the sun was for the Schuylkill trail. My suggestion to the county would be to add the name of the trail to their icons. It would have saved us a tiny bit of time.

All in all it was about 4.75 mile walking and 6 hours in the car. My mama told me there would be days like this.

no shade in east allentown

Ultimately I didn't walk last night. Storms rolled in about 4, and it never stopped pouring here until about 8:30.  Periodically the storms would stop, and the sun would come out, and then the tv would beep with another "storm alert". At least we didn't get the hail.

Today I had to take the car to the dealer for recall service and an oil change, since it was there. They said 2.5-3 hours. I took my laptop and sketchbook, and planned a walk in east Allentown to get the million clicks stop at Andre Reed (Irving Street) park. All that should take three hours, right?

I put my stuff in a corner of the waiting room, check in, and head out for a walk. I tell the guy I'll be back in an hour. (Yes, leaving my computer there was not the brightest idea. But who wants a 8-year old computer? And nobody's getting rich with my drawings!)

I headed out Union toward Irving and quickly discovered at 8 am there is no shade on Union Blvd. There was an occasional tree where I could take cover, but that's it. I moved down to Cedar hoping for better, but not much luck there either. When I reached Dieruff, I headed to the park. I didn't know where the clicker was, but I figured it would be at an entrance.

There is no trail in that park. I'm guessing it was chosen because it's the only one in a neighborhood on the east side. Keck Park is way off the beaten path by the river and canal. There is now a fancy new sign at the Irving street entrance, and the clicker is right behind it.

Then I noticed something. Irving street was 80% in the shade. Hallelujah. When I reached Hanover, it was back into the sun. I deduced that if Irving Street was in the shade, all the vertical streets would be shady. Not exactly, but I had a lot more shade than if I would have stayed on Hanover.

Streets in this section are alphabetical. I never realized that it skips from P to T. There is no Q-R. I was heading up Tacoma to Union Blvd and my phone rang. It was the car dealer. The car was done. 53 minutes had passed.

Before I returned, I needed to go down an alley to take a pix of the old Groman's building. Yeah, it's graffiti, but it looks intentional, rather than vandalism. You don't sign vandalism.

lehigh parkway

Yesterday it was pretty dang hot. But it was also laundry day, so I chose to do the laundry at 6 am instead of walking. That way it could go out, dry, and be in the house before noon. It worked. But that left me with picking a time to walk. Again it was HHH. I think were on day four of this round.

Anyway, I chose the Lehigh Parkway. That way I could do the Million Clicks thing and use my little button.  I was getting ready to leave at about 7pm and I was going to call Bonnie to see if she wanted to go along. As I was dialing the phone I realized that she'd say "Are you F-ing nuts?" and hung up the phone.

I parked at the iron bridge. The park was pretty much all in shade. It wasn't horrible walking. For the first half of the walk, I pretty much had the trail to myself. Though a horse must have went thru a little earlier. Lots of poo and it was fresh.

And the park smelled like dead fish.

Rush hour began about 8ish. The trails filled with people who all had the same idea as I had.  At the Robin Hood entrance there were still people picnicking and playing in the creek. People also had there beach chairs out in the creek.

At the end of the trial before the bridge is the click station. I think they did that so you had to walk a little to reach it. I can picture people pulling into the lot, clicking and leaving.

Since I was down that way, I went a little further to check out the repaired wall. They fixed the wall, the wall by the stairs, but not the stairs. Talk about penny wide and dollar foolish. On the street side it's all stone. On this side, once it hits the denser trees it's stamped concrete. It was disappointing, but once the under story grows again, only I'll be able to see it.

It was a good walk. Since the roomie had a doctors appointment at 8, I'll need to do the same thing tonight. Wonder where I'll go?

get out lv event at woodland hills

After dropping off the teen I headed out to the Woodland Hills Conservatory—it used to be a golf course—for today's hike. It left at 10, and there is minimal shade on the trails. I really thought they'd cancel. They didn't.

These walks always take a half hour to get moving. People get lost, stroll in late, you have to register, ect. Everyone is huddled in the little bit of shade.

The walk leader gathers everyone up and gives the basic welcome, and then a lecture on heat stroke. She's happy we all have hats and water, but insists most take another bottle. Then someone from the township tells us that he has a job for use to do while were out there. They remarked the trail. Let him know if it was better or worse. (About the same.) He's advocating posts. (So am I.) Hopefully he got good feedback.

The plan was for the longer walk. But because of the heat, The walk leader offers the short or long hike. I was the only one that picked short. I did the blue route which is just over a mile. I already had two hikes in at Poole, I didn't need the distance or the heat stroke. Plus I had never been on that trail, so I got to see this old water hazard.

The group did the long walk. Normally, I would have done that also. It's boring walking alone. But it was 90's with 70% humidity, and no shade. And there was 4 dogs. Poor little things.

Wildlife: dragon flies, and one baby groundhog.

camping and fictional japanese characters

Last year, or the year before, I started having the teen make a list of things she wanted to do in the summer. There's not really a lot of structure at her house, and this is the time to try new things.

Two year now, camping has been on the list. But I no longer have any camping equipment, so we can't pack up the car and go to a state park. I looked at renting cabins and it's a lot. It was hopeless.

One day I received a newsletter from the Wildland's Conservancy. Family camping and only $25. They have tents to borrow. It's a date.

The date was last night. We put up four tents before we had one with all the pieces.  By this time we had two staff members helping. When they couldn't put the first two together I felt better. The third one had broken poles. And the last one worked. This is a two person tent. I am fat, the teen is a bean pole, we barely both fit. Good thing the car was there to keep our stuff in!

After everyone—that would be us— was finally settled in,  off for a night hike. We mostly stayed on the board walk and visited the wobbly bridge and the frog pond, where a chorus of frogs was singing their hearts out. It was only 7:45 when we left, so when we returned it was getting dark. Teen was having a great time. And wants to go again.

Then it was campfire time. I had teen retrieve my yoga mat (I brought it to sleep on) to sit on around the fire. But it was so hot, nobody sat anywhere near the fire. It was pretty much just a vehicle to BS a little with the other campers and make s'mores. The s'mores were made from the traditional graham crackers and Hershey bars, but instead of marshmallows, it was Peeps.® They had a huge donation of them for an event and they were leftover.

Important information on Peeps® and fire:
• Do not place the stick in like a regular marshmallow. As soon as it's hot it will fall in the fire. The proper way is to "sew" it on. Stick it in the bottom rear, then thru the body and out the front bottom. Otherwise he will take the fire dive. I know this. Four of mine did not survive.
• Peeps® really don't toast. They get like molten lava before they toast, and then it's, well, too late. They are taking the fire dive.
• The goal is to caramelize the sugar and get the center soft. You must pull it out before it reaches molten stage or it will take the fire dive.
• Peeps® do catch on fire. But not well. They will burn at one spot. Period. Yuck.

The sugar is a little weird, texture wise, but they were mighty tasty. When I finally succeeded in getting mine correct.

During the campfire is when the family from California approached the naturalist from the parking lot if those were indeed wild rabbits running around. There were a lot. They have been very busy this summer. She did. His kids were delighted. Apparently they do not have bunnies in Cali. Or fireflies. Who knew?

This is also when we learned that Poole was Pokemen "hotspot". I'm sure that is not the right name. The teen has the app on her phone. She logged into the app and there was one one the way to the bathroom. An ugly rat thing. And she caught it.

Then the party broke up and they dumped a whole bucket of water on the fire. I told the teen that they wouldn't be using that pit for breakfast in the morning. It would be a puddle of ash.

We woke up about 6, packed up the tent and the car and headed back out on the trail before breakfast.  It was back to the boardwalk trail and the frogs. This time we spent maybe a half hour there, trying to get pictures. It was hard with all the duck weed. Then we grabbed the Pheasant trail which led us back to the camping area. We grabbed the tent and headed to breakfast.

I was sure it was just going to be donuts. I told her that if it was we would stop for real food. I got lucky. They had huge slices of watermelon, strawberries, and cantaloupe; instant oatmeal; bagels with cream cheese and several flavors of reasonable size muffins and more. We both pigged out on the fresh fruit. I had a bagel, she a muffin. No need to stop.

We composted the rinds, trashed the trash and I poured myself some juice to go. We were headed back to the car when she said "Aunt Gayle, the Boardwalk trail is full of Pokeman. Can we catch some before we leave?" She caught a cute dog-like thing, a bat,  and a purple thing that evolved into a purple snail with a mushroom on it's back. She was happy.

One of the points of this game is to get couch potato gamers out into the world and walking around. So when she looks at the screen there is an avitar walking. It's "you" and it shows you the way to whatever creature you are catching. We are in the car, her phone is still on, and she's doing whatever she needs to do to save her catches.  "I wonder what happens in the car?" She asks. The avitar was still walking the route we were on. I then get up to 30 MPH and she says "Aunt Gayle. She's running to catch up". When I reach 40 she goes "now she's on a full blown sprint." In the process of driving home she caught two more in Allentown and then put the phone away.

We were heading towards the Hill to Hill bridge, and I said, turn the game back on. We're taking the scenic route home. She puts it on and the avitar is running. We get to the highway and she breaks into her sprint. When we reach 50mph she just stopped dead. Refused to move. Nothing at 60 either.  We got the equivalent of the Pokemon finger.

I think she had a good 14 hours.

Wildlife: multiple bunnies and frogs galore. Do fireflies count?

scavenger hunt, 2016

Angel and the tween arrived around six and we headed toward the trestle. The tween read the list twice as we started out. She thought it was in order. Nope. Maybe it should have been. She promptly walked past things. But there is no way she could miss the red restaurant.

"Gayle, where is the 5-points?" "At the light. You still have three or four blocks." We get to the 5-points and she looks all around for the miss-spelling. Several times she looked right at it and couldn't find it. Now in her defense, spelling is not her strong suite. Me either. (She could easily be mine.) I tell her she can find it on the way back and we move on.

She sees the graffiti art in the garage. Even mom didn't see that. We're standing across from the bank drive-in and I said "is there anything else at this spot?" She said "no". We encourage her to look again. Then she starts naming things.  "... Wells Fargo ... or wait, that's a bank. A bank has a drive thru." Took her long enough.

She really wanted to find the sign in multiple languages and the giant numbers. I kept telling her not yet. In the process she missed the train station.

We were standing in the steelworkers memorial park and she couldn't find the giant man with the I beam. I walked over to it and asked her "what the statue was holding". She said an "I-Beam". That helped her put 2 + 2 together. I also showed her daddy's brick.

We missed the train station, found the multi-language sign, and missed the PBS39 sign looking straight at it. Finally I said "Isn't it cool there's a TV in the park." The numbers are right above it. The volunteer at the HMT stairs gave away the elevator clue. It took her awhile to find the railroad, even though our walk out First Street ran parallel with train tracks on the left. Ultimately she found the RR on the HMT for the ore cars.

HMT grand staircase; file photo

I needed to word "Titan of 20th-Century Industry" better. She was standing in front of the furnace and couldn't figure it out. Then she picked apart the clue word by word. With a few prods from mom she figured out it was the Steel. I think the problem was she only knows it as a place for entertainment and a park. She has no knowledge of a working steel mill.

This is the point in a walk where she would start whining. Nope. She was into this hunt. As we came down the middle steps she counted them for the 70 step clue. There was 64. That's when she realized the big staircase was 74.

At the bottom of the middle stairs is a toddler/pre-school park. She played on the items and wondered why they didn't work well. We kept explaining to her she was too big. They were designed for kids less than 4 feet tall and 50 pounds.

We moved on and found more items on the way back. We were in front of Hop Hing (aka Uncle Gene's) where there was a mail box, and across the street was 2 mailboxes and a post office. Tween really wanted to find "where to mail your start card". She's puzzled. "Are you sure it's here?" She is looking all over. Angel is cackling. She might have been leaning on the mailbox. I'm laughing. It was at that point we put it into words the problem. She looks, but she doesn't see. Kind of like hearing without listening.

Then we get the first twinkling of "tired". I told her if she wanted to find the "train station" clue she needed to walk an extra three blocks, and then three blocks back. She decided against it.

At the 5-Points she starts looking for the miss-spelled word again. I gave her so many hints. Finally I said walk up to the alley. If you don't see it, we are moving on. She found it. Finally. One more clue and we headed home.

Being the mean friend I am, I left her make the decisions how to get there. She's walked to my house enough that she should know.

All in all it was about 4.25 miles.  Now it's her turn to make me one in her 'hood. This should be interesting. Especially if mom edits.

Pat thinks I should take her up to Ft. Hill cemetery. I think she'll hate the hills, but love the grave yard. Plus there is a Jewish graveyard next door.

farmers market walk.

Today I walked down to the farmers market like I do most Thursdays. I always buy too many groceries and then have to lug them home.

And I always forget to take pics of the veggies.  They always look so pretty. But I did pick up a car magnet for the fridge, so I took a pix of that.

It's a tiny farm market. Not like Emmaus or Saucon Valley. Bechtold's takes up 1/4. But now we have a meat place again, but only every other week. 

Shortly before I left I received an email from Angel asking if I wanted to walk to night and to pick some place. I gave her 5 or 6 choices. When she wrote back she was leaning toward the HMT, but was going to talk to the tween. I then suggested a scavenger hunt as we walked. The tween will walk much further if her mind is occupied. Sounds like me.

I kept a eye out on the way to the market for things that could be used for the hunt. I found a couple of good ones. Hope the tween enjoys them.

This is the basic list (and answers). Just copy and paste if you are walking in the area.:
___ Someplace to mail a start card (mailboxes, there are a few left. Post office)
___ Restaurant painted bright red (at Mohician and Broadway. New. Haven't eaten there yet. Need to take someone with me that is Puerto Rician so I know what is good.)
___ Seashells in the breeze (A porch on Broadway near Alaska)
___ Whiskey barrel (Ye Old Ale House, of course)
___ Graffiti that is art, not vandalism (Wells Fargo parking garage)
___ A place with thousands of books (SS Library or Lehigh's bookstore)
___ Another country/state flag (There are many PR flags, and a spattering of others near LU)
___ An American flag
___ Sculpture made from junk (Greenway)
___ Sign written in at least three languages (OraSure's lawns, Greenway garden)
___ Sign that is miss-spelled (Comming Soon Dollars Discount. Nothing about this sign makes sense)
___ Drive-thru not for food (Wells Fargo Bank)
___ Garden resident (Gnomes!)
___ Numbers that are 10 feet high (PBS39 Sign)
___ Titan of industry in the 20th century (Steel)
___ Intentional numbers, words, letters in bricks or concrete (Sidewalk markers, property pins, bricks)
___ Stained glass window (churches, some houses)
___ 70+ stairs (HMT)
___ Building that houses ice (skating rink)
___ School (Broughal, Holy Infancy, Performing Arts HS, LU)
___ Firehouse turned restaurant (Broadway Social)
___ Railroad terminal turned doctors office. (Union Station)
___ AIDs tests made here (OraSure)
___ Major construction (Bridge)
___ Pedestrian detour (Bridge)
___ Railroad (HMT)
___ Elevator (HMT)
___ Giant man with I-beam (Steel workers memorial)
___ Triangular building (flat iron) Wells Fargo

I printed out three sets. We'll see how it goes.

the summer state park tour continues

 The summer state park tour continued today. We headed north to Promise Land and the Varden Conservation District to walk. Or should I say hike.

It seemed chilly when we arrived. But I knew that we'd get warm quickly.

We signed in for the volkssport walks at the Promise Land's Park office and hit the trail. The York Rose Wanderer's chose a snowmobile trail so it was pretty much just dense forest.

http://gonehikin.blogspot.com/2012/06/promised-land-state-park-pa-little.html

Promise Land has interesting trail markers. There are blazes of course, while on the trail, but the intersections are not marked with names, but rather numbers. The top number is the trail. Then under that is 1-3 numbers with arrows telling you other close by trails. They also have pictograms for usage.

The markings were easy to follow. The trails, not so much. The first one was a snowmobile trail and it had ruts and knee high grass. I wished I would have brought bug spray. That trail then turned to really large stones. Not boulders, like boulder field, more like the size of a deck of cards. That lasted about 1.5 miles.

We turned at the end of the deer fencing, and went on a trail which was one person wide, if that. Trees were touching our head. Areas were steep. There were a few massive boulders. Many times we thought we were lost and then we'd see a blaze. Our only saving grace was that we kept turning left on the curves, more often than right. It felt like we were walking in a circle. And we were. (on that terrain, I am proud of that 29 minute mile)

The instructions said we'd cross several bridges including stone ones. We did cross areas of large flat stones, but there was no water under them. We also crossed one little boardwalk, that had a tiny creek, or more likely a spring, under it. It was the only water we saw.

We had been on that trail for at least a mile and we heard a car in the distance. We were finally coming to a road. I was never so happy to see a road in my life. After about a half-mile on the road we returned to the park office.

My guess is that trail was chosen because it was close to the park office. But there is a huge lake at Promised Land. That area would have been much more interesting. And a lot less isolated.But then we wouldn't have been greeted by Smokey!

We returned to the car for the 25 minute trip to Varden.

Wildlife —1 doe driving in. She ran across the road.
Bathrooms — I – 4.5, they must have just cleaned it. It still smelled like pine oil.

Varden was very different than Promise Land. All that greeted us was a parking lot, a sign board, and a toilet. No picnic tables so we had an early lunch via tailgating. After hiking at Priomised Land I was hungry. Then it was time to hit the trail.

We always grab a park map, but then I notice a "mailbox". It says "all hikers must sign in and out." Inside was a log book and pens. We signed in, and hit the trail.

The trails were natural, but really wide. They were marked the same way as at Promised Land. Instead of just forest, this trail actually brought us to a pond, filled with lily pads. The frogs were having choir practice. I think they were competing with the wood peckers drilling. I haven't even mentioned the birds. the forest was noisy today.

Thankfully no bears at either park.

I came out of the comfort station and someone from Minnesota pulled in. I was headed to the check-out box, and they just strolled into the forest. They didn't sign in. Clearly not everyone follows the rules.

We had considered doing the third walk in that area, but decided to get ice cream instead.

Wildlife — we actually only saw a few large tadpoles in a couple of puddles. They were long and skinny. Maybe three inches.
Bathrooms — L – 4.5 It is the cleanest outhouse I've ever been in. With handicapped rails. AND hand sanitizer. Plus a Koala baby station. Amazeballs. It was large enough for mom and the kids.

an email resulted in a second walk

Yesterday I mentioned that the Allentown Health Department was having this Million Clicks program to get people moving. It said I could come up and pick up my tag any time I wanted during office hours.

I never got to Staples yesterday, plus I need to to the bank, post office and a half dozen other places. Add Alliance Hall to the list.

I arrived and the receptionist asked my name and handed me an envelope. It is much bigger than I thought. I am #1122. I don't know if there is a thousand people doing this already — wouldn't that be cool — or 122. Never can tell where they start numbering.

Then I realized I'm at 6th and Chew. There's a new mural on Chew, I think near 6th. I turn the corner and I see it. (top). I set down my stuff, turn around and there is another one on the other side of the lot. That makes a total of three in one block!

Now I'm at 7th and Chew and I figure, I have an hour on the meter, might as well go up to 9th and Tilghman and check out the new one there. It's only open for about a month. So I zig zagged my way there, trying to stay in the shade.

 This was taken with the Pano feature on my phone. Hard to get it all into one pix. And too lazy to do it in Photoshop. This one is clearly done all by children. It's massive.

I've now covered some distance. What the heck, I'm going to go find the click post at 9th and Hamilton. I figured it would be about the height of a meter. I was right. I bet there is a camera in it too. When my clicker touched it, it beeped. So I guess I did it correctly.

I went out Hamilton to the Arena and then thru the art walk. These are some of the sculptures. In all it took about 45 minutes (with picture taking) and I added about 2 miles to my total for today.

The roomie asked me what took so long. I told her long list.

it's snacking season

I love this time of year. You get snacks while you walk. I always say I'm going to take some Tupperware, but I forget.

i've walked past this building my entire life

Except when I was a baby, which I don't remember at all, I've lived in the same basic neighborhood my entire life. The two houses are no more than six blocks apart, but technically in two towns.

As a kid I walked past this factory four times everyday to school for seven years (K-6, we went home for lunch and back). All I can remember is that the power lines always zapped the pigeons and I called it the dead bird hill. I hated walking it because of those damn dead pigeons. (My dislike of dead animals has nothing to do with the dead pigeons. Though they didn't help.)

At the time, I also thought that the hill was steep. Fast forward a half century and the factories are long-closed and repurposed. The birds now get to live. And the hill is just a little more than an incline.

But this sign remains. And until last night I never noticed it. Ever. The ghost signs, sure. I've written about those in the past. But that huge concrete banner that says WARREN. Never.

It just goes to show you that even when you walk the same paths a lot, there is always something new to discover. Look up. Look down. Look all around.

everyone is getting in on the health bandwagon.

This morning my nearly 80-year-old sister and I went to the HMT, but we only walked a small portion. It was hot, humid, and the cane was not the appropriate support device for her on that terrain. It wasn't a good combo. Next year when she comes up, I'm going to borrow a wheel chair. Then we'll zoom thru the whole thing and she can get up and walk around as needed. At least she got to see the furnaces up-close. But she fell getting into my car, so now I'm worried. I am my mother's daughter.

I'm going to wait till tonight to take a walk around the hood. It's too hot now. I need to go to Staples later, maybe I'll walk up and down all the aisles and get some air conditioned time in. Maybe go up to Giant and do the same thing!

I was procrastinating going to work on Facebook — an evil invention for procrastinators — and I saw this:

Yeah, something else to sign up for. And find. So I did. How many programs am I doing now? I think I am screwing up everyone's numbers.

And really, how can I not sign up for a program that uses the dreaded Papyrus font! And it's condensed. Even better.

Million Hearts is a national initiative created by the Department of Health & Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. It's goal is to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by the year 2017. Apparently there will be something to click — with a special key — and you can win prizes. Now if I was a bored teenager, and lived near a park, I'd just click that thing all day.

These magic clickers are at:

• LifeTrail in Cedar Creek Parkway: Entrance on Honochick Drive
• Trexler Park: Entrance on Springhouse Road, between Tilghman Street and Broadway
• Andre Reed Park: Entrance off Irving Street, between Union Blvd and Hanover Avenue
• Lehigh Parkway: Robin Hood Bridge parking lot
• Hamilton Mile: "Click-in" station at Hamilton & 9th Streets

I'll take a pix when I actually see one. I guess they'll mail me the key?

I was actually planning on walking next week at the Irving Street Park (now Andre Reed) when I go to the garage, so I'll start off with a bang! And I love that Hamilton Street is included.

Diversion over. Back to melting over my keyboard. There's work to do. And Wordpress to learn.

bet i had security nervous

This morning I didn't walk. My sister is up from Kentucky and said she'd be over "this morning". I didn't want to risk missing her. So I got all my work done this morning instead.

It is hot again today, but not as hot as it has been. And it's not nearly as humid. But still going out to walk at 2pm is not ideal. But so be it.

I needed to go to Target for the roomie. I decided to go to the one on this side of Q'townn, and then get on the rail trail in Coopersburg. This Target has trees in the lot. They were popular. I parked at the far edge of the lot, and then walked next to the building in the shade. I was only going to be a few minutes so I left my water in the car. When I arrived, and the doors opened the air was  frigid. It was wonderful. I grabbed a buggy because the item would be heavy, and decided to make a loop around the store before shopping.

It was then I took notice that, except for the clothes, all the departments are in nice neat rows. They don't line up, or even got the same direction, but they are organized. My brain is churning. Why go walk out in the heat. I can probably get three miles in without leaving the air conditioning by going up and down the aisles. Bonus, no need for sunscreen.

So I did. Security must have been going nuts watching me. What is this lady doing? Really, if I was the security person, I'd have a number of ideas. None of them good.

Thankfully I was not tempted by any of the merchandise. And it was kind of fun watching the other customers interacting. A few things that caught my eye. The Girl Scout Cookie Easy Bake Oven pictured above. I had never heard of it. Clearly it didn't sell well because it was on clearance.

And this weighted walking "vest". It really doesn't look like a vest. It kind-of resembles a back pack.

I actually worked up a sweat, and kind-of wished I had brought my water in with me.

I went back and got what I came in for, and hiked back out to the car. I swear it got hotter while I was "shopping".

harrisburg

Yesterday Angel and I went to pick up the girl child at camp Wood Haven. It's about 40 minutes from Harrisburg so we decided to do one of the Harrisburg walks.

We left Easton around 10 and arrived in Harrisburg around noon. Traffic was a nightmare entering the city. I felt like I was going to Philly. We found the hotel easily but parked on the wrong side of the building. Then had to find out way in. That was fun. Ultimately we found the door, and signed in. The directions had us start in the back. Who knew. We actually found the perfect parking space. There was a map with the directions, but it wasn't marked. I know why. Lots of loops! Bonnie would have hated it.

The directions began by having us walk around the building. It was HHH yesterday so we chose to retrace our steps through the building. Stay in the AC as long as possible. Then we hit the trail. We were no more than a block away and they suggested the first tour. I believe there were five. I don't know how the walk and all those tours could be done on the same day. We skipped all tours.

First stop was the train station. The second was the capitol. We skipped this loop. We crossed 2nd to get to the train station at 4th and they had us going back to 2nd, and coming back again at 3rd. We could see the dome of the capitol. We went straight up fourth and back to third to enter the complex.

We walked about a 1/4 way around the capital, and then in thru the park to the fountain. As I read the instructions, I'm see a lot of right onto whatever street, not marked, then right onto whatever street, not marked ...  you get the idea. Clearly they were walking us around the government complex and back to 3rd. Ignoring the directions, we walked around the government building and back to 3rd.

At that intersection was another suggested stop, The State Museum of Pennsylvania. One of my grad school classmates used to create displays there. Some state museums are free. Ours is not.

Then we headed up 3rd.

We were supposed to turn on Fulton Street, I think, but I saw this mural further up 3rd and I had to see it. Angel went in the convenience store for more water. We went through a lot. (I had more than a half-gallon of water or frozen water in the cooler when I left home.)

We circled around a few streets and then back to the riverfront and entered the bike trail. That's when we saw the Kissmobile. I was hoping they would get the light. Give me a chance to compose a pic, but alas they had a green arrow. I am delighted I actually got a pix of it, and then I forgot to Instagram it. Drats.

The bike path and Front Street ran next to each other. Sometime the bike bath went closer to the river and back up. The bike path was sunny. Front Street more shady. I chose to stay a lot on Front Street. I'm glad we did. Look at all the "dino-mite" dinosaurs we found. And a couple leftover bulls from a previous project. Harrisburg artists want you to have a "dino-mite summer". Groan all you want. They we cute!

We skipped taking the pedestrian bridge to city island. That loop, plus crossing the bridge twice, would have added about 1.5 miles to our walk. But it was nearly two and we needed to be at camp between 3-3:30 and mama bear was already getting anxious. (Okay, she was anxious when I picked her up.) She really wanted the tween back. (I figured they'd be fighting in 15 minutes but they weren't. Actually they didn't fight the whole way home.) I'm glad we did. Traffic was dense and slow.

We stopped at a Turkey Hill for some snacks before heading to camp. We arrived at about 3:15. She didn't catch a glimpse of the child until 3:45. I was not sure Angel would make it thru closing ceremonies. Then the child broke out of line, ran over and gave her a hug, and ran back to the line. That held her together for the next half hour. Barely.

Tween collected, we headed thru Friday night traffic to come home. Another reunion with daddy awaited.