Even though it is only tangentially related to my walk, I thought I would post this video anyway.

One of the goals of my walk was to make my 40th birthday memorable - in a giving kind of way. Well, I also decided to make it memorable by doing something that I have always wanted to do, jump out of a perfectly good airplane. So, even though my birthday is long past (the jump was delayed by weather a couple of times as well as scheduling conflicts), I finally did a tandem jump!! This is a video that I put together of the day. That's my buddy Todd, who jumped with me, gracing the poster frame of the video. Enjoy!

Now I promise I'm done celebrating my 40th...really!

Recently, I received a group of thank you notes in the mail. I was thrilled to find out that 6 students were able to go on Outward Bound courses with the money that I raised with my walk!! Very cool!!

It was almost exactly a year ago that I started this blog and embarked on this adventure. The thank you notes are a great way to wrap up and put a bow on the experience. I've copied them here for you all to enjoy!

Thank you ever so much. I am now covered in dirt and headed to the Salt Lake Airport. I could not be any happier. I went out and searched for the limit of my body and mind and discovered that it didn’t exist. As I was growing up my parents always said, “the sky is the limit,” but I must say, I have peaked mountains and touched the sky and I know I could go higher. I worked through personality kinks as I rappelled down cliffs, climbed blindfolded, realized the depth of love of my family, swam rapids, led a boat and lived each day for each and every second it was.

I am sure you are already aware, but I could not have done this without your help. I dreamt under the stars while living a dream come true.

I would have never met some of the people I now call my best friends. I have developed my life and leadership skills and over all become a better person. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

With love, E.G.

I have just experienced the 7 day river rafting wilderness course. I just had the super surprise of getting a golden ticket to the magic factory of nature. I have to say that this opportunity has been a blessing and a gift for myself and my inner person. I hope that the gift keeps giving and others like me will be able to become a better person and develop life skills and wilderness survival. I will take away many memories and life changes from my river travel. Nothing is more valuable than the love and the support from everyone I met along the way. I will complete the circle of love by telling everyone about my experience!

Thank you, D.S.

I would like to take the time now that I am at the end of my Outward Bound Expedition to thank you greatly for the generous scholarship I received from you. It was because of this award that I was able to participate in this incredible experience and spend ten days in the beautiful Montana Wilderness. As my family has always suffered from financial hardship, it was disappointing to see how expensive an Outward Bound course was and consider the possibility of not being able to enroll. Since I was younger I have looked to a program such as Outward Bound as something life altering and impacting and as I started to seriously consider a program, I was relieved to find that I could apply for a scholarship. In all honesty I was truly amazed to see just how great of an award I received for my Montana rock climbing adventure. I would like you to know that you enabled me to partake in a tremendous journey that challenged me both mentally and physically. Thank you greatly!

Best wishes, E.V.

Thank you so much for sponsoring me on this course, as I had an exceptionally amazing time. Over my two week course, I went rock climbing, canoeing, and hiking. I also had a solo, which is where you set up a tarp and what not, and have some time to yourself. I really enjoyed my solo time, as I had been with the same people for almost two weeks, and really wanted some time to myself.

From this course I learned leadership, teamwork, outdoor skills, first aid, friendship, compassion and much more. This is my second Outward Bound course, and I hope I have the chance to come back next year as well. The reason I like Outward Bound is because it isn’t any normal type of summer camp, and it challenged me physically and mentally. I believe that Outward Bound is an incredible experience and adventure, and anyone that has the chance to come should seize it. I was able to persuade my sister to come on this course, and I hope she enjoyed it just as much as I. Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity.

Yours faithfully, S.Y.

I had a great time on my Washington Wilderness Educators Expedition. The experience helped me in deciding that I want to pursue a career in Outdoor Recreation. The best part of the trip for me was the sea kayaking section. I really enjoyed learning a completely new skill that I otherwise wouldn’t have acquired. I also really enjoyed the mountaineering section because I love to hike and explore new territories. I am very grateful for the contribution you have made that allowed me to come on this trip. I hope that in the future my career will allow me to contribute in the same way for people to experience Outward Bound as I have.

B.R.

In coming to Outward Bound I became so much more. I went through a process of rejuvenation that would not have been possible anywhere else. Thank you for letting this happen.

I was on the Utah Summer Semester. We started by whitewater rafting and kayaking in Desolation Canyon followed by mountain biking, backpacking, and rock climbing. I learned much about all these skills, but through them I also became more. They helped me develop as a person gaining inner strength, understanding of myself and others. If I was unable to go, I would have missed out on this, as well as the beauty of Utah, its canyons, mesas, rivers, mountains and desert. My time at Outward Bound has let me do and grow so much in so many ways so once again, thank you for letting this become a reality for me.

Z.B.

It feels like I have officially completed this project. Except for the occasional website visit (don't ask me why I still check the stats!), my walk lives on as only a happy memory.

I'm thrilled that I ended up raising $10,603 from 75 generous donors for those nice folks at Outward Bound!!

This was such a good experience on so many levels. I met great folks. I explored interesting places. I took fun pictures. I learned how to blog. I stretched my legs. I raised some serious money. And I met all my goals. I couldn't ask for anything more!

For those of you who found this blog by accident, a big hello! I hope you enjoy my story.

Peace!

One of the things that has been really great about this walk is all the kind words of encouragement that people have given me. In fact, I think I'll save them for when I'm feeling blue. Really. Anyway, I wanted to share with you what Carol's office did. They came up with words to Do Wah Diddy Diddy that Carol shared with me on the day. Pretty fun!

Click on the picture below to make it readable.

The donations for 40 at 40 now total an amazing $10,428. Wow! Thank you all SO much!!

I've been writing thank you cards to all who have donated. If you haven't heard from me within a few of weeks of giving, please let me know. I want to make sure your donation was credited to my walk. Can't trust those computers!

I've decided to stop counting donations to the walk on my actual birthday which is at the end of November. That gives any of you nice people who stumble across this blog an opportunity to send a little love should you be inspired.

There are still a lot of folks who mistakenly think that I walked on my actual birthday. I wrote a post a while ago about why I was walking on Memorial Day, quite a few months before my birthday. Well, now I've thought of another reason. I love that I was able to walk basically from sun up to sun down. It seemed fitting to get to my destination at sunset.

I want to share with you a story that has been inspiring to me. I posted on the forums over at About.Walking.com thinking that the community would be interested in, well, my walk. One of the responses was from Butch. Butch, it turns out, walks a lot. He walks because a medical condition prevents him from driving. Unfortunately, where he lives, in suburban Birmingham, AL, there is a distinct lack of public transportation. So, instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for himself, he walks. A lot. Here are a couple of his posts.

I'm 53 and have never had the opportunity to drive and live in a metro area (Birmingham, AL) that sees no value in public transportation. Well, I loved walking anyway, and have been walking 40 miles in the same day for all of my adult life. Though these long treks were forced on me through my community's resistance to decent mass transit, they have also enriched my life immeasurably with the many different kinds of experiences I've had.

I'll share one story that made our local papers. My other great love is baseball and our local Double A minor league team used to play in America's oldest ballpark, 4 miles from I live. That was a nice 8 miles to walk to see the games. But aging Rickwood Field kept having maintence problems so the owner moved the team to a nicer area of the county 20 miles from where I live. Hoover, AL, where the Barons now played, also refused bus service. So I did what I always do in these situations - I walked. The year was 1994 and the Barons had a very famous player that year, Michael Jordan. The ushers had seen me walking to the ballpark and told the owners who had the local press there along with MJ when I got there. With the press there I did some politicking for transit and the owner gave me several free season passes. Even Michael asked the community to help its carless citizens so they too could make it out to the old ballpark.

Then a few days later...

Down here in this part of Dixie, I get 10 thousand steps just by getting up and usually end each day between 30 to 50 thousand steps. I'm unable to drive because I have complex-partial seizures and the amount of walking I'm doing has not gone unnoticed by transit planners in Jefferson County where Birmingham is in Alabama. The Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Planning Commission, and the Metropolitan Planning Organization have asked me to assist them as a transit-dependent citizen. One of the officials last year even gave me a ride over to Atlanta to see the Cardinals and Braves play each other. It's like I said in my first missive, the stories and experiences that have happened added much to my growth that made me. Eric, get a friend to do a 50 miler and tell us about that one too. It ought to be fun...

I find Butch inspiring because he has taken what life has dealt him and has chosen to make his life and the life of those around him better. And that, quite frankly, is awesome! Thanks Butch!

I'll continue to post my donation total as it continues to grow.

Thanks for checking in!

This is short because it is a video about, you know, spending a day walking. And how interesting could that be?! Now I need to figure out how to get a more flattering picture as the poster frame! (Note to self: Be careful about making goofy faces to the camera!) The music is Walk the Line by Johnny Cash. Thanks to Todd for shooting the footage.



The video is here on Google Video.

Now that I've had a chance to rest a bit, I can share about the last few days. It has been a GREAT weekend!!

It got off to an exciting start when my sister, Amy, surprised me by flying in for the weekend from St. Louis, MO to support me and the walk. Yea!

Saturday was my rest day. Highlights of the day were a 75 mile motorcycle ride (My walking has severely cut into my recreational motorcycle riding. It was great to get back out!!), a massage at Burbank Spa and Garden and then going with Carol and Amy to see Mission: Impossible III, a nice relaxing movie. Or not. Then it was early to bed to get lots of sleep for the big walk.

I was successful in getting to bed early. I was not, however, successful in getting lots of sleep. My nerves woke me up at 1:30AM and I never really got back to sleep. Oh well. I got up at 4AM, took a soak in the spa and was ready to go just after 5AM. I got another great surprise when Todd showed up to walk the first 2 hours with me. Remember this is 5AM! Now THAT'S a good friend! Below is a picture of me all suited up and ready to go. Just in case you are wondering, I AM wearing pants. They're camouflage which is why you may not be able to see them.



And then we were off! We saw the sunrise as we were leaving Burbank on our way to Glendale. The weather cooperated yesterday. It was perfect.




I said goodbye to Todd once we got to Colorado Boulevard. Further down Colorado, I crossed the Arroyo Seco on the beautiful and historic Colorado Street Bridge.




In East Los Angeles, I came across this carpet store. They are doing a great job of communicating what they are selling by putting those rolls of carpet up on the roof. They do, however, need to work a little on the, for lack of a better term, sex appeal of the presentation!




Amy got this classic paparazzi shot as I approached our lunch spot.




We had made previous arrangments to have lunch in Lincoln Park which is almost exactly at mile 20. Elise, Todd, Amy and Carol brought a feast from the Corner Bakery which hit the spot.




Going into it, I was honestly worried about being able to pull off this 40 mile walk. As it turned out, I was in better shape at the end of the day than I had been at the end some of my training walks. I attribute it to two factors. One was this lunch stop. In addition to the excellent food, I took my shoes off, iced my feet...




...changed my socks and was off of my feet for a full hour. My feet actually felt better during the second 20 miles than the first. Go figure. The other factor that really helped out was resting last weekend. I could really feel the difference. Little aches and pains that I had been living with for the last month disappeared. The only downside to lunch was I did get slightly too comfortable. The lack of sleep from the previous night caught up with me. Going home and hopping in bed sounded mighty fine. But don't worry, I didn't. And, interestingly enough, I didn't really feel sleepy again until late into the evening.

Another surprise from my sister were T-shirts that she had made up for the whole support team!




Elise and Todd did a great job of documenting the day - Elise with her still camera and Todd with the video. Elise shot this as I was heading into Downtown L.A. on one of their drive-by stalking passes. :-)




The building in the center of this shot with the pyramid on top is Los Angeles City Hall. From 1928 when it was built to 1964, it was the tallest building in L.A. Looks like times have changed!




Getting ready to cross the scenic Los Angeles River.




Well, maybe scenic isn't the best way to describe it or maybe it's just a different kind of scenic.



Soon I was at historic (and touristy) Olvera Street, the oldest part of Downtown. If you're interested, you can read more about it here.




There is a lot of glass downtown these days.



Soon I picked up Wilshire Boulevard at One Wilshire, its beginning. I would be on it all the way to the ocean. Near downtown, Wilshire bisects MacArthur Park. Yesterday, they blocked off Wilshire in the park for some sort of well attended festival.



One of the attractions was pony rides. This guy had a dose of personality. He was quite interested in my camera.



Once I got to Museum Row in Mid-Wilshire, I had company for the rest of my walk!! First to join me was my sister. She started near the La Brea Tar Pits. Since she hadn't seen them before, we walked through the grounds.



After an hour or so, Carol drove up. Amy took over driving duties so Carol could walk with me for a stretch. Then a few minutes later, Judy and Eric joined the party. Eric would walk with me for the entire rest of my walk!

I was told that Boy Scouts had placed these flags at every grave in the Veteran's Cemetery in Westwood for Memorial Day. It was quite a sight.




This is the four of us walking in Brentwood.




And then, finally, the finish line was in sight.




Next to the pier was another Memorial Day memorial.




And then I was at the end of the pier. It was done. They even had a little finish line for me to cross! It took a little bit for it all to sink in...




These guys were very enthusiastic when they heard what I had just done.




I want to take a little time out for a special thank you to my wife and best friend Carol. Not only did she do a spectacular job leading the support team this weekend, she was a tremendous support during the last six months as this idea became a reality. She walked on some of my training walks, gave me loads of encouragement and was understanding when I disappeared for hours on end every Sunday for the last couple of months. (She even hooked me up with a hour and a half massage today!!!) Thanks Carol.




Here is the full finish line support team except for Elise who took the picture. Thank you guys so much!!




We then walked up to Il Fornaio and joined a couple of other friends along with Carol's aunt and uncle for a fabulous meal. It was the perfect end to a perfect day!




I have been thrilled by the amount of donations that came in over the last week. The official total right now is $6853. And that doesn't include some of you who I know have donated. Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!

I have to share with you one story. One of my buddies told me that he and his wife were getting ready to send off their donation to Outward Bound when their 6 year old daughter came into the room. She told them that she wanted to donate $2 from her allowance in support of my cause. Leyana, YOU ROCK!!!

I've also managed a mention on a couple of walking related web sites. Elizabeth over at Walktopia did a nice write up. You can find it here. I'm also mentioned in the Carnival of the Walkers #47 over at the About Walking site.

Even though the walk is over, feel free to check back in. I plan on updating the donation total over the next few weeks. I also plan on posting a short video from the footage that Todd shot.

Thank you EVERYONE for your interest, your support and for donating. This whole experience has been OUTSTANDING!!

Just a quick post to say that, yes, I actually walked the 40 miles today...with surprisingly little pain. I'll post the details tomorrow. Now I must s...l...e...e...p... ZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

Over the last 9 weeks, I've walked 55 hours and covered 175 miles. I've explored Alhambra, Burbank, City of Commerce, Culver City, Hollywood, Long Beach, Los Feliz, Mar Vista, Montebello, Monterey Park, North Hollywood, Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Signal Hill, Sun Valley, Venice and, of course, Los Angeles. I've had fun...actually, a lot of fun!!

Now that my training is done, I've taken a look back at my goals. Here's how I think I'm doing.

• To train in a healthy manner. (It is very important to me that I am still able to walk after this thing is over!!)

As far as I can tell, I'm doing just fine. Now, that's not to say I don't have some aches and pains - just that none of it seems beyond my body saying, "Dude, CHILL for a bit, why don't you!"

• To make my 40th year memorable.

Done!

• To raise money for Outward Bound. (In a perfect world, I'd LOVE to raise $40,000. For obvious reasons, it seems like the perfect number. It also feels a tad unreachable. But hey, no harm in trying!)

The fundraising is going great. My grand total to date is $4833 and, amazingly, that's with only 26 donors!! Now, obviously, the $40,000 seems a little out of reach, but I'm thrilled with the everyone's generosity! A great big thank you!!!! I've been asked by some how much to donate. Truthfully, I am grateful for ANY donation, no matter what the size! I've even managed to meet a couple of hidden goals. I've gotten donations from people who know my friends or family but not me directly and I even got a donation from a complete stranger!

• To walk 40 miles in one day.

We will see in a week! It won't be easy, but confidence is high.

• To explore and learn more about Los Angeles, from the up close and personal perspective of a walker.

Done! I have really enjoyed learning more about Greater Los Angeles. Those of us who live here, live in a great city. Now, I suppose you can argue that there is great stuff pretty much everywhere, you just need to focus on the positive. I agree with that. Well, with the possible exception of (no offense) Whittier, Alaska. Although the Prince William Sound is georgous, I found the town, well, hugely depressing. But I digress...

I've also learned a little about blogging and the Internet. What I've been most interested in is how much information I can easily find out about visitors to the blog. When I first set up the blog, I discovered I could track hits to it with various free tools. I chose Sitemeter. I was amazed at what I could track about each hit. It tracks the visitor's ISP, the location of the ISP, the operating system, the browser with version number, the screen resolution and the referring URL, among other more arcane statistics. If someone finds my blog by using a search engine, I can see what the search terms were. Apparently, people are interested in the Garden of Oz in Beachwood Canyon as I have gotten quite a few hits from that. The most hilarious hit was from someone who searched "drivers education on thursday and tuesday in Redondo Beach, CA" and found my blog. I don't think this is what they had in mind!

I've also been interested in where the hits come from. Of course I recognize many of the locations because I know who I've told about the blog. I was surprised, however, that strangers have visited from all over the world. I've gotten hits from Australia, Barbados, Brazil, England, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago...and that is just what I can remember. This map shows where the last 100 hits have come from. (The most recent 10 are in green and the last is in red.)

If any of you in the LA area are interested in walking with me or joining us at the end, email or call me. We're planning on having dinner at Il Fornaio since it is right there at the pier.

Thanks for checking in. Only one week to go!

Today was my final training walk!! Yahoo!!!

My plan was to follow the vampires in Tom Petty's Free Fallin' i.e. "move west down Ventura Blvd." In fact, I walked the entire length of it, from east to west. For those of you who don't know Ventura Blvd., it is an exceedingly commercial artery. Every city has one or a few. I walked among every conceivable kind of business.

I've heard the eastern end of Ventura referred to as Sushi Row. In the first couple of miles, I walked by all of these restaurants. (This is a collage, not one big sign!) Lots of sushi. Lots of good sushi!




Because Ventura Blvd. is so commercial, I was inundated with signage! This sign for Studio City Hand Car Wash was particularly original.




I liked some of the signs, like this one for Antonio's Pizzeria. In fact, seeing all the neon made me wish I was doing this walk at night. (I was hoping to do a night training walk per the suggestion of my cousin. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fit it in.)




Some of the signs I liked less. I passed by a billion mini-malls and it seemed like each one of them had one of these highly unoriginal and unattractive sign boards.




I thought this was a pretty clever sculpture of the workmen.




And this was an impressive piece of mustache vandalism. Notice the marker choice is in perfect harmony with the color palette of the ad.




My completely anecdotal and unscientific observation is that people's driving habits haven't significantly changed with our new higher gas prices. I still hear plenty of full bore accelerations and an occasional tire peel. This was my first sighting of over $4 gas. Granted it is Full Serve but still... Yikes!




In Encino, I paid a visit to our good friends Isabella and Giuseppe in their wonderful restaurant, Café Carolina. If you happen to be in the area and want some excellent Italian food, please pay them a visit. You won't be disappointed!




This sign made me feel like I was in Kansas or Colorado or Nebraska...not Woodland Hills.




And this sign is just plain wacky!




At the end of Ventura Blvd., I still wanted to keep on walking, so I headed north on Valley Circle Blvd. After a few hours, I was worlds away from the commercialism of Ventura Blvd.

This probably seems obvious to most but every single walk I've done so far is an exercise in contrasts. I'll walk by the super rich and then an hour later the, um, super unrich. One moment I'll be in a quiet residential neighborhood, and next in a dense commercial district. It's a combination of the diversity of a very big city coupled with my long walks.




Ironically, the walking was better in the city than in the country. Notice how much space I had to walk! I did appreciate the peace...between the cars rushing by a couple of feet to my right!




Next week is a rest week and then, finally, I walk the 40. Tune in next week for my training wrap up.

Have a great week!

Labels: Training Walk, Ventura Boulevard