walks this week

Tuesday Bonnie and I walked in Salisbury and South Allentown. We headed from her house down Juniata, past the Fearless and thru the cemetery where Jarrod is buried. Then we headed down Chapel toward Emmaus Avenue, and headed toward the high school. We walked to the high school, down their drive and up the stairs instead of the hill. Then we zig-zagged our way back to Bonnie's.

Thursday Bonnie and I walked to the south Bethlehem Farmers Market.  We took the scenic route. From my place we headed west on Broadway and then back Delaware. We went down fourth to Taylor and back to Lehigh's Campus Square for the market. We did some shopping then started to head toward home. (Will the beans and peas ever come in?)

To come back we headed up the stairs of Campus Square. Then up the stairs to the student union. Then up the stairs to eighth street. Bonnie said I damn near killed her. It beats walking up a hill. I'm guessing we did about 250. I didn't count them.

We headed down eighth to Wyandotte, crossed and out Sioux to Bishopthorpe and home.

After the hail storm I headed out to Wifek's graduation. I parked in my typical almost-off campus parking spot and headed to the gym. A half-hour to go and they were already using over flow seating. I ended up watching the live stream internet broadcast in the cafeteria.

She received a specialized diploma. Any work she did here doesn't count when she gets back to Tunisia. She still has two more years to go. This morning she was on a plane going home.

For the long weekend I sent this schedule to the others—

Saturday -- Doing the Volkssport walk in Doylestown. Yeah, it's a bit of a drive, but it's a great excuse to go to the Mercer or the tile works. (Art is my happy place.) It starts at 10. I'll be leaving a bit before 9.

Sunday -- D&L Allentown towards Bethlehem. If I walk alone I'll probably do the whole thing and turn around and go back. If someone comes along, we can go 1.5 one way, turn around an go back. I should be at the Allentown trailhead by 9:30

Monday -- Tortoise and Hare 5K in Wind Gap. Yeah, another road trips. Hot course. Not much shade. Some hills. They take same day sign ups. I think it starts at 9, so I'll be leaving here about 8-ish.

As you see there will be lots of posts this weekend.

extreme weather, bethlehem edition

I have walked very little this week. The beginning of the week was fraught with ice and snow and arctic temperatures. Mid week was the end of the term. The end of the week was cluttered with Christmas activities and unseasonably warm temperatures.

I walked Thursday with Bonnie, and Friday with Bonnie and Betsy. On Thursday we walked in Bonnie's neighborhood. We encountered these two snow people. I'm sure they are gone today. It was nearly 70 degrees. Almost all the snow is gone.

Saturday instead of walking we baked cookies at Bonnie's. Even split 4-ways there was a lot of cookies. We make six different kinds—kiffles, choco chip, ginger, a cookie that reminded me of the Tunesian ones I've seen, peanut butter, and press cookies. But they were rolled out, and cut out. Two cookie presses and neither would work. All in all, I think my student from Tunisa had fun. At lunch time we planed a tubing adventure for winter break.

When we arrived back at my house, I walked Adonis. Does that count as exercise? Just as I returned home with the dog, all heck broke lose—a cop car, two fire engines, and a volunteer blue light car. Was there a fire? No. It was Santa and Mrs. Claus delivering Christmas gifts to the grandchildren across the street.

Today, in the fog we tried to get a tree. I picked up one student at Lafayette, and the other at NCC. All the other host students went home for winter break. (I think I have 6. Or is it 7?)

I have to tell you finding a tree is an easy task in November, but not the Sunday before Christmas. Why, I have no idea. It defies logic. (Sadly, fake ones are probably not easy to get either.) Both farms we tried were closed. Hopefully for the fog that laid over the valley like a scene from Brigadoon. Then we went to the little league lot on Easton Avenue, and all that was left was the port-o-potty. WTH? We finally got one five blocks from home—at the fire department sale at the Ft. Hill pool.

I think the girls looked at nearly every tree.

The firefighter tied it on top of the car, and home we headed. The girls carried it into the house, and Lydia was waiting for us. Getting it to stand up straight was tough. Clearly I cut the end crooked. Plus the floor is not straight. There are three magazines under the one leg of the stand.

The girls put on the lights and ornaments. They kept asking for instructions. I kept telling them to do it how they wanted it. I think they had fun.

This week, it's back to eating well and walking more.

if i had a hammer

Today we did something a little different. All in all we only walked about two miles. But we climbed a lot of rocks.

Bonnie and Lydia met me and then we went to NCC to pick up my international student. We headed out 78 for Rt. 611. Got off the Easton and decided to go straight, and take the back road. But the back road was on the OTHER side of the fireworks store. We ended up getting back on the highway!

So our trip down 611 took a side trip to Jersey. (Gas is only $3.05 there!)

After getting back on-course we headed down 611, then 32 to Ringing Rocks Park. I probably haven't been there in 30 years. Lydia has been asking to go for at least two years. I thought it would be fun for W. It was. I'm sure when she Skypes her parents tonight, she'll tell them about the crazy Americans hitting rocks.

Bonnie stayed on the edge taking pictures.

After finding many musical rocks, we continued on the trail to the waterfall. After climbing over some more rocks, we headed into the woods, across a field and ended up on a road. Bonnie decided the road would take us back to the park, no need to climb again, so out the road we went. Thankfully, she was correct.

When we got back to the car a boy scout troop was using the picnic table. I thought we just move to the Delaware Canal Park a few miles down the road. Lot's of place to park, a clean port-o-potty, but no picnic table. We ended up tailgating out of Bonnie's car. W tried ring bologna (I checked that it was all beef.) and apple cider for the first time. She liked both. Maybe next time we'll feed her Lebanon bologna. I have to make sure it's all beef first.

When we returned to Bethlehem, we went for frozen yogurt near the school.

When we returned home, we took a very anxious Adonis for a walk. Initially he was so bad I told him if I scolded him one more time we were going home. Clearly my tone was right, he behaved the rest of the time. He even did well with all the fire engines heading to Bergen street.

I need to toss out a HUGE THANK YOU to Lydia. She swapped out the broken tv for the newer tv. Lifting both those huge models alone. These are 27 inch analog with tubes. Clearly she took her Wonder Woman vitamins this morning. Then, with my help, we carried the air conditioner upstairs for the winter. All that crap is out of my living room for Thanksgiving. Of course the kitchen still looks like a war zone, but there's nothing i can do about that.

new students, mosques, pay phones, and lions

This morning I met my new international student from Tunisa. Eid is today, and I asked her if she wanted a ride to the local mosque. She was thrilled. She was bringing three friends.

She thought the service was at 7:15 am, but I got a text that it was 8:30. Then my phone started making the battery is dying noise. We went back and forth a couple times, and decided to leave at 8:00. I know that the mosque has a small lot. So I decided to check the mosques website to see about parking. Good thing I did. The service was at 8. We decided then to leave at 7:30. Then my phone dies.

I head out at 7:10 and arrive at school. No kids. At 7:40 I thought maybe they were at the ISA office. I ran across campus. Nobody. Then I ran back. Finally we connected. They were waiting inside. I was outside. They were expecting my call, but the phone was dead.  Finally we head out. They'd be fashionably late. They were okay with that. We pull onto 22 and it's a parking lot. Accident. It took 20 minutes to got from 191 to 512. Normally that's a two minute ride.

We arrive and it's over. Even if we would have arrived on time we wouldn't have gotten in. I didn't realize that there was that many Muslims in the Lehigh Valley. There was a line for the 10 am service. I told them we'd wait. But then they saw a friend, and his parents invited them for prayers and dinner, so I took them back.

I needed to call Bonnie about walking. I needed to go to Walmart to pick up Pat's Rx. Can you belive there is a payphone at Walmart. The last one, I think, on the planet. Bonnie would meet me when I got home.

Bonnie arrived 5 minutes after I did. We headed out to walk. Up Sioux, out 8th, and thru Lehigh.  We kept going up and up in Lehigh and didn't recognize the neighborhood we came out in. It was 60s 'burbs with split levels and ranches! I saw the blast furnaces, and said to Bonnie, we'll walk toward the blast furnace. Quickly we came to Hill Top Avenue and knew exactly where we were. We headed towards Zollner and I got an idea. Let's look for Volkssport check points.

These are questions you need to answer when you walk, so they know you finished the route.

For the 5K:
CHECKPOINT 1: At 4th and Taylor is Holy Infancy 
Roman Catholic Church. In what languages are services offered? __________, ____________, ______________. (English, Spanish, Portuguese. Oddly no Latin.)

For the 5 and 10Ks: CHECKPOINT: How many smokestacks are on the 
furnaces?__________________. This can be from 6-10. (Depending on which direction you are looking.)

And for the 10K: CHECKPOINT: What was the name of the original commuter railroad which this rail-trail replaced?_______________ (Philly, Easton and Windgap RR Co. formally opened on July 2, 1855.)

To do this, we ended up weaving up and down the "presidential" streets.

Our last stop was 3rd and New Streets. We wanted to visit the Nittany Lion that's been hanging out there for about a month. He's a promotional gimmick for Penn State LV. (I'm surprised he is not covered with graffiti!

However, he would not cooperate for the selfie!

over the river and back

Today was a simple walk. I was short on time. Had a lunch date with my Asian students.

We (Bonnie, Ly & I) left my place, headed up to the hospital, ad out to the Hill-To-Hill bridge. Then headed over the bridge, thru the Christmas village, and back over the Fahy Bridge and home. About 3.85 miles. Then of course we took Big A for his 1/2 mile walk.

At noon I headed to Easton to pick up my Chinese students. Then back to Bethlehem to eat at the Malaysian restaurant. Lots of driving. Belinda having a car spoiled me. Since I don't instagram your stuck looking at food here.

I just finished the sugar-fast and it was not the time to order bubble tea. Mine's the pink one. Holey Moley was it sweet. I don't remember that from the last time I had it. This time the balls were black-ish color. I chewed one, but couldn't pick a flavor. The white is coconut, and peach is iced Thai chai, and the orange is juice.

The portion sizes were not over the top like American Chinese places. Probably still bigger than they should be and I ate everything. I ordered Malaysian veggies with curry. It also had squares of tofu. The veggies were potatoes, eggplant, peas, broccoli, peppers and cabbage in a red-brown curry sauce. My tastebuds are still wide awake. A little spicy for me.  It came with rice in a separate small bowl. It was delicious and I don't think horrible with calories.

I'd go again. The girls said it was good.

Tomorrow we are walking in Catty. Bonnie and I have a wreath workshop at 10:30, and then the indie craft fair at the fearless afterwards. Lyd will meet us in Catty at 9:15 to walk.

Off to make a route now. Know nothing about Catty. This will be an adventure.

hawk mountain

Yesterday Lydia, Zahra and I went to Hawk Mountain to hike. I'm glad I have a student who likes to hike. Zahra is from Yeman. She and Lyd got along well.

Hawk Mountain is now a paid trail. (I only knew that because NCC's International program was planning a hiking trip last weekend, and HM was ruled out because of the fee.)  The last time I went there it wasn't. But that was a lifetime ago.

We parked at the Visitor's Center, paid our fee, and headed to the trail. The volunteer ticket taker took our picture.

The first part of the trail was just dirt. We stopped at the south lookout, and the intern gave us all sorts of information. Frankly it went in one ear and out the other. Shortly after that the trail got rockier and rockier. To get to the north point, we climbed a staircase made from rocks. Then turned the corner and there it was. A cliff of boulders. I stayed near the back. I'm a wuss. Lydia went a little further.

Zahra, went the fartherest. She said it's rocky in northern Yeman, and took off to explore. I was calm when I could see her green scarf. I was not when she disappeared behind the rocks. I kept thinking, what will I tell the international coordinator.

When she came back we all headed to the front most rocks. I felt old, and out of shape. Clearly I am not flexible or fearless.

But we all made it out safe and sound. I'm just a worry wart like my mother.

It took 1.5 hours to get to the north lookout and less than a half hour to get beck. But then again, we stopped a lot on our way there.

After looking at the pictures, many butt shots, I need to get rid of these jeans. They are too big.

This morning I had my first episode missing sugar. Really missing sugar. We had waffles for breakfast. Waffles with just butter are gross. No 10x, no maple syrup, not even any gross pancake syrup. YUCK.

Off to pick up Bonnie. We're doing the 9th street stairs in Allentown, then hiking thru downtown.

canal path, easton

I picked up Zahra and we stopped at Walmart for Sharon's meds. On the way to Easton she told me that they go to the square for the farmers market and she loved to walk. On to plan B!

I parked at the canal towpath, and we hiked down toward 25th street. At the bridge, we turned around and came back. Not sure how far we waked. I was more than a mile. She'd like to go along to Hawk Mountian.

Then we headed to Lafayette, and took a mini tour of the campus and the Tiffany windows.

The Eid celebration was okay, and it didn't look like they had enough food to feed all the people, so we packed up and went to Spice India. I think they made hers mild and mine extra spicy. Oops.

She was hoping that classes would be cancelled tomorrow because of the storm and they are!

hurricanes, halloween and pumpkin cookies

The weather people have been in a tizzy for a week about Hurricane Sandy hitting the mid-Atlantic. It looks like she'll arrive tonight and tomorrow.

What have I done to prepare? Nothing. I went for a walk instead. Alone. A fat girl has her priorities.

I walked to Bottom Dollar. Apparently during last year's storm, with the back injury, I forgot to process pumpkin and put it in the freezer. How could that have happened? I had to buy canned pumpkin—the first time ever.

Why cookies? Why now? I have five international host students, from two schools, and I needed to make them a trick or treat. I thought pumpkin cookies were seasonal and not-holiday specific. Four are Chinese and one is from Yeman. Tonight I'm picking up Zahra and taking her to the Eid celebration at the Lafayettel. I thought I'd deliver the others today, just in case the storm does hit.

The walk to the store was fairly short. It's only about a mile one way, and maybe a mile and a half back. The route is a triangle. But it was good to get out.

I'll walk more when we get to campus. I want to show Zahra some of Easton and the Lafayette campus.

Not the normal five or six miles we get on a weekend, but not bad for a pre-Frankenstorm.

corn maze

Today I took three of my host students to a corn maze. Wanted to show them some fall Americana.

I picked a place in Palmer, close to school. It was a nice maze. I had to go to the car and on the way back I said to myself "where are my girls?"

The little boy said "are they big or little"

"Big. Chinese."

"You're not Chinese, are you?"

"No."

"Are they adopted?"

"No they are borrowed." Now he was really puzzled.


I don't think they really enjoyed the maze, but they were polite. Several times they switched to Chinese. I said "I don't know Chinese, but I can recognize unhappy and whiny." Zili became a pro at the map. I think they started having a better time then. They liked the check-ins and playing with the punches.

We did the 1.25 mile trail and it took nearly 2 hours.

They might have enjoyed the hay ride too.

I think from here on in I'll stick with food activities.