I arose about 8 AM this morning, and all three kids were asleep. It was about 8:30 when I left the house this bright sunny morning for my four mile walk.
What's that? You wish you could come along? Well, you can! Almost anyway, I took my camera with me this morning as I have been meaning to for quite awhile, so, with witty comments (half witty?) I will show the progress and some pictures of the route.
Please note that clicking on any picture will open a much larger version in a new browser window.
Exiting my driveway we turn right and head for the main road where we will turn right again. This is Cascade and we will be on it for about a mile.
After making the turn, this greets my eyes
What a bright sunny day; good thing I had my sunglasses! I forgot them yesterday and walked with my head down for a good portion of the walk.
A few minutes from my house, across the street is Graceland (nothing to do with Elvis!) and on this side a small cemetery with graves going back to the 1800's, and possible beyond since some are so weathered you can't read them.
Ten minutes into the walk we come across Forest Hills Foods, a store often mentioned in my blog posts. Danielle and I visited there this afternoon in fact, picking up muffins for the kids breakfast tomorrow and a couple of other items including some delicious California peaches and half a watermelon.
Right past Forest Hills Foods is a double-strip mall, on the first one is China Garden where I often get the kids Chinese take out, though I will not eat there (even if I could, it is below my standards, but, kids will be kids)! on the right is an excellent place for home made candy including chocolate covered Twinkies and huge dipped strawberries. The cleaner in the middle has the most ANNOYING radio adds I have ever heard! The second one, not pictured, contains a Beaners (Coffee place) and a Subway.
At this point, the road stretches off into the distance!
This sign disturbs me every time I pass it, it's a sign for a dentist, but, i think perhaps he would be better of making footwear!
As we continue along we are about 20 minutes into the walk, still on Cascade. Note here you can clearly see the mix of old and new construction for different businesses; none of these are residences. Below we have a professional building housing multiple offices, a realtor, and a CPA.
A bit further down the road is a nice sculptured rock garden from a landscaping company; when I walk this way in the afternoon there are usually kids climbing on it.
Across the street is a church; on Sundays if I walk past at the right time, the priest is outside and he and I exchange greetings and pleasantries as I walk.
Below are a couple of other large building as I near the corner where I will turn for the more rustic part of my walk on the bike and pedestrian trial system of Cascade county.
After we pass the second building above, we make a right which takes us off Cascade, the main drag. this is the closest place by my house where I can pick up the extensive bike and pedestrian trail system. I wish I lived closer to it as we've walked a bit over a mile to get to this point. (Tails has just jumped on my lap and is purring in my face....I guess this is her idea of helping. Now she is chewing my beard......)
Instead of a four lane road with a speed limit of 55 MPH, we have a two lane road at 35 MPH and the view off into the distance is like so:
Another difference is there are no office buildings anymore; this is all residential and farmland now, so, when I turn to my right at the 30 minute milestone of the walk I see this:
and a bit further down on the right, this:
and this:
The road continues to stretch off into the distance
Here is a greenhouse place that opens in a few weeks and is open in the colder weather when the majority of the farms are closed. Following that is a picture of the residence of the owners.
At this point the road goes around a blind sharp curve and the pedestrian trail cuts inwards away from the road to circumvent this.
The view is even better now, note the nice house off in the distance at the top of the hill.
Just around the bend, here is view to the right; note you can see the house much better here beyond the corn field.
The path goes on for a bit more here before once again going parallel to the road. At the point, 40 minutes into the walk, we have reached two miles, and it is time to turn back.
At the far point of the walk note the farm across the street below is where the X, Christopher, Scott, Danielle, and I went the first Halloween after we moved out here 7 years ago to get a pumpkin. We went on a nice hayride before picking out the pumpkin. It takes about five minutes to drive here, and about 40 to walk it.
Since I mentioned getting a pumpkin at the farm, here is picture of the three kids from that outing in October of 2000.
This is the end of the walk looking where the path and road continue....while I have of course driven down there, I have not walked the path....though I hope to sometime soon.
As I started heading back my feet began to hurt; I was wearing new sneakers which I guess I should have broken in a bit more, though I did walk 3 miles in them yesterday. The trip back was endless and I discovered that my small toes were getting calloused after I arrived home. At least I did not get any blisters; being diabetic I get very paranoid about my feet!
So, thanks for keeping me company on my long walk today; I wish you could come with me every weekend when I walk it, I would be glad for your company and some conversation!
Note this is the most time consuming post I have done to date; with 29 pictures and HTML editing as blogger is not really too smart when it comes to many images, alignment and such. It took me two and a half hours to complete (I guess I really need a life, huh??) I ended up finishing it after Scott, Danielle, and I watched the latest Ninja Turtle movie.
