almost didn't make yoga under the stars

Last night was Yoga Under the Stars. It's the first true exercise I've done since getting back from vacay. Fit-Camp was cancelled. I've been just trying to get everything done—laundry, yard work, freelance projects, housekeeping, shopping—that wasn't done while I was gone and before the heatwave hits. (My roommate/sister hates AC and even fans so it's hotter than Hades here all summer. I think her personal thermostat is busted. When everyone is melting, she's telling us how hot it is not.)

My niece worked yesterday so I sent a text about yoga, and she agreed to go. That meant I had to get another mat from the attic. Oh, and while I was up there I'd bring down the fans for my and Lydia's bedrooms.

I went up to the attic and started bringing all the stuff downstairs. The roomie has the landing filled with plastic buckets full of knitted items. There isn't much room to walk. They usually drive me nuts. I'm counting the steps as I go down and thought I was on the landing. Ooops. I wasn't. I crumbled and fell into the plastic tubs. I was stuck but those damn tubs broke my fall. The roomie comes out of the room to grab the stuff from my hands, sets it down and goes back to bed. Yes, it was 6:30. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to get myself unstuck. Once freed I could get Lydia and go to yoga.

Yoga started at 9. We left at 8:30 and arrived just as the sun was beginning to set. At that point there were over a hundred people there.  The temperature dropped a little so it was almost nice out. We slathered ourselves with bug spray before heading to the lawn.

Knowing full well we couldn't take pictures once it started, we took pictures before it started. Do you see how wrinkled my mat is? I adjusted several times and was still on top of Lyds mat when it ended. (I like this workout dress much better with knee length pants. Won't wear with booty shorts again.

The class lasts about 70 minutes. I think I did maybe 60% of it. Maybe a bit more. Since we started late because of audio issues, we didn't end until about 10:20. It was nearly 11 by the time we arrived home.

Weather:        low 80s, no clouds, technicolor to dark.
Night sky:      Venus, mars, north star and little dipper. Never saw the moon rise.
Wildlife:         fireflies galore lit up the night like it was glowga.

waste of money

I have maybe four "Walk at Home" DVDs that I use in the winter when it's icy. They are good. They get the heart moving, but they don't register on my fitbit. I get lots of emails from Walk at Home because I'm on the mailing list.

Over the years I have seen the emails for certification. It was expensive and required an in-person exam. They still have that. But in addition to the tapes and YouTube, they now they also have a 30-minute live class called Walk-15. Think Zumba or yoga at a community center or church basement. We've all been to those.

Anyway, before vacation I had little to do. In my in-box appears the newsletter saying that the Walk-15 course certification was available for $99. On a lark, I decided to do it.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but boy, was I disappointed. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement, so I can't describe the class. I think. Other than the proper sequence I could have taken the quiz without taking the course. Anyone who has done a couple of the DVD workouts could.

I'm supposed to contact them when I'm ready to have classes and they will add me to the list. That won't happen. I am just as unprepared today as I was the day I clicked the "buy" button. Plus I don't have hustle. First I'd have to find a place and then recruit students. (If I was good at that I'd have a thriving freelance biz.) No thanks. I don't have money for insurance or the desire to find music at the right beat.

I joined their network, but that's just for the summer. Maybe I'll get inspired. Will I join the FB group? Probably not.

I think what I wanted was what they call the Master Class. That's the expensive one. But I won't be taking it. It's probably more web pages to read.

For me, it was $99 wasted. For someone else, it might have been a great investment in their future.

vacation ramblings that aren't walk related

Anyone who reads this blogs knows that I took a road trip last week with a friend and two teens. It was an old school road trip with many stops and lots of driving. My trip meter reset near Baltimore when it reach 2000 miles, so my guess is we came in around 2250.

It was also a budget trip. It's summer and I'm barely working. I shouldn't be spending money on travel. We planned both free and paid activities. Though I must admit that paying for national parks/sites is odd. As a child, one reason why we used national parks is because they were free.

One goal I had was to make it as eco-friendly as possible. I failed miserably. Why? We didn't have a single to-go meal. (Oh wait, we went to Subway at the truck stop.) Yet the bulk of our meals were served in styrofoam takeout containers or on/in foam plates and cups. Even at the hotels. The south must be drowning in styrofoam. Plastic flatware as well.

We bought little water. I filled three 2-liter bottles with water and froze them. We had water for 2.5 days. Then we bought some water at the dollar store and froze the small bottles over and over so that they fit in the freezer compartment of our rooms. We mostly drank from the cooler and filled water bottles, filling our bottle with ice before leaving the hotel. Next time I'll be sure to take freezer size bottles to make ice.

Except at rest stops and the Publix market I didn't see any recycle bins. Not even at the hotels.

On television they show kids glued to devices and screens. Not our kids. Sure they were on their phones a little but they also played games, took silly quizzes, played "would you rather", read, scrapbooked, sang and other old school activities. They thought the "alphabet" and "licence plate" games were fun. The later being challenging since Virgina and Maryland have about 25 plates between them. Though my neice was writing all the states down, Angel found an app. Actually there are many for most of these games, including one for "Hang Man". But the goal was to unplug.

We set up a group text so if we got separated, need to share info or photos it would go to everyone. In the process Angel noticed that all my names had little icons. I drew them on my phone in the "Notes" app. I showed them all how at breakfast and everyone drew something in the car.


The girls are fish. It was hot. The first stop at nearly every hotel was the pool. All were outside. One was crowded, one had one other group, and the last one was just us. I did not swim. As you all know I don't even own a suit. The girl's were puzzled.

On the way down the girls wanted Dairy Queen. There is one at nearly every exit. We told them we would get it at a local joint in Savannah. Leopold's was it. Best. Ice cream. Ever.

About 85% of our meals were local. Angel had a Trip Advisor App and she'd find places like Chicken Licken, a double wide trailer that had seen better days behind two gas stations. Yep. I'm pretty sure it would make an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. They dropped our chicken after we placed our order. No heat lamps. We waited about 30 minutes for our food and it was worth it. There was minimal grease.

We also tried local beverages. I don't have a picture of Tybee Lighthouse, Angel's beer choice.  The Cheerwine tasted like A-treat Cream soda.  Angel thought it tasted like Dr. Pepper.

We tried NC BBQ. This restaurant was a buffet so the girls tried most southern cuisine -- several BBQs, collards, okra, some sort of stew ... you get the idea, in one stop. I think I'm a Memphis BBQ kind of girl.

Angel also found Grandpa's Kitchen on the app. Food was delicious and served with a side of religion.

We stopped three times for fast food. Once was at this Cook-Out, a North Carolina chain. Angel's colleagues told her she must stop. (Also on Angel's food bucket list was Waffle House and IHOP.) If you like fried food it's a good stop. The chicken is way better than KFC. We also had the hoagies from the truck stop and salads at a Wendy's. The food choices were extremely limited in some areas.

Angel had two apps for finding cheap hotels/motels. One was Trip Advisor and the other Hotel Tonight. She saved us poop-loads of money.

Both girls had birthdays while we were gone.

On day two we left the highway to go to the bird santuary. And I noticed something very odd. All the trees were the same size. A half-mile, big, then a bunch of medium, then a bunch of small. Some forests had groups of trees mixes together, but planted like corn. Close together, with many rows of the same thing. Same species were together. It was so noticable we started talking about it. Forests don't grow this way. Then we saw a sign that said "logging trucks entering road". Then a whole section clear cut. It was then I had my aha moment. These are sustainable forests. Trees planted, harvested and replanted for making lumber and paper. The santuary was closed, but when we went past the cleared area a week later, seedling were planted. The ground doesn't stay bare for long. This scenario played out over and over in North Carolina.

While I was helping hoist the flag at Ft. McHenry I felt proud to be an American, if but for only 30 seconds politics vanished. Concern about stupid policies and ignorance also vanished. It was simply a rush of pride.

But it was no all was not sunshine and roses. The girls were great 95% of the time, but they were together 24/7 for a week. By the end of the week they were acting like sisters.

We had three near-misses with the car. The first was barely two hours into the trip on 95. Someone cut off the guy in front of me and he slammed on the brakes and so did I. Thankfully traffic wasn't heavy and we were all spread out. The second one I can't even remember. The third one could have been horrible. The person coming toward us decided to make a left hand turn and I don't even think he stopped to look. I slammed on the brakes and lost control for a second, and skidded to a stop BEFORE t-boning him. I don't know how fast I was going, so I don't know if I was speeding. It was a country road, but straight, and I tend to get a lead food on straight roads. I was trying to obey the speed limits the whole trip because there were other people in the car and checked my odometer frequently. (And the cops were out in full-force!) My niece was in charge of yelling out the speed limits when she saw signs. That's the near-miss that will haunt me.

homeward bound

Saturday night we stayed at a motel outside of Washington D.C. I just didn't feal like dealing with I-95 till midnight. Or later. I had been driving for seven days. The prospect of getting home at midnight wasn't pleasant.

I really didn't walk all that much Sunday.  So this is 100% a travel piece.

Since we did D.C. on the way down, we decided to go to Baltimore. We picked Fort McHenry and the Edgar Alan Poe. Well, actually we just picked Poe, but they didn't open till eleven on a Sunday and we needed to do something easy.

The previous day we started playing the license plate game. (We did paper, but now there is a lot of apps for that.) The girls were running out of things to talk about and do. Initially I said no parking lots, but we weren't getting very far and only had 3.5 hours left. When we arrived at Fort McHenry and there in the lot was Hawaii and Alaska. What's the chance of that happening?

The sign inside the lobby said flag changing was at 10 am. It was 9:30ish. Angel told the girls she wanted to see that. They use a variety of flags depending on the day and what they are celebrating. We also noticed that there were also some civil war reenactments on the lawn outside of the fort. (Wrong war, but what do we know.) So we're walking around, checking out the cannons and we hear a drum and bugle corp warm up. Music! That got the younger teens attention. The band was dressed for the civil war and there for some sort of summer program. (Ethnic, age, and gender diversity in the racks) The ranger comes out with a massive folded flag. He starts talking and introduces the musicians and tells us a little about Francis Scott Key and the evolution of the Star Spangled Banner.  The Ranger introduces the musicians why he's using the 35 start flag today.





Angel and Frances were in the shade under the porch. Eva was near the band. So I was standing with a group of strangers when the ranger said this section (pointing to us) come here. So we went, and the triangle started to unfold as we arrived. I had the top grommet. (That's my fat tush in the grey pants and the black tee. Angel took the video.) I was concentrating so hard not to drop the flag and listen to instructions I didn't even hear the band. I was the first to let go.

The band  played a total of four songs during the ceremony including Yankee Doodle, Battle Cry of Freedom, and the Star Spangled Banner.

After finishing up at the fort, we drove to Edgar Allen Poe's House. It's in the middle of a public housing development. It's the only old house in the neighborhood. It is tiny with steep, narrow, stairs. How four people lived in that house I'll never know.

He is buried in the coolest cemetary ever a few blocks from his house. It's part of a church yard. Since he was poor he is in the way back corner. This is his original stone. After his death, he became hugely popular so they put a ugly, out-of-place-monument in the front corner of the cemetary. It's hiddeous. He'd be appalled.

I'm home now. Back to reality.

beauty and a beast

Today we didn't walk much, so technically I shouldn't be talking about it. But oh well, rules were meant to be broken.

We attempted to go to the Sylvan Height Bird Sanctuary in Scotland Neck, N.C. on the way down, but North Carolina is closed Monday's. I promised the girls we'd go back. Today was the day. It's about the same size as the Lehigh Valley Zoo, and has the same loop pattern. But instead of being filled with lions and tigers and bears...oh my...it was filled with birds. There were areas where you could go into the enclosures. There was also areas where you could interact with the birds after passing thru a double set of doors.

And they had another one of those painted fish.

Next stop was the Cryptozoology and Paranormal Museum in Littleton. Main Street was filled with many vacant storefronts. This was a stop for the younger teen. She loves this stuff and it was her 14th birthday. The older teen promised not to laugh hysterically and was true to her word. It was a fun diversion.

All in all we walked maybe three miles. But only because we ate lunch and walked around the block to take pics of murals, ghost signs and a little house.

We bid farewell to the Carolinas. I will not miss being hammered by religious evangelism on billboards and front lawns.

nearly stepped on a 'gator

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to both the teens on the road trip. One was today, the other tomorrow.

Today we went backwards toward Georgia, to the South Carolina coast. Our first stop was the Carolina Tea Plantation where we found out everything we needed to know about tea. For example the bush is really resilient and with proper care could live forever. Everything, but harvesting is done by hand by two people. Occasionally, like when the new bushes are planted, they hire seasonal labor. We really didn't walk much here. A trolly took us around the farm.

We also did the factory tour. It was behind glass. The factory is one guy. The trimmed bushes go in one hopper, get crushed in another, and dried in the third. Then it gets packed.

The second stop was at the Angel Oak tree on Jones Island. This tree is 500 years old. We missed the road. It was a gravel driveway. I turned, but thought it was the church parking lot. So I pulled out. The GPS yelled at us. I tried again and followed what I thought was an alley. It wasn't.

Next stop was the Magnolia Plantation and Garden. It's original life was as a rice farm that had 171 slaves. We did the volkssport walk here. Mostly. We followed the directions past the slaves quarters and then thru the swamp. We stopped at the African American Cemetery and continued on the boardwalks.

I'm reading the next set of directions and the girls are yelling at me. I stopped. They said "look" and pointed. I skimmed right past a 4' alligator. I nearly stepped on it.

The instructions then took us into the formal gardens. That's when we did our own thing.

All in all we walked about 5 miles today. The day started out with no humidity, but it built thru the day. The heat index was 107.

We are headed home. Away from the mosquitos who bite you with Off! on. One week in the south and we've used nearly a whole bottle. It takes me 10-years to use a bottle.

52-Hike Challenge:   33/52

this sounds more like a food blog ...

The girls decided they wanted to go to the University of Georgia Aquarium. It's a saltwater aquarium on Skidaway Island, featuring 16 tanks that showcase Georgia's marine life. This is not Baltimore. Or even Camden. It's tiny but well done. Most of the species were caught by the staff. They also have a touch tank where the girls reverted to three year olds.

Then we took the nature trail around the property. The star of this walk was the 300-year-old tree.

Then we headed to Tybee Island. You know me, if there's a lighthouse close by I need to climb it. All 178 steps. It gets harder ever year. Why am I not fitter? We walked around the complex and over to the museum which was housed in an old bunker. It was a maze of small rooms and stairs.

We headed out of Georgia toward Charleston. We did not take 95, but rather we drove on state roads, sometimes close to the coast. It was a lovely ride and only about a half-hour longer than the highway. There we discovered "Chicken Licken" a dive fried chicken place. We were there a while because they had to fry the chicken. Everything was delicious and there was no grease on the paper under the chicken. We go a 8-piece and it was plenty for the four of us. I think it was our first real southern food. (It was, however, an environmental disaster. Everything was in styrofoam!)

As we continued toward Charleston I saw a weathered billboard for Carolina Cider Company. It said Pies, pastries and PEACH cider, 5 miles.  I knew I had to go. I was fairly sure that the GPS would make us turn before we got there, but I was hopeful. It was a tiny place and I almost drove past. If it wasn't for the retro sign I would have. They had multiple fruit ciders, butters and jams. We bought the peach. I was hoping to drink it tonight, but the girls swam instead.

After checking into the hotel in Summerville, S.C.--where sweet tea was invented--we chose to walk in Azalea Park. I'm sure it is beautiful in the spring. Now it was mostly green. But it had a great walking path and a really nice sculpture garden.

All in all we walked about 5.5 miles today.

Tomorrow we will be doing a volkssport walk at a magnolia plantation. And we'll be going to Jones Island to see  the 500-year-old Angel Oak Tree. Then it's off to a tea plantation, maybe, to see how tea is made. We're hoping to get near to the bird sanctuary in North Carolina before the end of the day. Angel is worried we may never leave South Carolina's low country.

52-Hike Challenge:   32/52

gators!

Odd title for a blog about a day in Savannah. Right?

After the worse hotel breakfast ever, we headed into Savannah to do the "historic Savannah" volkssport walk. We chose the 5k route because it was hot and humid. Thankfully the walk took us thru a lot of areas that were shaded by cypress trees. I think 3/4 of the walk was in the shade. That helped with the heat, but not the humidity.

The town is beautiful. And the ironwork was incredible. Clearly this section of town is wealthy. I'm sure there is impoverished neighborhoods but those are not visible to the tourists.

We had the best ice cream ever at Leopold's. The girls had been asking for ice cream since we left and Angel's reply was always the same. As soon as we can get local food. That was the food theme. Minimal food from chains. (Except Angel wanted to go to a Waffle House and an Ihop. They were on her food bucket list.) 

The purpose of this trip was to visit Juliette Low's house. Our reservation was for 12:45 and we made it with 10 minutes to spare. I've been wanting to see this place since I was about 7. It's a great house, but it's just a house. I had no idea that she was trained as an artist. Her work is quite good. Girl Scouts spin quite the yarn about Daisy's life. It's all empowerment, self-sufficency and vision. But Angel was close enough to over hear the real story about her marriage, divorce, and her husbands death. It isn't the type of story to tell little girls. But without the hardship, would we have Girl Scouts?

After a late lunch at a local sushi place, we walked to a honey tasting at Savannah Bee. I could have bought a dozen bottles. There was maybe 12, and I loved at least five, and liked another six, and hated one.

We were going to walk back to the Visitor's Center by the way of the first Girl Scout Headquarters. (The carriage house at her father-in-laws house). But the clouds were getting  dark and the wind was kicking up. A storm was coming. We took a more direct route to the VC and dove to the Headquarters. They were closed on Wednesday, so we couldn't go in.

Driving in to downtown from the 'burbs, we kept passing a sign for the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. The storm lasted about 10 minutes, and by the time we reached the sign it was mostly over. I turned. I decided that I wanted to check it out. We were just going to stop, look at some maps and leave. There was hiking, but there was a driving tour thru the marsh. I said we were going. It's only 4 miles. Maybe 20 minutes at 20 MPH. I realize that this is a walking blog, but it was amazing. With the exception of the red-winged blackbirds I didn't know any of the birds. And then my neice said OMG there's a gator. And there was. And there was another one.

The road was four miles and one-way. A car was coming toward us. WTF? The man rolled down his window and said there was a tree blocking the road, we'll have to turn around. We made it about 1.25 miles before we had to turn back.

By the time we reached the highway rush hour was in effect. And an accident. It took a half hour to drive the mile back to the hotel.

Today we walked about 7 miles in nearly 100 degree heat and high humidity.

52-Hike Challenge:   31/52

iconic destination.

Day three of the trip to Savannah. Today we finished the drive thru North Carolina, and entered South Carolina. You all know what that means ... South Of the Border. The ticky, tacky, kitshy, tourist trap off of I-95. Since 1949 this place has been luring people off the road.

They've added a lot of stuff over the decades. It has a motel, campground, restaurants, beach-like shops, reptiles, zip line, paint ball, swimming .... It even has it's own pedestrian bridge to cross the road. I've never been there before but I've been hearing about it for years.

It was pretty empty when we arrived around 10 am. The girls weren't into it. I think my niece was appalled. But they softened up and managed to enjoy themselves. I even got them to go up the 200' high sombrero tower. I really, really, wanted to climb the stairs. To insure that everyone went, I payed the $2 admission.

Next stop was the Swan Lake Iris Garden. On the visitor center side of the street, the trail around the lake is about 3/4 mile.  The lake has numerous species of swans. And a lot of geese who were mooching from the swans feeding stations.

This garden has a few cypress trees in the lake.  Around the rim of the lake are other cypress tree and many "knees" -- roots which are trying to reach the water to create new trees. A third variety lives away form the water.

There were also magnolia trees. They were just starting to bloom. What was cool were the "arms" coming out of the trunk creating new trees. There irises were done but there was a braille garden, a chocolate garden and a butterfly garden.

Climbing the stairs and crossing the pedestrian bridge, we entered the other half of the garden. A totally different world. First was the hydrangea garden and a large grassy area with a gazebo, tables and a hobbit house. The rest of the area was a marsh filled with cypress trees. You walked on a boardwalk thru a cypress forest. It was beautiful. Pictures don't do it justice. It was like something out of a movie.

At this point we had walked about 3.5 miles, but there was more to come.

After checking into the hotel, we headed downtown and went down some historic STEEP stairs toward the river. There was an alley between the river walk and the stairs. It was cobblestone. I could almost picture people in the 19th-century pouring out of their houses to go to work up those killer stairs. We looked in some stores, and we walked along the river before heading up a different set of historic stairs. These were not quite as steep. We went into town a bit and then headed back to the motel. We knew we arrived when we saw the sign for the Waffle Ho_se.

Total mileage for the day -- without a hat -- six.

52-Hike Challenge:   30/52