My Walk Club

Just came in from walking.  Nice having friends to walk with.  We started out of the sub and began on Water Street.  Today's topic was mulch and who and where to get it from.  Mark's nurse Cheryl said Thompson's Ace Hardware was the best hands down.  They have a bigger bucket and deliver it too.  So Mark had been calculating cubic yards and such.  We mere mortals say ok 2 scoops please and hope it covers.  That almost sounds Dicken's like.  Especially when I return to Ace and have to say "please sir, another scoop".

Grass is greening up everywhere and some places more than others.  Personally I don't care much for grass and resent the time, energy and money it takes to have a lush green lawn.  No wonder mine looks like scorched earth.  This is especially pronounced as one of my neighbors live in their yard.  Their yard looks like paradise and mine ... well there is grass.  I am also more holistic in my approach.  Shouldn't Boomer's (our dog) contributions be doing more for that paradise look?   It seems like we have enough lawn grenades between Boomer and our other neighbor's dog Riley.

We walked along Stoney Creek Blvd out toward I-81 and then went up a side street and through the park.  Edinburg has the nicest park.  Open area, wooded section, picnic tables, pool, playground and it is seldom busy.  I like the idea of living next to a park because you can enjoy the space and not worry about maintaining it.  Actually Alice twittered me yesterday and she lives next to a park in DC.  Maybe we will meet Alice someday and go for walk around that park.  Life is grand.

We cut down from the park to a short cut past the water tower in the woods.  There we Harris with a 40 pound backpack.  The backpack was in preparation for a trip out west with the boy scouts.  Harris has boys and does a lot with the boy scouts.  He is a good dad and nice guy.

So we cut through the woods and walked past the Shentel building.  Wow, what a view of Edinburg Gap and the mountains from there.  Whoever you are make a date to see the view from that hill.  It is great.  "Please sir, another view".

Keep walkin,

Ron

Okay so I was stretching to find a quote on walking through a cemetery.  It's not as easy as it looks.

The point today is where to walk.  A friend asked this and I think cemeteries are great places to walk.  I would dare say  larger metropolitan cemeteries offer quiet, park like settings.  Here in Edinburg we have a nice one at the south end of town.  Noel even liked a tombstone that had a rebel flag and some race car driver.  We walk through the cemetery on a regular basis.

Usually they are located with views as well.  In Meyersdale there is one on a hill that I haven't tried yet.  I saw it from the bike trail and am looking forward to a new walk through it.

If you walk in a group and are next to a busy road you will have two distractions.  One, avoid being hit because you don't always hear cars coming up behind you.  Two, the noise is loud from a heavily trafficked road.  Sometimes Rt. 11 here in Edinburg is so noisy I can't what anyone is saying.  Those large diesel trucks are especially noisy (smelly too).

Cemetaries are found all over the place.  Surely you have heard people are dying to get in them!  That was bad, I will try to do better.

Arlington Cemetary is an example of  a great place to walk in a metropolitan area.    If I lived there,  it would be on my travels.  You can walk and check out Lee's museum and home there too.  Too bad Lee forfeited his home to do what he thought was right, but we can enjoy it today.

So find your bliss and a new walking path.

Keep walkin,

Ron

This morning didn't promise to be nice but when you walk regularly you are always surprised.  The weather report is threatening to spit everything but sunshine.  When I looked out this morning it was grey indeed.  Even when I returned home it seemed grey looking out.

Guess what though?  It was beautiful outside and helped set the tune for my day.  Who knew sunshine could come out even against the weather report.  As we walked on Water Street which is green and spring flowers coming out everywhere, the sun came out.  The sun illuminated the spring spectacular all around us.  Check out the pictures.

Yesterday the sun shone on my blog.  Here is an excerpt from the Virginia State Parks blog by Nancy Heltman:

My Twitter followers probably think I'm some adventurous outdoors person since I follow mountain biking people, kayakers, geo-cachers, rock climbers, hikers, fishing, hunting, and all sorts of extreme outdoor sports. Truth is, all those activities and the people that enjoy them fascinate me and I love that they can do most of these things in a Virginia state park, but my dirty little secret is I'm more of a sitting in nature type of person.

But I found a really cool site in my Twitter connections, Ron Nallon, with a philosophy I can really get it to: My Walk Club. I loved the title of his recent post, A pedestrian is someone who thought there were a couple of gallons left in the tank. Okay, I'm taking way too long to get to the point. For those of you that the concept of hiking a trail is foreign, my new mantra is "Take a Walk in a Virginia State Park."

Thank you Nancy.  We would like to take a "Walk in the Park" soon!

My pictures this morning are centered on the flowering plants and trees.  Spring is here, be sure not miss it.  We even found what are some sort of wild blue bells down by the river.  Does anyone have canoes we can borrow?

Red buds are just coming out.  All the Easter flowers are too.  Noel said she bought tulips in Holland one time and the squirrels ate them.  Those tree rats may not be our friends.

So don't let weather reports stop you!  Don't be the one that just gets wet!

Keep walkin,

Ron

Noel is back from Utah and ready to walk.   Today was overcast and rainy but what a great walk.  We stopped at the low water bridge on Water Street because the water is up but running clear.  Stoney Creek was probably a strong creek in it day and today we saw that strength.  The rain has been with us a good part of last week so most everyone is a little tired of it, but they say we need it to avoid draught this summer.

Meyersdale for some reason, even in summer seems so much greener than here.  When we are brown and scorched just two hours away they are lush and green.  That is always surprising.

As we walked into Edinburg the plants and trees are all blooming.  About 20 years ago flowering pears were all the rage.  They are beautiful and we have a great deal of them in our area.  Now they are not as popular because their root system is limited.  High winds can blow them over.  Maybe that's some sort of sign for us, too.

So we walked back along Stoney Creek Blvd, stopping to check out the mulch at Thompson's Ace Hardware.  Marie is my mother in law and she works there.  She knows EVERYTHING about hardware.  So stop and ask her a hardware question.  By the way the mulch looked really good.

We came back up Water Street.  There is stone foundation that has always fascinated me.  I am thinking it was used for keeping things cool.  It's not huge so I don't a mill or anything.  If you know let me know and leave a comment.

Then back up on Grove Avenue there is a nice little cottage with a spectacular view.  Someone has it painted up and it is really cute.  I am sure I could sell it!  ha ha.

Surprisingly don't let rainy weather put you off from walking.  We had a great walk and we weren't soaked.  Over the last year there have been less than a handfull of times when weren't able to walk.  Even some forboding times.

Until tomorrow, keep walkin,

Ron