fauxklore | Entries tagged with 3 day walk

Two trivia points to anyone (well, anyone except

cahwyguy) who can identify the source of the title of this entry.

I went to Boston the weekend before last. As you may recall, I was originally supposed to be doing the 3-Day Walk that weekend and had made my travel plans accordingly. While I switched the walk to Philadelphia in October, my friend, Suzanne, was still doing the Boston walk, and I figured I should support her in it. The two of us talked Mary Joan, who had never been to Boston, into flying in as well.

I have, of course, spent a lot of time in Boston, so I set up a fairly complicated plan to entertain myself around New England while Suzanne was walking through suburbia and Mary Joan was seeing famous old stuff. After a brief visit and a cup of tea with a storytelling friend from Southern California (who now lives in Alabama and was in town to visit her son in Maryland), I got a Thursday evening flight out of DCA. Remarkably, I managed to get to the airport and get through security fast enough to get stand-by on the shuttle flight an hour earlier than the one I was booked on. It did mean gate checking my bag but the baggage claim US Air uses for the shuttle flights is not too inconvenient. It also meant a middle seat, but it's a short flight.

Suzanne had rented a car and was waiting for Mary Joan, whose flight had been late coming in from LAX, to check into her hotel. Once that was done, she swung by the terminal and picked me up. We managed to find my hotel (the Holiday Inn Express near the Boston Garden, which is intensely adequate but well located) and they dropped me off before going to park the car. I checked in, left my bag, and walked over to the Union Oyster House (allegedly the oldest restaurant in the country) to meet them for dinner. Both of them ate lobster (a first for Mary Joan), while I got scrod (and, no, that isn't the past tense, thank you very much). It was reasonably good and the atmosphere was very enjoyable. As was the company, of course.

Friday morning saw me checking out of the hotel and returning to the airport to pick up a rental car. I drove up to New Hampshire, with vague plans to revisit some places I had not been to in 40+ years. There was a huge rain storm as I was heading north, but it let up just about as I got to Concord. My first order of business was doing the vollksmarch there to add to my state capital obsession. The 10K route was generally pleasant. The Capitol is much less impressive (with a much smaller dome) than I'd remembered. You'd also think that with a legislature roughly the size of India's, they'd have bigger grounds surrounding the facility. The route also included the state office complex (appropriately, on the site of what had once been the state insane asylum) and the Franklin Pierce's grave (and his home).

I'd had a vague notion of driving out to North Sutton and revisiting the shores of Kezar Lake (where I spent a summer at Camp Birchbrook) and/or going over to New London (where we went to the Hospital Day parade and my brother bought the old atlas that started me down the path of travel daydreaming as a child). But I had stopped in at a tourist information center and was reminded of the existence of Canterbury Shaker Village. I have a long standing interest in 19th century Utopian communities, so that seemed worth a stop. I got there just in time to do the docent tour, which is the only way of visiting the interiors of some of the buildings (e.g. the meeting house and the chapel). The thing I found most interesting was that children raised by the Shakers who decided to leave were given clothing and some money to get themselves started in the world. I suppose I probably had heard that before, but it didn't register until I was looking at a placard that referred to one of the orphans at the village deciding to sign the Covenant and become a Shaker. I also learned that the sole living Shaker village (at Sabbathday Lake in Maine) is now up to 5 people, having gotten two converts. By the way, the drive back to I-93 suggested the real origin of the word "Shaker" was their road conditions, not their style of worship.

I spent the night in Hookset (near Manchester), which is convenient and unexciting. In the morning, I drove east to Exeter, where there was another volksmarch to do. That one was mostly around the grounds of Phillips Exeter Academy. The walk was enjoyable but it was definitely a bit hotter out than I'd have preferred.

When I finished, I drove down to Lowell, Massachusetts for the Lowell Folk Festival. I managed to meet up with both

ron_newman and

captain_peleg without too much difficulty. I also got to hear Michael Winograd (Klezmer), Lunasa (Irish) and Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi (from Zimbabwe), all of whom were enjoyable. Mary Joan arrived by train during the latter, but a massive downpour also arrived. We (she, Ron and I) had plans to go to Star Wars night at the Lowell Spinners (minor league baseball) but the game was cancelled. We had dinner at an Asian restaurant before I drove the three back to Boston. The rain was heavy and the lane markings were hard to see, making for a stressful drive. I dropped Ron off near his place, returned the car, pointed Mary Joan to the shuttle to the Blue Line (near her hotel) and headed over to the Cambridge Marriott for the night. That hotel treats me well, but the desk clerk on duty that night had an extremely severe and incomprehensible accent.

The walk was taking Suzanne to a more central location on Sunday morning, so Mary Joan and I met up near Cambridge City Hall to cheer her on. This had been advertised as an official "cheering station" so we expected some sort of signs or balloons or what have you, but there was nothing. We did, however, manage to see (and photograph) her zooming by and applaud for her and so on. After the dust settled, we walked over to the The Friendly Toast for brunch and then hopped the T up to Harvard Square to visit the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. We also had time for a quick look at the rest of the museum. Then we picked up our bags at our respective hotels and went over the Hilton at Logan, planning to leave them and then head over to the closing ceremony for the walk. While we were on our way, Suzanne called. She had finished the walk and didn't want to wait around for the closing ceremony, so was heading over the Hilton. As it happened, our rooms were available, so we just hung out for a while. Eventually we went out to dinner. Sadly, the No Name has deteriorated quite a bit in the years since I had last been there and my scrod was overcooked and bland. Mary Joan and Suzanne also thought their meals were just average.

I had been in New England three entire days without ice cream and needed to remedy that, so bullied my friends into an excursion to Cambridge and the always wonderful Toscanini's. Which is just as wonderful as ever.

All in all, it was a good weekend, except for the Saturday night weather. Now I just have to continue slogging along on preparations for Philadelphia.

I am, as usual, busy and behind. This is the general catch-up entry and will have a few teasers for things I have yet to write about.

Three Day Walk: In a fit of madness, I decided I could actually be somewhat prepared if I just delayed a couple of months. So, instead of cancelling, I just switched to the Philadelphia walk, which is in early October. You still have an opportunity to donate to help me reach the fundraising goal. (Note that the totals shown by this widget are not necessarily accurate.)

Help me reach my goal for the Susan G. Komen Philadelphia 3-Day

Celebrity Death Watch: There is lots to report in this category. Let’s start with Ernest Borgnine, who deserves a mention for his role in the classic movie Marty, a lovely little piece about an ordinary man finding happiness despite people around him. While I am on actors, there was Sherman Helmesley, who, in addition to his television roles, starred in the Broadway musical Purlie. Then there was Chad Everett. I watched Medical Center in the early 1970’s largely because of a crush on him.

Moving on to other categories of fame, Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, fulfilling the dreams many of us had. She also became an effective voice for women in science and technology. She was definitely one of my heroines.

Speaking of effectiveness brings me to Stephen Covey, who wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I actually took the 7 Habits class when my (then) boss did, on the grounds that it is a good idea to know what your management is being taught so you can be effective at subverting it.

Finally, I want to mention Donald Sobol. He is probably most famous for the Encyclopedia Brown series of children’s mysteries. But I remember him primarily for the “two-minute mystery” puzzles that appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazines. Those provide a good example of the distinction between a pure puzzle and a full-up mystery novel, with character development. They aren't very satisfying reading, bt they are good exercises in mental development.

Other deaths (more conceptual): Weekly Highlights is ceasing publication. I always looked forward to reading this when I was in elementary school.

Matt Groening has stopped his Life in Hell comic strip. He is responsible for my most embarrassing celebrity encounter. Back when I lived in Venice, California, I would go to an occasional cocktail party at a local bookstore. At one party, I was looking at Life in Hell postcards and told a bearded man standing nearby how much I liked the strip. He replied, “Thanks, I draw it,” at which point I turned into a simpering idiot. He was gracious enough to not only autograph a book for me, but to also draw a cartoon in the inside front cover.

NOAA’s latest budget kills the Aquarius Reef Base, the only deep undersea base we have. I understand the budget realities, but I am deeply disappointed, especially as they are blaming increases in weather satellite costs for this.

Work annoyance of the month: They have rewickered the front door to our suite so that it closes by itself. However, it does so very very slowly. When nobody is at the front desk, whoever opened the door has to wait for it to close, which is a waste of time. I suppose that if this is the worst annoyance I’ve had at work all month, I am not doing too badly. (Or, more likely, I am just used to all the other annoyance.)

Weather words: While I was in Cincinnati, a massive line of thunderstorms and wind struck the D.C. area. This was officially referred to as a “derecho.” I am convinced that there is a special office of meteorology that creates words like this to make the rest of us feel dumb whenever there is some natural disaster that we might have referred to in ordinary English.

Speaking of words: Maybe it is just among the people I work with, but it seems like the expression “a couple three” has entirely supplanted “a few.” Please point it out to me should that abomination ever seep into my speech.

Awkward language: A news headline referred to homeless men being found “stabbed with notes.” I have, admittedly, gotten paper cuts from time to time, but I suspect that they were probably stabbed with more conventional sharp objects and notes were left with their bodies.

Fun with language: An advertisement from the DC Jewish Community Center for a Tu B’Av event referred to this Jewish celebration of love as “Valenstein.”

Unintentional fun with language: One of my colleagues had a slip of the tongue on the way out of the office last night and referred to the “HIV lane” on the highway. My immediate thought was that must be the truck lane on the Ukimwi Road. (“Ukimwi” is a Swahili word for AIDS. The reference is to the contribution of improved roads, along with the tendency of truckers to frequent prostitutes, in the spread of the disease in Africa in the 1980’s.)

Things I have yet to write about: I still need to write up the NPL con. I also need to do a big entertainment wrap-up as I saw six shows at the Capital Fringe, two other shows, and two movies. I’ve been planning for a while to write about dating. And I am going away this weekend so will have that to write about.

The worst pun I ever heard runs like this. If you cross the Alps with elephants, you get elephant wheelchairs because you get de-feeted by the Romans.

There really is a reason for me to inflict that on you. Bear with me a moment.

As I mentioned a couple of times before, my friend, Suzanne, signed up to do the Susan B. Komen 3 Day Walk in Boston at the end of July and talked me into signing up with her. She didn't have to talk very hard, as I was looking forward to the physical challenge. (Note that I first met Suzanne when she and I both did the 3 Day in southern California, back when Avon ran it in 1999. She works for the same company I do and we worked together later on.)

The first complication came with fund raising, as the Komen / Planned Parenthood kerfuffle broke out just about when I started that. That posed a pretty serious moral dilemma for me, particularly as breast cancer is not really one of my significant charitable causes. (I tend to give my money primarily for educational causes, e.g. scholarship funds and promoting literacy.) It wasn't a huge issue in that I was comfortable enough with the way things got resolved that I could just donate the money myself.

The other complication was that I had seriously overestimated how much free time I had for training. I've been doing lots of 5-7 mile walks, but never managing to find time for much more than that.

So the weekend before last, Suzanne came out here so we could walk together. (She lives in Los Angeles. Her biggest concern was trying to figure out how she could cope with walking in humidity.) I'd planned a roughly 15 mile route for Saturday and 6 to 8 for Sunday, followed by a spa appointment.

We walked from my place to the W&OD trail, which is a rail trail that cuts across a large swath of northern Virginia. It started out well enough, but I was wearing shoes that were getting to their end of life and I got a blister on the ball of my right foot. That was still not a huge issue. But about mile 13, I got a serious cramp in one leg. We rested and Suzanne gave me an electrolyte tablet to put in my water. We made it another mile or so, at which point there is a running shoe store and she made me buy new shoes. (Which was something I needed to do, so was actually useful.) At that point, we had lunch at an Indian restaurant and took the metro back to my place.

There was time for showering, napping, and reading parts of the newspaper before I picked Suzanne up at her hotel and took her out for her first taste of Thai food. Elephant Jumps is always a good choice and now she knows what she was missing. (She also reminded me that I had been the person who introduced her to Ethiopian food.)

That blister was a huge issue on Sunday, however, and I pretty much limped through the barely 6 miles we did. (I should also note that she got to experience my notoriously bad sense of direction. It appears that the parking lot I was looking for does not actually exist, but I should have been able to figure that out sooner. Fortunately, it is harder to get lost doing an out-and-back on the Mount Vernon Trail than it is on the surrounding roads.)

I managed not to get us lost getting brunch at a nearby IHOP. Then it was time for our spa appointment. Yvonne's Day Spa is the only place in the U.S. that does fish pedicures. Yes, we actually had the dead skin on our feet nibbled at by fishies and here is photographic evidence.

fishycure

It was mostly sort of ticklish and not at all unpleasant. It was followed by a normal pedicure. Overall, I would do it again.

There turns out to be a bit of a saga regarding the cramp I'd gotten on Saturday. Without going into a lot of detail, it was most likely related to side effects from blood pressure medication (which has since been adjusted). And, by the way, I was fine, with no significant muscle soreness the next day.

But what with recovering from the blister and the blistering heat wave that has made it inadvisable to do much walking, I don't see any way I can be ready to walk 60 miles in 3 days in a few weeks. I've decided to cry uncle and quit. I feel bad about this, but Suzanne is being understanding. I am still going to go up to Boston that weekend (and take her out for a blow out dinner after the walk is over). I am rethinking some of the details of my travel plans for that weekend (probably doing some other walking, possibly volksmarch events in Maine and/or New Hampshire).

I also want to get back to training to work up to longer walks again, with a goal of doing the one day hike of the C&O canal towpath in April. (The whole hike is 100 km, but there is a 50 km option, which is definitely do-able. Registration is not until February, so I have time to see which option makes sense.)

I hate quitting anything so this is rough on me. But I have a plan ahead, so I'll survive.

A while ago, my friend, Suzanne, mentioned that she wanted to do the Susan G. Koman 3 Day Walk in Boston and asked if I was interested. (We works for the same company I do but we first met doing the 3 Day in Los Angeles in 1999, when Avon ran it.) She didn't have to do a lot of arm twisting.

The walk is at the end of July which doesn't seem quite far enough away. For one thing, I am behind on my training, largely because weather and winter darkness are not conducive to a lot of walking outside here right now. But I think I can get myself organized for that and, at least, survive the walk.

I am also behind on my fund raising. Some of that has to do with getting organized also. You can all help with that by going to my personal fundraising page and donating. Here is the link:

Help me reach my goal for the Susan G. Komen Boston 3-Day

We are also going to be princesses and, rather than lug camping gear to Boston, stay at a hotel, so we are looking for someone to drive us to/from the hotel. If anyone I know in Boston might be willing to do that (even one of the days) let me know.

Finally, I used this as an excuse to buy a new toy - a GPS watch. I haven't really checked it out yet, but I am looking forward to doing so. (I also bought new walking socks, but that is exciting only to me.)