jelly roll

Angel joined Planet Fitness about two months ago. She got the "black" card so that she could go to every PF and she could take the teen as her guest. Mostly they've used the one in Easton, but they have worked out in York and Baltimore. I think they go a couple times a week.

For the summer, PF is having a promotion where teens 15-18 can work out for free. That leaves Angel in need of a guest. This PF has classes. The one Sharon belonged to in 2010 didn't have classes. Anyway, the other day Angel emailed me to see if I wanted to go with them to a class. We picked tonight.

First was the legs and shoulders class. A half hour of arm and leg exercises. All the arm ones were done with weights. The trainer gave me 5 pound weights. Ultimately I set them down. They were just too heavy.  When the others were doing floor push ups I did them against the wall. I even did the squats against the wall. The wall is my new BFF.

The next class was the 30 Minute Circuit. "The PF 30-Minute Express Circuit combines 10 strength machines and 10 cardio-step stations. ... The circuit operates on a green light/red light system. When the light turns green, you begin exercising for 60 seconds ... the light turns red for 30 seconds (your cue to stop exercising and move to the next station). At the end of 30 minutes, you will have completed the circuit and received a full-body workout."

I did everything on the lowest weight. And the one where your legs tucked it and then pushed out I nearly got stuck in.

There was one near the end that some lady plopped her skinny ass in and never left. She sat there and played with her phone. I wanted to say "hey lady, you're ruining my torture session", but I didn't.  Instead I skipped it.

I had the teen take the pic on the last machine to prove I survived. I told Angel I'd go once a month. That's more than enough. I took some Motrin when I got home. I have 6 hours to drive and a 5K to walk tomorrow.

franco farm with lydia

Today none of the groups I walk with had walks. I'm guessing because it's a holiday weekend. So I was left to my own devices. Which is never good. I'm headed out for a walking vacation in a week and I am way out of shape.

Lydia wasn't due into work until 1:45, so I knew I could get her to come along if I told her it was mostly short and flat. Bonust she had never walked there before. (She was there for a wedding 15 years ago.) It worked! She came along.

When you park it looks like a park. Ball fields, pond, gazebo, and pavilions. You have to walk towards the woods for any paths.  All the paths connect and it's basically a big circle. The paths are mostly wide and mostly mowed grass. There are a few areas that are narrower and dirt.

We arrived home in plenty of time for her to get ready for a pre-work date.

Miles/Steps:          1.5 miles
Weather:               68, partly cloudy, breezy

Wildlife:                Heard frogs and woodpeckers. Saw turkey, oriole, robins, and squirrels

Bathrooms:           P4.5 -- Handicapped sized. It must have just been cleaned. It was spotles except for a few blades of grass.

south bethlehem greenway part 2

Lydia worked until two today, so I suggested we walk on the greenway from the skate park headed east. We planned on meeting at the skate park at two fifteen.

The greenway is paved from New Street to the casino, then it switches to unpaved larger rocks. They feel like boulders under your feet. And frankly they are the size that you use for rock painting. Then it switches to gravel near the Lynn Street bridge, and switches again to macadam at the entrance from Lynnfield Terrace. Of course it switches one more time back to gravel before it ends at Saucon Park.

As we walked under the Lynn Street bridge, there was a noise. What was that. Then we heard it again, it was frogs! In South Bethlehem. On one side we were next to a swampy area with milk week, and on the other railroad tracks and 4th Street.  Frogs shouldn't be living in the urban jungle, should they? Looking over the bridge at Lynnfied Terrace we heard several, and Lydia found one.

Further down the path, near the end, we arrived at the eagle tower and the eagles were home. There was two sets of wings, flapping up. Was she sitting on the eggs? Did they hatch? We'll never know.

Miles/Steps:          2 miles
Weather:               72, sunny and windy

Wildlife:                 two bald eagles, an army of frogs, oriole, robins, squirrels

Bathrooms:           closed at the skate park. Really? It's mid-May.

evening walk at the gap

Last night Lydia and I went to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center for a night walk. It was supposed to be geology, history and ecology, and it was all three.

Lydia took off to take pictures and I went on the hike. The group--including a half-dozen Girl Scouts---included about a dozen people and two guides. I now know more about zinc in Palmerton than I ever needed to know. Much of the ecology stuff I knew. The geology was interesting.

The river was high from all the rain. And Devils nob was menacing. Even from a distance.  My favorite part was finally learning the history of the house on the hill. I've been writing ghost stories about it in my head for most of my life.

It was a fun evening, but we really didn't walk that much.

Miles/Steps:          Maybe one mile
Weather:                80, overcast, humid

Wildlife:                 Diving duck, snail, kettle of turkey vultures riding the current, two helgamite, Carolina wreak, peregrine falcon, tree swallow

Bathrooms:            I-4.5 in the Osprey House

Extra:                     Driving home Lydia yelled stop. So I did while asking why. She said there was deer on the road. Where? I finally saw them as they scurried into the field. We didn't take the rural road home. We took 145 and 22.

south bethlehem mural walk

With this blog I'm pretty consistent about posting a walk at least once a week. Generally on a weekend. But it's clear that I did not do that this week. Why? On Saturday, instead of walking, I painted a fire hydrant. And while I was doing that someone hit my car. It was quite a way to end the week.

Sunday I went to the Bethlehem Food Coop Food Conference. I planned to walk in the Bethlehem Township park, but I kind-of ditched walking totally. I have no idea why.

Monday I was way overdue for a walk. So I did two.

The first walk was in South Bethlehem with Lydia. We walked down 4th street to Buchanon to see the new mural on Cafe: The Lodge. In the process we found cool type an d meals on HomeBase skate board shop.

We returned via the Greenway and stopped at the supermarket before heading home.

Miles/Steps:           1.7 miles
Weather:                88, sunny, hot and humid

Extra:                      We actually made two stops on the way back. Lydia hit Dunkin for a frozen hot chocolate.

bethlehem-north walk

Today was the volkssport Bethlehem-North walk. I was the group leader so there was no getting out of going. I need to be the group leader everyday. It will keep me motivated.

Lydia came along since she had the day off. But she didn't walk with the group she took 115 photos instead.

The group (above) was small. It was five walkers, and one person biking. This is the route that I had laid out about two years ago. It starts at the Hotel B, goes under the bridge to the historic area, and then up Monocacy Street to the college. You return on Center, then Market. I call this the Moravian hike. Because the Moravians are all over it like flies on fruit.

The second loop starts where the first left off and goes up to Broad, then down First Avenue past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (Miss-named because there are 550 remains!) Then past the Armory, down 2nd, under the bridge and over to Sand Island. That's where I left. The rest continued to do the loop on the D&L, and then returned to Lehigh Street, went up the hill to the Sculpture garden, and back Church.

Miles/Steps:           5 miles
Weather:                72, sunny, breezy

Wildlife:                  Lydia saw 2 mallards, a turtle, blue jay, and I saw Canadian-American geese

Bathrooms:             None used

fit camp?

Back in April I saw the post for Fit Camp beginning in Freemansburg park. It said they were launching their third season, Wednesday nights. So I went last night and nobody was there. I didn't see anything when I checked social media either. That's her primary form of communication.

As I was typing this I decided to check the Freemansburg Parks and Recreation FB page. And there it was. Starting JUNE 5. I was way too early.

So instead I walked on the track a while and then headed home. And I took a selfie to keep me accountable.

Earlier in the day I had project pickup at NCC and between students I did laps in the hall. I managed to get 2 miles in. Not in a row. But it still counts.

Off to a volkssport walk now.

ticks

Anyone know what a tick bit looks like? Thursday night after school my ankle itched. I started scratching and it just wouldn't stop. I finally looked at it and saw this.

My first thought was tick bite. But I wasn't anywhere there was ticks. But really all it takes is high grass. I'm fairly good about checking myself when I come out of the woods, but I wasn't in the woods. So I looked on line. It said the circle could appear up to three weeks after  the bite. Well that's a whole different story. But would it still itch? It also said it was often confused with a spider bite. I don't see a tick in there. Shouldn't there be a black bump where the tick is?

Yesterday when I put my ankle socks on it was right above where my sock would be, so maybe it was a tick bite.

Bonnie always says I'm cheap because I don't run to the doctor everything five minutes. First of all I have no insurance. Secondly, it usually turns out to be nothing. I know that the lyme's disease test must be paid for, even if you have insurance. (Then if it is Lyme, you get your money back. Too many people crying wolf, I guess.) Today the circle is dark, like it's drying up. It only itched for about 24 hours. Hopefully that's a good sign.

perkasie

Friday night I was supposed to do a night walk in Slatington. I was looking forward to it, but it rained all day. About 3 PM the sun came out and I was hopeful but the when I checked the post on Facebook, it was cancelled. Drats.

Yesterday it was cool and cloudy at 6 am when ten minutes of fire sirens woke me up. Not bad weather. (The fire-house and occupant, didn't make it.). No rain was in the forecast.

When I went out for the car I noticed that all the streets around me (including the 5 points) were closed. I was meeting Debbie at the Hellertown Park and Ride to go for the walk. Traffic was nuts with Wyandotte Street closed. It took me a good five minutes to get out of the neighborhood. I ended up being five minutes late.

We drove down to Perkasie and missed a turn a half-mile from the event. We ended up being late for that as well. Debbie said, isn't that them walking? We found a place to park and joined them. We walked quite a while before I said to Debbie, I think we're with the 10K group. We were.

I'm not used to doing 10K. anymore. And this walk had a lot of hills and went thru many residential neighborhoods. That's where we saw this brick wall with deer murals.

Then we went into at least two parks (Group shot on double bridge in one),

ending with the Liberty Bell tunnel.

We also walked past a few murals. This one was at the parking lot for the municipal building.

And this was the side of a "hippie" clothing store.

We ditched the group at the 8K mark and headed back to the car. Oddly, my Fitbit said we walked nearly 7 miles.

Miles/Steps:           6.78 miles
Weather:                 63, sunny

Wildlife:                  heard woodpecker

Bathrooms:             three comfort stations but I didn't go in any

Extra:                      There is a covered bridge on this route. I could see part of it from the park. I was too tired to go take a photo. That is so totally not me.

d&l toward allentown

I didn't walk last weekend at all. I "baby"-sat for my friend Debbie. She's had a serious of health issues and for the time-being can't be left alone. This weekend her husband had to work, and her aid was on vacation. It was fun spending a lot of time catching up. We don't see each other very often. I'll be doing it again on Sunday.

Sunday it rained in biblical proportions. Everything overflowed, including the Monocacy. Many roads were still closed Monday and Tuesday. Today I figured it would be safe to walk the D&L. And it was. However, there were some major puddles to navigate around.

We walked from Fritch Fuel toward Allentown. We had planned on walking to the bridge at the Bethlehem/Allentown border but there was a gaggle of geese and goslings. From experience I have found mama geese are nasty. I opted to turn around and go back.

Instead, we opted to look at turtles.

And Lydia took a lot of pictures. This one is a cool shot. I'd use it cropped a little in a magazine.

Miles/Steps:            2 miles
Weather:                 63, partly cloudy

Wildlife:                  2 gaggles of geese, one with three sets of goslings; 1 adult and 3 little turtles, robins, 2 yellow finch, 2 male and 1 females mallard, 2 dead frogs

Bathrooms:             none

Extra:                      When we were looking at the third set of turtles jumping in and out of the water a man came up behind us. He said "did you see the big snappers?" I said no, I had always wanted to. He said they were up the trail a bit. Not too far. I asked if the were past the geese. He said just. Dang. I've never seen them. Now I wish I would have gone past the geese. He told us that this section of the trail is an all you can eat buffet. The oldest gosling were seven last week. They are down to three. 

This man walks the trail every day to go to work. Four miles each way, plus whatever he does off the trail. He watches them on his way home. He provided us with the wildlife list. The goslings are on everybody's dinner menu. There are a pair of snappers, the little turtles, geese, mallards, three bald eagles, red tail hawks, goshawks, sharp-shinned hawks and foxes. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.