day three—canals, bridges and zoos

Bonnie says I should not blog when extremely tired. I make lots of typos and create the worlds worse sentences. Since I do not want Miss Schmidt to come back from her grave and haunt me, I went back and fixed it. I've also added photos. The sign is on the Francis Key Bridge.

We decided Saturday night to only do the 6K on Saturday. Then we could go to the zoo. Walking started at 8.

We arrived at check-in promptly at 8 and headed out the same direction as every other day. Once we crossed the Francis Key Bridge, on the right side this time,  into Georgetown, we headed under the bridge and walked on the Chesapeake and Ohio tow path. It's much different than our D&L. It's very narrow, and lined with walls or factories that have been converted into apartment/condos.

Even their boats are different.

The trail ended and we headed into town, walking toward the Kennedy Center. Around the Center, back over the Teddy Roosevelt and back to the hotel. We had about a 15-20 minute break while the Army 10-mile runners crossed the road. I have no idea how many people were running, but it never let up. When it thinned a hair, we were able to get across.

Earlier int he day we found out that there was a Volkssport Zoo walk. So when we were having our books stamped, we asked. The volunteers printed us the info and we were off.

Starr was having a really bad day. First she wouldn't pick up, then she was slow. We were nearly across the bridge when she was telling us to cross the bridge. This provided some serious issues in town. It probably took a half hour for a 10 minute trip. Also, there was detours. If she said "recalculating" one more time I was going to scream at her. Finally she got us to the McDonalds checkpoint. Finding the zoo was easy.

Finding parking was not.

 I now understand why the pedestrian gate is so large. They want you to use the bus, train or foot. They don't want you to drive. We ended up parking at the end of the zoo. We did the volkssport walk fromt he middle to the end and then from nearly the beginning to the the middle. We cut off the walk from McD's part.

Heavy traffic coming home, but all in all a good weekend.

Our only selfie of the weekend.

rain!

It's been a very long time since I did an entire 5k in the rain. I've had close calls, but the rain always seems to stop, not today.

Today was the Allentown Rotary 5k at the Trexler Game, scratch that, Nature Preserve.

When I picked up Lyd it wasn't raining. But by the time we got to LCCC it was. Sometimes hard. We registered and then went and sat in the car till 15 minutes before the race started to stay dry. (right) Both of us had "plastic bag" rain ponchos.

We started by walking down a gravel macadam hill to the start/finish line. When the horn blew we were off and continued down the paved hill, further and further and further. Because we were at the game preserve we passed a herd of Rocky Mountain Elk. (One buck and eight does equal on lucky boy.) I'm guessing the hill was 3/4 of a mile. It wasn't steep but it was long. It was also scattered with wet leaves and slippery black walnut shells.

We crossed the footbridge and then a slippery, wooden pedestrian bridge. I really wanted to forge the creek, that's the best part of going to the game preserve, but frankly the creek looked like a river. (left)

There were two spots on the covered bridge trail that had a wooden boardwalk. The lady in front of me fell on her butt on the first one. I took my time. I slipped, but didn't fall.

As we approached the covered bridge I had an odd thought. I've done a lot of 5ks this summer that involved covered bridges. It's beginning to feel like the covered bridge trail on foot. We crossed the covered bridge and headed back to the pedestrian bridge trail. And back up the long hill.

I was doing pretty good till the hill then lost steam as usual. Six or eight people passed me. I finished in 54:55. Lydia finished in 58:39.