fat girl, shoveling

First time I've typed those words in 2015. It took a generous hour to shovel the front sidewalk, the garage and the back sidewalk. I'm thinking we received about 6 inches. I was not missing the days where I had to do five sidewalks. The first round of shoveling netted me about 1500 steps. Cool.

Thank goodness we got the snow and not the freezing rain. Ice is pretty, but it's dangerous.

I'm really itching to go snowshoeing. I could have walked up and down my block. They didn't plow until 12:00. (The alley at 12:30.) But alas, that is not in the cards today. Shoveling, school, now driving to the airport will take up my daylight hours.  I did manage two trips around my personal block, looking to see what was shoveled and what wasn't.

Another storm is coming Monday. Looks like Mother Nature has finally synced her calendar.

Do you want to build a snowman?

walking update

The Idita-Walk starts on February first. Looks like I'm headed to Alaska alone this year.  Barb and Dave are staying home, Bonnie has radiation, Lydia is broke, and Megan is now full time, plus a baby. The Nome Nugget Inn will not be the same.

The Tail On The Trail is hinting at a winter challenge. I'll also be doing that.

Last time I miss-spoke. Or is it miss-wrote? It occurred to me today as I was walking. On Tuesday-Thursday school days I am not walking as much, but I am walking. It's the infamous walk around the block. Up Fiot or Sassafrass to Wyandotte, and then down the opposite hill to Broadway. Out Broadway to Bishopthorpe and home. Or vise versa. It's not far. Maybe a generous half mile. But it's difficult. I get about 12 flights of stairs with the hills. And the incline is only three blocks.

The sidewalks on Fiot are horrific. I try and walk in the street.

Then, I park the furthest away from school, and hike to my building on the opposite side of campus. Two ways. Again, not far, but also not sitting on my butt.

Am I making 10K steps? Not even close. But for January, I guess it isn't bad. I'm okay with it. The two challenges shall motivate me. I usually reach Nome in about 2 weeks. I need to beat last years total, even if it's by a minute.

Golly I miss my camera. Taking pictures was one thing that got me to walk.

I'm trying to eat better. I certainly am eating less. Angel is logging my food on myfitnesspal. I don't even have the log in. PROTEIN. Every day she says eat more protein.

I am trying to stay positive. Not easy for me. I am a real negative Nancy. But I am determined to stop making a mountain out of a molehill. A lot of other family and friends have it way worse than me. Be thankful for what I have. Not for what I don't have.

To that end, I've also stopped posting on FB, at least for a while. I've also started moving my more zealous friends to the acquaintance list. The negativity was bringing me down.

it's a balmy 35 today.

I haven't walked much in the past few days. The bitter cold turned the sidewalks into skate rink. At least in my neighborhood.

Today it was a sunny and balmy 32 when I headed out around 12:30. The sun, however, was deceiving. It was still cold. Especially when the wind blew.

I did my typical hilly walk with minor changes. Instead of going up Fiot, I went up Ontario. I don't think that it is quite a steep. Maybe. (But I still achieved 35 floors today.) The sidewalks on Wyandotte stunk. Icy sidewalks and 8% grade do not mix. But I stayed upright. Then I went up 8th and thru Lehigh's campus.

I went down Taylor, and came back the Greenway. Out Broadway, Up Wyandotte and out Sioux to home. I guess it was about 2.5 miles.

I take a variation of this route often. There was just nothing new to take a picture of.

School starts again tomorrow. Vacation is over. Let the merry-go-round begin.

fell into a ground hogs hole

Today I had off from my day job. (I just finished the night one.) So it was my turn to drive Bug to swim lessons at Memorial  Pool. (Yeah, Eryn finally got a learners permit!)

So we pull into the pool parking lot. I tell her I'm going for a walk, and I should be back in time, but if not, I left the car open, or she could sit on the lawn or the stoop and wait. Off she goes.

The pool sits at the top of the hill. So I decided to check out the "stairs" function on my new Fitbit. Stairs is really not the right word. What it really measures is inclines up. I headed down the driveway, then down the hill to Monocacy Park, then up the hill to Center Street.  I received a 5.

I turned around came down the hill, headed thru the park, over the waterfall bridge and back, and headed up the hill and up the driveway. At this point I was at 12. Clearly, it's steeper going up.

It was only 11:40. Still about a half hour to go. So I decided to loop the pool and the dog park. There were people everywhere. Apparently the come for both age level swim lessons and just hang out till the pool opens. They even bring coolers with lunch!

I returned to the entrance of the pool and there was still time, so I looped the pool again. This time, I was at the front of the pool and zig zagging up and down the grassy bank. I stepped in a groundhog hole and tumbled. Thank goodness I didn't roll! I am becoming a professional faller. When I was done my stair count was up to 18.

A pretty decent workout. I finished at the same time as Bug.

But something was quite different at the pool. Little of the grass was mowed. 70%, maybe is allowed to go fallow for environmental reason. They even put up a sign. But we all know it's a lot cheaper to leave big lawns go fallow than to mow.

Paths were mowed around the pool, the dog park, and another down to the street near the edge of the property, and a fourth down to the Monocacy trail.

volkssport walk, with a twist.

I thought today was the Bethlehem North Volkssport walk. At some point the rearranged the schedule and it was switched to Philly. Who'd want to go to Philly when mass transportation is on strike! Certainly not me.

So Lydia and I did the Bethlehem North walk. With a twist.

Volkksport walks use well established trails and sidewalks. Instead, we followed the route but spent a lot of time walking along the creek, railroad tracks, and offshoots of the main trial. That same old walk was suddenly exciting again.

For example, in Johnson Park we found this in bricks. It say "Monocacy Park". It's a WPA project so it's been there since the 30s. I've walked in this park for 50 years, but never went near the walls and stairs. What else is lurking there?

What about a tunnel. Where does it go? Does Bethlehem have catacombs? what is lurking under the senior center?

We found paths on Sand Island that I never knew about. Today's volkssport walk turned into a bit of an adventure.

one thousand three steps

Yesterday we planned to do the Wegman's walk. Lydia overslept and didn't come, Bonnie was a little late, and the walk evolved into the Lehigh stair climb.

We are nothing, if not flexible.

I left my camera at school, so the photos are from my phone. Actually, they are not half-bad.  We headed up the hill to Sioux and out Sioux to Wyandotte. Since this walk is traditionally short, we walked down the Wyandotte street hill to Broadway.

The sidewalks on Wyandotte are a mess. Almost as bad as Fiot.

We headed out Broadway to Fourth, and then to New.  We headed up New to Campus Square. And started our stair climb. Problem is we didn't start counting until we almost arrived at Packer Avenue. Oops. bonnie guess-timated 35. I think it was closer to 75. But oh, well. I was not walking down and redoing them! We took the selfie in front of the Love sculpture.

 Then we started climbing stairs. I have no idea where we were on campus. The picture below is Bonnie going up a long flight next to Grace Hall. We came back down on the other side of the Neuman House and went back up next to Zoellner.

Ultimately we ended up at the top of the hill where the frats and sororities are. Then we had to come back down, trying not to go down stairs.

On our way up we were at about 700+. I said we need to get to 800. But then we were at about 850. So of course we had to get to 900. Which turned into about 925, then we had to get to 1000. It's a horrible mind game.

We were at about 975 so we went down the hill and came back up to 8th Street via  the stairs betweent eh parking deck and Chi Psi. We were three short. So we went down a flight and back up.

Total stairs: 1003.
Total Distance: 4.1 miles.

Then we headed home.

Afterwards I went to New Balance and bought new sneakers. Made in the USA of course.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the St. Patrick's Day 5K in Allentown.

the grocery store

If you are too lazy to shovel a larger space, you park on the sidewalk.

About 2:00 I walked to the grocery store. It's about a mile from my house. I was not busy. It took nearly 1.5 hours. Let's just say the walking wasn't easy.

Thankfully most people had shoveled. However, few—including businesses—shoveled out the corners. And we had 15 or 20 inches of snow.

I had walked out Itaska toward Wyandotte. In the street. It was a sloppy mess. I crossed to Wyandotte  and encountered my first wall of snow. Wyandotte is a busy street. Walking in the street was not recommended. I had to go all the way to Summit, around the corner and out to almost Carlton before I could enter the sidewalk.

To make matters worse, the plows piled snow at the corners. Then the residents piled theirs on top. There were walls of snow to climb over almost 4 feet high. The five points was ridiculous.

At Ontario and Broadway there was a path cut. It lead to a puddle. I thought is was a small puddle. Wrong. It came up past my ankle toward my calf. There was a woman behind me (we climbed the snow walls together) with a 3- or 4-year-old.  I turned around and said to her, watch the puddle it's nearly as deep as her! She laughed. But she picked the little one up. Hard with bags of groceries on her arm.

When I returned home the plow had come thru the alley. So I had to re-shovel in front of my garage. Then I offered to help the man next door.

It's going to snow again tomorrow. I guess I won't get to snow shoe again. Junk park is better for sledding.

it's official!

We walked over to the Hotel B today and changed the volkssport envelopes to my address. Also put my contact information in several places in the binder. It's official. I'm now the point of contact for the Bethlehem trail. Tomorrow we'll do Allentown.

Then we headed out Church street to come home. Bonnie stumbled on the sidewalk. Thank goodness she didn't fall again. Her hubby is so overprotective now, she might never get to leave the house again!

We took the Fahy bridge back to the south side. When we arrived at the Comfort Suites we decided to back track to New Street. The new signage was finally complete at the entrance of the Greenway. I wanted to check out for the Bethlehem-South volkksport walk.  It was done by a Boy Scout. Aren't you shocked. (What would trails be without Eagle/Gold  award projects?)

Now I' a graphic designer by trade. This sign really bothers me. The side in the photo faces the entrance to the trail. Can you see the word Greenway? Of course not. I want to see South Bethlehem Greenway BIG so I know where I am. Then give me the story. And why he included the ribbon cutting on the right is beyond me. Half the sign is wasted and the hierarchy is off.

Bottom line. This sign is not doing it's job.

 The other side which talks about the railroad is much better and more visually compelling.

On the way back fourth street, we saw this sign is in the window at Deja Brew coffee shoppe. I'm really glad it's there. But why do we need signs like this? It's 2013. It's legal for homosexuals to marry, but you many not feed your child naturally in public. This is really screwed up.

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update 10/8

Ooops. Wasn't supposed to change Allentown yet. I don't take over that route till January. Just a little over-zealous Gayle. Now I have to go back to the Comfort Suites and change some of the envelopes back. The rest I'll band together and put in the bottom of the box for January 2014.

tamaqua

This morning we did a Volkssport walk in Tamaqua. I thought I was walking in south Bethlehem. Houses looked similar. Broken sidewalks. Bricks and slate and nothing at all. Though the hills might have been steeper. And the stores a little emptier.

The Tamaqua Train Station, the meeting point, is beautiful. They've done a lovely job of restoring it.  They were set up outside near some old, rusting rail cars.

One featured PP&L's old Reddy Kilowatt character. It drove us crazy trying to remember his name. Childhood was a long time ago. On the way home Bonnie called her husband. He quickly said Sparky Kilowatt. It sounded right. But the all knowing Wikipedia said it's Reddy. Actually, according to the Wiki, he was used by multiple utilities across the land. PP&L used it from 1935-1981. I think that's about the same time as they lost their &.

This "march" (that's what they call walks) was organized by the Susquehanna Rovers club. (That's Rover in the picture.) They were lovely ladies, and one gentleman, who like to talk. It was hard to leave! The 5K first loop was the town loop. Basically we went up one hill, down another, and back up again. One time we got to walk down 100 steps. There was steps everywhere to manage the hills.

The second loop was on a rail trail—the Schuylkill River Heritage Corridor. I looked it up online when we got home because it was awful not well developed. According to the website, it appears that the Tamaqua section hasn't been improved yet. But even for an not improved trail you would think that there would be signs. There were no trail markers near the streets. When you got to an intersection there was one, but it was facing the trail, not the street. And no parking. Most of the time the trail was one person wide. And there was nothing to look at —except for one intersection—other than weeds. I am so spoiled by the D&L.


We did find a few painted rocks, mostly hidden by weeds.And a lovely intersection with a flag pole and plastic flowers. Maybe that will be the trail head in the future.

When we returned to the train station, a little farm market had popped up. I got peaches and early apples. Bonnie also got peaches, apples, and tomatoes. It's always good to stash cash in your backpack.

After we returned home I took Pat and Sharon to the Russian church for the food festival. Lunch was probably on anybody's diet. I had kilbasa cooked in beer, sauerkraut, a fat roll, and a lager.

Because of the Tamaqua trip, I didn't get to Veg Fest.  Though I heard one of the vendors had an explosion. That's not good.

Tomorrow we will check out the new section of the Saucon Rial Trail, in Coopersburg.

failure and redemption

After nearly two solid weeks of walking every day, and posting everyday, I failed yesterday. Big time.

I haven't posted, but I did walk Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunchtime. Nothing really exciting happened. Which is kind of the problem with blogging each day. I'm okay with that. Frankly, my totals those days are not very high, usually in the 7K to 8K range. But my long weekends more than make up for it.

Yesterday tropical storm Andrea came to town and it rained, and it poured, and then it rained more. No big walk in the 'burbs with Betsy. In addition I spent a lot of time in the car. I drove Bonnie to Hand Therapy, then went and had my hair cut, then back for Bonnie. Then I spent the whole afternoon doing my weekly grades. I looked at my pedometer and I was only at about 1,500. I was shocked.

I needed to go to the store, but it was pouring again, so I took the car. When I arrived, I walked up and down each aisle trying to get more distance. It didn't help much. I finished the day with

 

That's just embarrassing. And I was seriously bummed.

Today we planned on going to do the last two stations of the Passport to Fitness. But they are both natural trails, and with all the rain they would have been muddy messes.

I emailed Lyd and called Bonnie to walk in town. Bonnie said yes. 

We walked from her place down to Kmart and thru the neighborhoods to Emmaus Avenue. Since my last fall we walk a lot in the street. Only using the sidewalks on busy street. Some lady passed us and yelled "Walk on the sidewalk!". Bonnie reacted, and then she gave us the finger. For a full two blocks. Beeping her horn. Talk about distracted driving. When We reached Emmaus Avenue, we headed back into the neighborhood, thru the school drive way, up the stairs, up the hills and back to her house. A zig zagged triangle. Maybe 3-3/4 miles. Redemption.

Of course I still have to do 7K more. My weekly total is

I usually finish the week at 120%+.  Maybe once I finish my class I can go out again for a while.

Last week I worked on setting up a blog for the "Walk Around the World". This really is not going to be an active blog. Just a source for information if people want to also try it. There might be one or two people out there. Let me know what you think.

Tomorrow will be another low steps day. Where it usually is a high one. I'm taking a bus trip to Cirque du Soleil (Totem) with Bonnie for her birthday. We're going out for lunch also.  But I have to get training. The half marathon is 70 days away.

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update 5:50 pm
Walked to Arhart's for a couple of groceries. I'm much happier now that I've reached my 100% for the week.

splat!

School's out for summer for the summer. (Cue Alice Cooper!) So I free time on my hands.

Wednesday grades went in. Wednesday night I annihilated all the mutant dust bunnies in my home office that have been growing, unchecked, for the academic year.

Thursday I was out at 6 am gardening. Maybe by August it will look like a garden again. Afterwards, I met with another faculty member and we cleaned our corner of the adjunct office. I had a Frosty for lunch, then spent the afternoon working in my online classes. (2 ending. 2 starting. Love overlap time.) By late afternoon I was jumping out of my skin. I needed to walk.

Besides, I haven't reached 10K steps on my pedometer all week. Need to do better if I'm doing around the world.

The original plan was to make dinner and then hit the streets. Then I remembered Bonnie is home with a busted wrist. So I called and asked if she want to walk after dinner. She said yes.

Now I know that she'd tired of walking in her hood, so I planned a 3.5 mile loop nearby. Starting at 5th street, we'd walk out Dixon, up Delaware, loop around the subdivision, out Mack Blvd, back Emmaus Ave. and then back 5th street.

When we arrive at the Mountainville Park, the children were playing on the equipment, and more children were playing baseball. I said to Bonnie, when we get back, if there's room, I'm going to swing.

And we were off.

It was a lovely walk. We were headed up Delaware and I saw a stop sign. I said to Bonnie, That's probably our turn. It should be Vine Street. I don't know if I was looking at the map or straight ahead but the next thing I knew I was headed face-first to the sidewalk.

My glasses went flying. My new hat went flying. I was a bit disoriented and turned to look at bonnie and saw a yong man with dreads asking if I was okay. I told him I was fine. Bonnie was in full nurse mode asking me to move my arms and legs to check if things were busted. Bonnie asked the young man for ice.

Next thing I know Mama comes running out. Se wants to call the ambulance. NO. I'm fine. The boy comes with the ice. Now dad is out. He wants to call an ambulance. NO. Really I'm fine. Dad helps me up. Mama is survey my damages. She really wants to call an ambulence. Bonnie told her that she'd take me when we got back to the car. A boldface lie to some very nice people. But I don't think we could have left otherwise. I did tell Bonnie that after we cleaned it up, if it was bad, I'd go to the doc-in-the-box.

Needless to say, no swings. (Boo.)

We cleaned it up. Head wounds bleed a lot. It's in my eyebrow. Most likely form my glasses.. I have one on my arm too. Bonnie put a steri-strip on it one-handed. No need to go to the doc-in-the-box.

My camera was in my pocket and it is dead. It's only 6 months old. Clearly not a model built for my lifestyle. I'll need to get a new one before tomorrow.

And my sunglasses are also broken. Thank goodness I had them on and not my real glasses!

Tomorrow is the P'burg Relay for Life. Our friend Beth is one of the organizers. No walking for her since her knee was destroyed in an accident. So now she organizes. We'll walk in circles for a few hours. (Each loop is 1/4 mile) The P'burg High track is rubber. If I fall there will be a soft landing.

Sunday is Color Me Rad. You'll be able to find me easily in the pictures. I'll have the colored bandages on my forehead.

northeast bethlehem

I'm looking for new routes to walk. I'm getting tired of the same old, same old. So I decided we'd walk in northeast Bethlehem.

We started at the CVS by Liberty High School and headed out Linden to Butztown, out Butztown to East Blvd, then back Easton avenue. It was a huge triangle.

When I was mapping routes I did a bunch. I could have sworn this one was 3.185. miles. About a 5K. Clearly I was wrong. Lydia's phone had it at about 4.125 and she went back to the car about 5 blocks before the end. I rempapped it on Google pedometer and it was 4.5 miles. Oops.

I can report that the sidewalks on the north side are almost as bad as the south side. But there are no garbage cans or other obstacles t walk around. It was a relatively flat walk, but pretty uneventful.

We all shared Lyd's bottle of water while walking. Bonnie and I both left ours at my house. So when we arrived back at CVS she went inside for some. She came out with BIG CHILL. She bought it because the bottle was cool. My typographic obsessions are rubbing off.

It turns out to be distilled, and the CVS brand. It was wet and did it's job. Nothing to write home about.

After the water break it was off to the butcher to pick up Bonnie's Easter ham, and home.

Of course, we took Adonis out for his walk.

Total mileage for today. 5 miles.

Next weekend we have a 10K on Saturday (6.2 miles) and a 10 mile race in Harrisburg on Sunday.

 A yard on our route. There was more against the house.

east allentown

Today we did the East Allentown triangle. It's a hair over 3 miles. Closer to the marathon we'll do it twice, once in each direction. That will add hills and other challenges.

We started at Planet Fitness and headed east on Hanover, with a quick photo stop in front of Scoobie's Gentleman's Club. 

Then we headed west on Union, and came down Irving and back Hanover. The new pedestrian safety island is nice, adds a little something to the 'hood. Will it help save lives? Not sure.

I must say that the sidewalks in Allentown—at least where we were walking—are much better than some of the ones we walk on regularly.

This route can be made four miles quite easily, and even six when it is closer to the half marathon. Which for Bonnie is in May. I'll have to plan loops, so those who do want to go the distance, don't have to.

I also took a pixs of a new restaurant. I thought it was a funny combo. But my friend assures me that in North Africa kabobs and pizza share space. I'd like to try the kabobs. No website. Foolish. One day I'll go anyway.

walking the circut

We have a couple of normal routes that we take for our weekend walks. They range from 2 to 6 miles, depending on what mood I'm in.

Today's was just under 4 miles. My original plan would have made it over 4, but a good training walk leader always plans for bathrooms. Today's winner was McDonalds. And it shaved off about a half-mile.

So we did a loop thru Fountain Hill and spent a little time in the park. According to the chalk drawing, Lydia has a "mystery man" and "is all dat!" Alas, we could not get her to reveal the mystery man, but in some other sidewalk art we discovered his name was Kenny. 


I also saw an old Girl Scout friend Eillie, on this walk. I stopped to talk a minute and Bonnie and Lydia kept going. I had to hustle to catch up.

I also took Lydia down Pawnee street and showed her grams old church and the house she grew up in.

the sidewalks are done!

The sidewalks at the five-points intersection were horrific. I use them frequently. I hated them.

That corner once housed a Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips (yum!), then an excellent mini-market, then a horrific mini-market. The buildings been empty for nearly a decade. It was an eyesore—graffiti, crumbling sidewalks and parking lot, junk cars and probably drug deals.

Earlier this summer a sign appeared that they were building a TD bank. I was excited. The corner would get fixed up. They tore down what was left of the mini-market, dug up the lot and sidewalks and started with a clean slate. Yesterday I noticed the sidewalks were open—smooth, even, corner cuts—I was happy.

I do question the wisdom of a bank in that area. It might get robbed on a regular basis! I also wonder if they'll get business. I would think people who work in the neighborhood already have banks (or a credit union like me) or they have no need for banks because they have no money. I guess we'll see.

On another note—my back.

If you remember from an earlier post, I could barely get out of bed on Monday because of my back.  I didn't walk Monday but I went to work. As the day progressed I felt better. Then I went to bed. And I could barely get up again. But this time the recovery was quicker. I walked a mile and a quarter at lunch time and was exhausted. But recovered quickly.

Wednesday I did a slower version of my brisk walk. I finished it and didn't feel horrible. When I woke up Thursday I could get out of bed in about 5 minutes. Thursday we did the brisk pace at lunch, plus a trip across campus. Friday, getting out of bed was better. Then I made the mistake of lifting heavy boxes to deliver to a client. It set me back a little, but in the afternoon I did four miles at a brisk pace with Betsy.

Saturday, I tried the intervals. I am also able to sit on the couch again, with only minor trouble getting up. Earlier in the day is worse than later in the day.

This morning I was feeling good when  woke up at 4:30. I could actually roll over in my bed. And then I sneezed the mother of all sneezes. I thought it was another earthquake. The force of it made me yell, the pain was horrific. I had more trouble getting out of bed, but I still recovered quickly.

I think my body was telling me not to push it. I got the message.

Today, Bonnie and I are going to check out the new art trail. I'll let you know how it is.

program begins

So the Program started this week. I'm not really sure what I'm allowed to say about it. I really need to ask. I keep forgetting. So I'll just in general terms.

What's important is that it's forcing me to walk at least 5 days a week. Monday was Day 1. I did about 2.5 miles, with a stop on the way home at Ahart's for groceries. (Weights!) I was going about my 5K pace. Straight out Itaska, up Wyandotte, out Summit, thru Lehigh and back Packer, Brodhead and Broadway. There was some hills, nothing major. The piece on Wyandotte is short. The best walking was at Lehigh. Awash with pink ribbons and balloons. Wish I had my camera.

The challenge for me will be terrain. If you live in the 'burbs" the terrain is rolling hills and streets with no traffic. I don't have that. I'm trying to find the flattest ways to go without using the Greenway every day. Then there is the issue of sidewalk/street quality. And construction. Lots of construction.

Today I was supposed to do intervals. I did nothing. I leave the house about 6:30 am and don't arrive home till 10 pm. Just no time. Although I took a walk at lunch time. Then ate a fat ladden sandwich.

This weekend I have two 5Ks. Maybe I can come in on both under 50 minutes. That would be sweet. But the Sunday one does have hills. The Saturday one is in Easton, it might also.

The food journal is forcing me to eat better. If it goes in the mouth it gets written down. Just like I did last fall. Everyone knows my love/hate relationship with the journal. And nutritionists in general. I think that will be the hardest part of the program. Tomorrow, maybe I'll eat better. But probably not.

interesting planning.

I work on Cattell Street in Easton. They have it torn up since before Christmas. It's been a nightmare. Now they are working on all the corners which is making walking at lunch nearly impossible.

I use this crossing every day. I wonder if they told the homeowners they were building a wall in front of their driveway? I guess the city doesn't want anyone driving down the curb cuts. The skateboarders in the neighborhood will love it.

On the up side, it will be a nice place to sit and wait for the bus.

holey-moley

Today at lunchtime we walked down to the square. (1.6 miles roundtrip)

College Hill, where the college is located (odd how that happens) is a fairly well-to-neighborhood. But their sidewalks are just as bad as everyone else's.

These photo were taken at lunch time as we headed down College Avenue, towards the Williams Visual Arts Building at the base off the hill. There's railings, and then a cliff, and then 611 and then the Delaware. But what would prevent a tiny leg falling thru these holes and down the cliff? I have visions of baby Jessica. (Anybody old enough to remember her?) What happens if you're walking and more of the sidewalk breaks away?

Thank goodness those horrible stairs are blocked by fencing but your average college student, or teenager could jump them.

With the gas explosions a few weeks ago there is lots of buzz about the state of our infastructure. I'm guessing the sidewalks will be last on the list to be fixed.

I don't know if anyone is keeping track, but I've walked every day since Thursday. Five in a row. Maybe I'm finally out of my lazy-butt rut.

garden sitting

bonnie snapped this with her telephone on wahneta street

My brother Dave went to Houston for the weekend so he left me in charge of watering the garden.

So today we walked in East Allentown where he lives. A two-fer.

We parked and dropped Sharon at Planet Fitness, and head out Hanover Avenue, then walked the long hill to the state hospital, and back down again. We were six blocks from my brothers house and had already put in a mile.

Then we worked thru the neighborhoods toward Market Street and on into Bethlehem.  When we got to 6th Avenue, we went up and came back Union Blvd to Highland, down to Eaton, and back out to Union. After crossing some bizarre intersections near the shopping centers we headed down to Cedar and then past the old Wesleyan College, down Maxwell and back to my brothers. Seven miles on the dot.

We watered the garden, ate some trail mix with dried raspberries, white chocolate, two kinds of raisins, peanuts, pecans, sunflower seeds and who knows what else and came home.

We finished the 7 miles in 2.5 hours. Bonnie was upset that we weren't on pace, but when doing urban walking you need to deal with broken sidewalks, curbs, and crossing streets. It just takes longer. A miles in 21.42 minutes isn't horrible.

Tomorrow we're doing the Ironton Rail Trail loop. The pace will go out the window. There are 19th century cement kilns calling my name. I shall stop and "shoot" them.

south bethlehem sidewalks

In an earlier post I mentioned some of the sidewalks on the south side being a challenge. Today I had my camera with me so I took a couple pixs. Photography doesn't do them justice. Later today I'll go back with a trash bag and clean up all the litter.