On Foot: Musings

I've decided to start walking around Greeley on my errands--this has both environmental and health reasons backing it, as well as the sheer number of podcasts on my Ipod I need to listen to. I've walked to my knitting group twice and to the grocery store a few times, so yesterday I felt ready for the big walk--I would walk to church, then after church I would walk to Target, grab the few items needed for the Steamboat trip, stop at Subway for lunch, and then walk back. As I thought about the mileage, I realized this would be about 7-8 miles.

It was--I spent 3 hours and 42 minutes on my feet, walking. It was one of the most intense athletic feats of my life, sad to say. As I listened to my music and podcasts, supported my canvas grocery bag on alternating shoulders, and mused about walking.

Trees: I love trees. All buildings shall be torn down and planted with leafy trees, to aid the city walker. Every time I approached a tree, my speed slacked so that I could enjoy the cool shade and extra breeze. I picked which side of the street to walked on based on the number of trees. I would also discriminate against conifers, which cast a much less delightfully cool shadow.

Breezes: The tree's best friend--the lovely cooling breeze. As I grew up in Wyoming, I'm awfully familiar with wind, and I would have welcomed any gale force today. I loved the way the breeze dried out the sweat on my neck while lifting the tendrils of hair.

U2: Judge if you must, but when I switched to U2, it set the beat to keep my weary feet walking. Just look at a chunk of lyrics of three of the songs in my U2 collection: "I want to run, I want to hide . . ." (from Where the Streets Have No Name); "If you walk away, walk away, I walk away, walk away--I will follow . . ." (from I Will Follow); "Take these shoes, click-clacking down some dead-end street, take these shoes, and make them fit . . . " (from Yahweh). I was amazed that so many songs involved walking.

Crosswalks: As I dug deeper into my miles, I found it harder and harder to make it across during the walk sign. I'd like to ask for more time to hobble across the street.

I know I had more thoughts, but as my legs recover, I am left with only one: next time I won't carry home a box of Capri-Sun.