...Eric's 40 Mile Walk...

Birthday Skydive Celebration!

2007-03-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

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!

The Payoff!!

2007-03-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

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.

Epilogue

2006-09-06T22:49:00.001-07:00

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!

Words of Encouragement

2006-06-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Donation Update and A Story

2006-06-10T06:29:00.000-07:00

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!

A Short Video of The Walk!

2006-06-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

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.

The Walk!

2006-05-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

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!!

Mission Accomplished!

2006-05-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

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...

Training Wrap Up

2006-05-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

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!

Training 9 (Ventura Blvd)

2006-05-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

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!

Training 8 (Long Beach)

2006-05-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today I explored Long Beach. I started, however, in the small community of Signal Hill, which is completely surrounded by Long Beach. Signal Hill is famous for being where oil was discovered in 1921. In fact, the Signal Hill oil field is one of the most productive per acre ever. Right in the middle of Greater LA! It used to be called "Porcupine Hill" because of the hundreds of wells dotting the landscape. If you want to read more about it, there is an interesting article here. The field is still producing. This oil well is in a car dealership!

This is one heck of a bougainvillea, about ready to swallow that Bug!!!

Looking back on Signal Hill. And a gang of pigeons.

I passed by an elementary school that had some really cool art. This was next to their playground. It's a great use for an old shipping container. And old bicycles.

As I was heading towards the Port of Long Beach, I walked over this red and white curb. It struck me as a little odd. Then it hit me. It was Turn 4 of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. You can still see the tire marks, almost a month after the race.

Whenever I see the Queen Mary, I always think of my grandmother. She did a transatlantic crossing in the mid 50s as part of a European holiday. That is a Soviet era Foxtrot submarine in the foreground, part of the attraction.

Then I boldly went where few walkers walk. I explored the Port of Long Beach. This is really the domain of trucks NOT of walkers!

These are trailers that they use to transport the shipping containers. The trailers were stacked sometimes four high. And every one of them had a license plate.

There were a LOT of containers.

And in the midst of all this industry, I found this amazing bird. I don't have the gumption to try to figure out what kind of bird it is (in spite of coming from ornithological parents and grandparents) but I sure can appreciate its grace.

This is looking back towards downtown Long Beach. That mound between the two rightmost buildings, is Signal Hill where my car was parked. And that is the Carnival Pride getting ready to sail.

After being in the pedestrian unfriendly Port of Long Beach, I appreciated the pedestrian friendly beach path.

And while walking along the pedestrian friendly beach path, I passed what is perhaps the safest part of the beach, due to the high concentration of life guards. Or not...

There is a path that follows the top of the bluff (where I took this picture) as well as the beach path.

This couple were flying their kites in sync with their music. It felt choreographed. Is there such a thing as kite dancing?

Since I had visited the Venice canals on an earlier walk, I though it would be fitting to visit the Naples community and their canals. The boats here are significantly fancier than up in Venice, since these canals are connected to the ocean.

Along one of the canals, I passed what has to be the tallest and skinniest door EVER. I wonder how many hinges it needs.

I walked through a little bit of Seal Beach (my first and probably only foray into The OC) where I found this sea of masts.

I've been on the bike path near Griffith Park that is literally right next to the 5 Freeway. It isn't the most pleasant place to exercise. But how about this scene. I wish I could say that the white on the water is ice but it is foam. Nasty.

Today was my longest training walk yet, 28.5 miles according to my trusty Forerunner. I was out for almost 9 hours. And my feet were tired by the end. In fact, they still are tired.

As always, thanks for checking in. Next week will be my last training walk!!

Training 7 (Pasadena to East LA)

2006-04-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

In my exploring around Los Angeles, I've come to find that in every neighborhood, from the tired to the tony, I'll always see two things - beautiful flowers (especially now!) and a brand new car parked in someone's driveway (after all, LA is all about cars). Today, as I set off walking south from Pasadena, I realized I can add one more constant among all neighborhoods, Christmas decorations up all year! I found this is in the very exclusive San Marino.

My route continued into Alhambra where I ran across a community garden. I've been surprised at how many community gardens I've walked by since starting this venture. I expect them to be in a downtown urban environment (like downtown Boston, where I used to live) and not in a neighborhood of houses. Of course, there are plenty of apartment buildings in Alhambra.

I've tried unsuccessfully to understand why someone felt the need to make an abreviation of Alhambra for their concrete stamp! It's not like there isn't plenty of room for the full word!

These folks obviously have a policy of no shoes in the house and live in an honest neighborhood (or replace a lot of shoes).

I crossed over the 10 Freeway on my way into Monterey Park. Counting both directions, there are 8 driving lanes, 2 carpool lanes, 2 breakdown lanes AND a train track. It's a superhighway by any definition...and a parking lot during rush hour.

After travelling through Montebello, I was in the City of Commerce. When I was looking at the map before coming out today, I saw a bunch of railroad tracks. I assumed it was a switching yard. I was wrong. It is actually an area of warehouses and distribution centers with railways running along the back of the buildings. I sensed a lot of commerce goes on there.

I also sensed that someone doesn't like the L.A. Machinist Benefit Trust and Baker's Local 37. This was their front window!

Because of all that commerce, there are a lot of trucks in the area. I even walked by a dealership. Now, if we have out-of-town guests who want to have their Kenworth serviced, I'll know right where to send them!

Soon I was back in Montebello and stumbed across this memorial to the Battle of the Rio San Gabriel back in 1847. In fact, the memorial dates from 1944. The battle, apparently, was a key battle in the Mexican-American War. I wasn't expecting to run across a 150 year old canon!

The memorial is on the bank of the Rio Hondo Coastal Basin Spreading Grounds. I saw all the blue in my Thomas Guide but I had no idea what it was. Now I know that these spreading grounds are used to help recharge the aquifer to the tune of 150,000 acre-feet every year. If you're interested, you can find out more about it here. I know most of the rainwater still ends up going out to the ocean, but this certainly helps keep some of it around.

A little further up, there were horse stables down in the valley as well as chickens. I took this picture to the constant background din of hundreds of chickens and roosters. In fact, I think the boy on the left might be carrying one. (It sure is a rural looking scene taken in the middle of the city!)

I turned around and headed back north. I stopped by the San Gabriel Mission (dating from 1771). I've learned that the Mission was originally located near the Spreading Grounds in Montebello. They moved it to this spot in 1776 after it was damaged in a flood.

I had actually been to the Mission before to attend a friend's wedding. Midway through the ceremony, everything came to a grinding halt while a train passed. A train track runs right by the Mission and there are two street crossings nearby. As you know, every crossing requires a lot of train horn activity. I got the same treatment today!

A little further up, I came across a birthday party that San Gabriel was throwing for itself. There was even a carnival.

Soon I was back at my car. It had been a 27 mile loop and I was tired!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Training 6 (Hollywood)

2006-04-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today I walked over to Hollywood. And I had company for the first 5 hours. Melody, a friend since she and Carol took the pups to dog agility class together, walked with me. It was great to catch up as we hadn't seen each other in a while.

The route took us from Burbank, over the Hollywood Hills into Hollywood proper. After Carol came to retrieve Melody in the middle of Hollywood (13 miles into the walk), I continued back through Silver Lake and Griffith Park to where I had started.

Being a Hollywood walk, it seemed appropriate to walk by a few studios. We walked by three movie studios (Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount) and one TV studio (NBC). Of course, only Paramount is actually in Hollywood.

Near the Hollywood Reservoir, we saw these great gates to the Toyon Tanks. It took a trip to the Internet after getting back home to find out that these two huge underground tanks are the largest of their type in the world. Each tank holds 30 million gallons of water. The previous role of the Hollywood Reservoir is now being handled by these tanks. They still, however, keep the Reservoir filled in case of emergency. You can read more about it here.

At the top of Beachwood Canyon, we managed to get quite close to the Hollywood Sign. The sign was erected back in 1924 as an advertisment for the neighborhood we were walking in. Originally, the sign read Hollywoodland.

We came across this garage door owned by, I'm assuming, a book lover!!

I remember this Garden of Oz from when Carol and I were exploring the neighborhood. This is just a SMALL sample of what is there. I have never seen so much tile before in my life. It is really amazing!

The Hollywoodland neighborhood has 6 historic stone staircases. We took this fancy dual divided model. The planters in the median used to be pools of water. Pretty cool!

I found out about Whitley Heights in Walking LA. Back in the day, this neighborhood was home to Rudolph Valentino, Judy Garland and Charlie Chaplin. It is a wonderfully quiet neighborhood surprisingly close to downtown Hollywood and the Hollywood Freeway. This is a staircase in that neighborhood, the Whitley Terrace Steps.

Here, a tree is supporting the wall of a garage. I wonder what earthquake caused this... Scary!!

Across Highland Boulevard, nestled behind the Hollywood Bowl, and again thanks to Walking LA, we found the amazing High Tower neighborhood. Here, there are many homes that are only accessible by foot. This is a picture of the top of High Tower, what the neighborhood is named for. It is an elevator for the residents.

And this is one of the pedestrian "streets".

Soon we were in Tourist Central, Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

I felt compelled to take a picture like all the other tourists.

After taking a picture of Douglas Fairbanks' hand and footprints, we headed over to his final resting place. Along the way, we saw this rather colorful camper van.

Soon we were at Hollywood Forever Cemetary. This is Douglas Fairbanks' tomb and monument. At the time it was built, it cost $40,000 and was the most expensive monument in Southern California.

It was soon after this that Melody said goodbye.

Along Beverly Boulevard, I passed these marchers. I think they were from an area church. They even had a guy shouting through a distorted megaphone. I couldn't figure out what he was saying - mainly because I don't speak Spanish.

If you read about my third training walk, you may remember that I was unsuccessful in finding the original home of Disney Studios. Well, thanks to my friend Cliff, I found it this time. Tada!! There is a Gelson's Market on the spot now. It is located on Hyperion Avenue. Hence the name for Disney's Hyperion Books.

And finally, I walked by the home where Mabel Monohan was famously murdered. The story was made into a movie in 1958 called I want to Live!. Susan Hayward won the Oscar for her role in that film as Barbara Graham.

Soon my sore feet and I finished walking for the day!!

Have a great week!!

Why Outward Bound?

2006-04-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

Outdoor education was a significant part of my time in Junior High and High School. All those experiences greatly contributed to who I am today. (Thanks Mr. Maas!!) It was only later that I learned about Outward Bound and subsequently went on a course.

I've been supporting their work because I believe education is supremely important. It is our future. I also believe that education is more than words and numbers. I think Outward Bound does a great job of making better, more compassionate human beings - people who are confident in themselves and also respect their environment, both social and natural. The world needs more of that.

Outward Bound has a great mission statement. It reads:

Our Mission is to inspire character development and self-discovery in people of all ages and walks of life through challenge and adventure, and to impel them to achieve more than they ever thought possible, to show compassion for others and to actively engage in creating a better world.

I hope you'll agree that it is a worthy cause.

Check out their website if you want to learn more about their history, philosophy or programs.

Training 5 (Santa Monica to Culver City)

2006-04-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

My original idea for today's walk was to walk along the beach. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that just staying at the beach wouldn't be as interesting. When I was training for the (now defunct) Long Beach Inline Marathon, I skated, at various times, the entire length of the bike path from Will Roger's State Beach to Redondo Beach. I decided that today I wanted to see some new territory, so I set a route that started at the beach but took me inland. I visited Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista and Culver City. And Carol joined me for the last half of the walk. Yea!

I was tired today. I think it is because I've been working a lot of hours. Fortunately, work is lightening up so I should be able to get more rest. I walked 20 miles today. Frankly, judging from how I felt at the end, it is hard to imagine walking twice that far!! Yikes!!

The Venice Boardwalk at 6:30AM was quiet! My only company were the folks who live in those parts and the shopkeepers sweeping their sidewalks.

Graffiti on the whatever-it-is by Muscle Beach.

So what does an American sound like? I wonder if you can specify a New York accent, or perhaps a Midwest twang or a Southern drawl.

Venice has quite a colorful history. One of my favorite neighborhoods is the canals. I didn't even realize they were there until just a few years ago. I highly recommend a visit.

Along the canal. The first of my duck pictures today.

On my way inland, I stopped in a small neighborhood that I found in Walking LA. The tract was designed by the modernist architect Gregory Ain right after WWII. He designed them for low to moderate income homeowners. I'm sure he would flip out at what they are worth today. According to Zillow, the houses in the neighborhood are worth from $650,000 to just over $1,000,000!! This picture isn't too revealing about the architecture but I did like that yellow door.

The farthest east I got was Sony Studios in Culver City, the old MGM lot. I shot this peering through a big iron side gate.

Back in Santa Monica, tucked next to the 10 Freeway and some seriously expensive homes (all of Santa Monica is seriously expensive), is this trailer park. This isn't a fancy one either, all loaded with the latest in manufactured housing. This one is old school! I love the juxtaposition!!

Which brings us to my other duck picture. We cut through the Water Garden office complex. It must be a great place to work - or at least a great place to take your lunch and coffee breaks. The whole interior of property is a lake with a network of paths and bridges connecting the buildings. There were plenty of flowers and fountains to complete the effect. And, of course, ducks.

By the time we got back to the beach, it felt more like a normal day at the beach. It was packed with walkers, runners, bikers, skaters and tourists.

Have a great week!

Press Coverage!

2006-04-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

I managed to get a little press coverage today, front page no less! The Burbank Leader did a real nice piece on my walk. I think the last time I was in the paper was when I was a kid and I won a piano competition.

You can find the Leader article here.

Enjoy!!

Training 4 (North Hollywood)

2006-04-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

Today I had company at the beginning and the end of my walk. Carol walked the first hour with me and Todd joined me for the last hour and a half. My route was mainly in North Hollywood, although I hit parts of Burbank, Sun Valley, Studio City and Toluca Lake. Today I saw extremes, from rundown areas of North Hollywood to luxury homes in Toluca Lake, from green residential neighborhoods to some intense concrete wastelands.

I've always been amazed that high tension power lines run through the middle of such a densely populated area as the San Fernando Valley. I always think of wires like these taking power across the countryside, not running through the middle of a city.

We've all seen these ornamental dogs before. I've never seen, however, one that needed to be chained up!!

In the less affluent areas of No Ho, it seems like everyone has a front yard fence. Although I can see the reason that folks have fences (security, privacy), I don't think they do much to add to the neighborhood feel. I took the bottom two pictures at essentially the same place. To me, the bottom home feels more welcoming. (I'm sure the flowers help.) Anyway, just my opinion.

This was as far north as I got.

When I was scoping out my route on Google Earth, I came across this image. I thought I knew what it was but I wasn't sure. What are the eight dark spots along the bottom? And what are the seven small circles?

It turns out, I guessed right! It is a driving range. The eight dark circles are lights for night play. (I never would have figured that out.) And the other circles are 'sand traps', or reasonable facsimiles thereof.

This could be an ad for Kryptonite Locks. Apparently the bad guys were unable to break the lock. They stripped the entire bike but the lock is still secure!

I saw the Metro Orange Line for the first time. This is a high speed bus line that crosses the valley on its own special roadway.

When I saw this sign for Metropolitan Pit Stop, I had to take a picture. It is a great sign for the business and more importantly, my mom's first car was a Metropolitan so I always think of her when I see the cars. It never occurred to me that the business is actually The Leading Authority on Metropolitan Parts and Restoration!! That's the great thing about living in such a big city, you can find just about anything!!

And finally I'll leave you with this image. I would love to know the story behind it. On a bus bench in (you guessed it) Burbank, I saw a Blues Brothers hat, tie and sunglasses. What's up with that?

Thanks for tuning in and have a great week!

My New Gadget

2006-04-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

If you are less interested in gadgets then you will be less interested in this post.

Generally, I'm pretty good about keeping up on the latest gadgets. I'm sort of, you know, a geek. I've read Popular Science since I was a kid and often check in with Engadget. Well, Carol was ahead of me on this one. She offered to get me this wrist mounted GPS to help me in my training. I hadn't even heard of it. And it was perfect for me! So now I am the proud owner of a Garmin Forerunner 205.

It is basically the size of a large watch and is surprisingly comfortable. For those of you laughing at its size, you have to check out the one it replaces, the Forerunner 201. That one is, well, giant!!

I used my new Forerunner for the first time last week on my training walk and it was spiffy! I was most impressed with its satellite reception. I have another handheld GPS, the Garmin eTrex Summit, that I've used for walking and hiking. The eTrex works fine but if you get too close to tall buildings or hillsides or under tree cover, it loses satellite reception. The Forerunner is significantly better. The only time I lost reception was when I was on a semi enclosed patio at Disney Hall. Very impressive.

I use the Forerunner to track my distance, time, speed and average speed. It is capable of a whole lot more. You can even download your stats into a PC and then track them on a website. (Unfortunately, since I'm a Mac user, I'll have to wait until the end of the year for the Mac version of the software - long after I've recovered from my walk.) You can even export your routes into Google Earth. Pretty cool!

So now my job is to refrain from showering you nice blog readers with useless statistics!

When

2006-04-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

To clear up any confusion, I am doing my big walk on May 28th. That is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. It is also the day, according to my calendar, that we are supposed to flip our mattress. But I digress... My actual birthday, however, isn't until the end of November.

I never have been much for celebrating on the day. When I was a kid, my folks let me celebrate my birthday whenever I wanted - but only once a year. To tell you the truth, I don't remember celebrating it on other days but that notion has stuck with me.

In this particular case, I didn't particularly feel like waiting until November. Also, the weather is better in May. And I wanted to walk on a long weekend. You know, walk on Sunday, recover on Monday, work on Tuesday. So, tada, Memorial Day Weekend!

Anyway, just wanted to clarify.

Training 3 (Los Feliz to Downtown LA)

2006-04-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

I had a GREAT walk today. I was originally going to be accompanied by Cony, our AFS niece. Unfortunately, she forgot and made other plans. Then another friend said he could go, only to back out last night due to a horrendous day yesterday. So I headed out on my own.

If I may say so, I came up with a great route this time. I explored neighborhoods that I found out about in Walking LA, a great book by Erin Mahoney. Back when this 40 at 40 idea was just floating around in my head, Carol found out about a book signing for Walking LA over in Los Feliz. We went and checked it out. I bought the book, had Erin sign it, and told her about my idea. (I actually think she may have been one of the first.) She was very encouraging. So if any of you are inspired to explore LA on foot, check out her book!

My route started in Franklin Hills. Originally I decided to start there because I thought Cony would be walking with me and she lives in those parts. I stayed with my plan even after she cancelled. I started by walked down Hyperion Avenue. I thought it might be fun to see where Mr. Walt Disney had his first studio. I didn't do enough research ahead of time because I didn't see anything even though I think I was in the right area. I did, however, find Flawless Junk. I always wanted to know what flawless junk looked like. Now I know.

I saw quite a few murals today including this one. I also saw a bunch of artistic graffiti. I'll have to take pictures of that on a future walk.

As I look on a map, I've been trying to come up with routes that aren't too complicated. I want to be able to navigate without too much use of a map, mainly because I don't want to look like a tourist. Not that I have anything against tourists. So when I was planning my route, I saw a street called Marathon that looked nice and straight. It would be easy to navigate and headed towards Echo Park where I wanted to go. Once I was actually there, I had to laugh. I forgot that regular maps don't show you about hills. It wasn't at all like I expected!!

Soon I found myself at Echo Park. Carol and I had visited here before when the lotus blossoms were in full bloom. Very pretty. You can see downtown in the background.

It was just a short walk to Angelino Heights, a beautiful neighborhood of Victorian homes dating from the late 1800s. This was one of the neighborhoods I found out about in Walking LA. One street in particular, Carroll Avenue, had immaculate homes. In fact, part of that block is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was hard to believe that this is Los Angeles. The photo below shows one home with the Library Tower to the right. It gives you an idea of its proximity to downtown.

This was my favorite.

And this is looking back up Carroll to the North.

Soon I was in downtown Los Angeles. I took advantage of the light traffic to take this picture of Disney Hall from the middle of the street. I was in the crosswalk...don't worry.

A little further up Grand Avenue, I looked over the side of a bridge and was quite surprised to see a traffic jam. I was surprised considering I hadn't seen much traffic at all up to that point! Then I got smart and looked closely. Turns out, they were shooting a movie. I didn't see any drivers so either the drivers were going to show up later or they just needed it to look like a traffic jam.

A few blocks up, I came across something very cool. I don't know if it was for the same movie or another one, but they were getting a shot with a radio controlled helicopter with a camera in it. It was a Flying Cam. I had read about this before but never seen one in action. As luck would have it, I only had to wait for 5 minutes before the helicopter took off! The first picture is of one of the guys using a cordless drill as a starter motor to fire the thing up.

The guy at the center is the pilot and the guy on the left is, I'm guessing, holding an antenna for the video assist coming off the helicopter. He was pointing the antenna at the helicopter during flight. Out of my picture to the left was the camera operator watching the video feed. I'm assuming he could control the pan and tilt of the camera via remote control.

This is right after lift off.

And this picture was taken during the flight. Basically, he flew halfway up one block, back down the block, around the corner and halfway up the other block. It sounded like they were timing the whole thing so that as the camera rounded the corner, some important action came into view. At least that is what I think based on what I was overhearing. The pilot was amazing. Expecially when you consider it was like he was flying through a canyon between tall buildings.

Soon, I turned on Wilshire Boulevard and headed out of downtown. I saw thse guys playing soccer in Macarther Park. It is a very common activity during the weekends in Los Angeles. Well, not just in LA, in many parts of the world!!

I love the patina on the tower of the old Bullocks Wilshire. Classic Art Deco!

I'll leave you (you nice people who are still reading!) with a couple of pictures of sidewalks. You have to remember, I've been seeing a lot of sidewalks recently so I find them at least a little bit interesting. I found this one along Vermont Avenue. They had embedded locks, keys, and silverware in it!! Pretty cool! (This picture also gives you the opportunity to check out my New Balance sneakers. Quite comfortable!)

And finally, a suggestion to bring back the practice of concrete contractors putting their imprint in their work. I have to say, I really like this and you don't see it done much anymore. To me it shows pride of workmanship. By the way, I thought Robert Metcalf did an excellent job.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!

Training 2 (Burbank)

2006-03-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

Today I walked with my buddy Todd. We decide to walk the entire length of two streets here in Burbank. As you can see from the map, we had to zig zag a bit due to the train tracks and the freeway, but we did a pretty good job of covering it all.

As Burbank grows, it is hard not to complain about the increased traffic. It was refreshing to see Magnolia Boulevard with NO traffic!! Of course this was 8AM on a Sunday morning and not 5PM on a Friday night!

Todd and me on the train tracks.

A little further up the street, we came across this. I was starting to get a little creeped out and considered running away lest we meet a similar fate, when Todd noticed that there were other Haloween decorations still out. Kind of a variation of the theme of leaving your Christmas lights up all year! I'm glad they aren't our neighbors.

I had to laugh. The local Mac users group had been tagging. (Get it...OS X...sorry, I'm a geek...) We were a little apprehensive about walking through their turf. Fortunately, we didn't experience any problems. Phew!

In Burbank, we have recently been dealing with Mansionization. Last year, City Council rewrote part of our R-1 zoning to deal with this issue. Mansionization is where folks remodel or rebuild HUGE houses on regular size lots. The kind that go from lot line to lot line. The ones that don't fit with the character of the neighborhood. I certainly would hate for one of these to go up next to us. (I actually think this has more to do with the more, bigger, supersize aspect of our culture than anything specific to Burbank.) Anyway, we walked by a study in extremes. The house on the right wouldn't even fit in the shot!! Yikes!

Thanks for tuning in. Next week, I'll be up to a 4 hour training walk!

My Goals

2006-03-25T21:50:00.000-08:00

Here are my goals for the walk:

To train in a healthy manner. (It is very important to me that I am still able to walk after this thing is over!!)
To make my 40th year memorable.
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!)
To walk 40 miles in one day.
To explore and learn more about Los Angeles, from the up close and personal perspective of a walker.

Donation Information

2006-03-20T22:32:00.000-08:00

Donate to Outward Bound

The easiest way for you to donate to Outward Bound is to use their web form. It is important that when you get to the second page, you put "40at40" in the Comments of the Payment Information section. That way, I know you have donated in support of my venture, and I can send you a proper thank-you! (Please do not fill in the In Honor of section as their computer would expect you to fill in my full address and I don't want to make you do that!!) You can use a Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover AND (are you sitting down...) Diner's Club (!!) to make your donation.

As you can imagine, because Outward Bound is a 501(c)(3) organization, your donation is 100% tax deductible which basically makes it free to you. Well, maybe not free, but it does help!

Don't forget to take advantage of the Matching Gift program should you work for one of those generous corporations that offer such a thing.

Note that the link is hosted by Blackbaud. I just found out that they are the leading global provider of software and related services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations. Outward Bound has contracted with them to handle their online donations.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I REALLY appreciate your support!!!

Donate to Outward Bound

Training 1 (Burbank)

2006-03-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

Today, Carol and I took my first training walk. My plan is to build up the duration of my training walks, by an hour a week, to a 10 hour walk 2 weeks prior to My Big Walk. (I figure that I'll need to walk 14 hours to do the 40 miles.) I am planning My Big Walk for May 28th, the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Backing it in to this weekend, today was a two hour walk.

Our route took us past my first apartment in Burbank. I lived at 4301 Kling Street 15 (!!) years ago, back when it was called Lakeside Apartments. Interestingly enough, they don't call them Lakeside anymore, possibly because IT IS NOWHERE NEAR A LAKE. Unless you consider the private lake of Toluca Lake, a mile away...

Then we worked our way up to the new Chandler Boulevard Bikeway.

Well, it isn't really new, it opened back in August 2004. It is, however, the first time that Carol and I have walked the entire length of it. (It really isn't too long so don't be impressed.) The Bikeway is a clever new use for what used to be train tracks. We started by walking a little over the line into North Hollywood on a section of the Bikeway that really is new. At the top of a building, we saw these cool cow-playing-a-ukulele gargoyles.

Quite unexpected in a quite cruddy industrial area!! Back in Burbank, we came across these exceedingly colorful houses that definitely warranted a picture!

As I said earler, we were shooting for being out for 2 hours and actually came within 10 minutes of our goal! It was a 7 mile walk. A good start.

Today was the first opportunity to check out my new shoes. Last weekend, I went over to Phidippides in Encino to pick out a pair of walking shoes. Carol found out about the place when she was training for the Avon 3-Day and had raved about it. I wasn't disappointed. If any of you in the Los Angeles area need shoes, I HIGHLY recommend this place! Craig Chambers (one of the owners) helped me choose among the 350 styles (!!) available. I wish everyone understood customer service as well as these folks do!! Craig pulled out 5 different shoes for me to try on. He even watched me walk up the sidewalk outside the store to see how I was walking in the shoes. I ended up with a pair of New Balance shoes that should fill the bill perfectly. They worked quite well today. (I have to admit, however, that I was feeling a little creaky today. YIKES! I sure hope I can pull off this walk!! :-) )

Craig is a pretty amazing guy. For 5 years, he commuted across the Santa Monica Mountains by running 26 miles a day. He has run over 200 Marathons and over 50 Ultra Marathons. He organized and ran from the Santa Monica Pier (where I'll be ending my walk) to the top of Mount Wilson. WOW! If you want to read what he has to say, you can find an essay here.

I plan on taking pictures and posting them after each walk so check back next week!

The Plan

2006-03-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, as I was pondering my 40th birthday this year, I decided I wanted to do something memorable – at least memorable for me. An idea popped into my head. I could walk 40 miles in one day and see how much money I could raise for charity!

I have always loved to walk. I’m guessing I get it from my dad. A few years ago, my wife Carol participated in the Avon 3-Day Walk. She and a few thousand other participants walked 20 miles a day for three days in support of the fight against breast cancer. I tagged along on a bunch of Carol’s training walks and realized that I got a kick out of walking in the city. It is such a different perspective than the normal way of seeing everything from a speeding car.

When we were doing these long walks, I often wondered how far I could walk. For me, it is painfully obvious that I can’t run very far. In fact, not very far at all! (This, in spite of the best efforts of my high school track coach, Mr. Simon.) But when I walk, my limits are less obvious. So one day, a couple of years ago, I decided on Wednesday to push those limits that Friday. I ended up walking from our house in Burbank down to the beach. It was a 33 mile walk and was quite tired at the end. Actually, I could barely walk. But I had a blast!

Now, I’m embarking on an even longer walk. I know there are a bunch of folks out there that do things that are more extreme than this. (I’m thinking of the ultra marathoners, the mountain climbers, the around the world sailors, etc.) For me, however, this is going to be a challenge.

I bet, though, that with a little bit of training, I can pull this thing off.