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