Doing 25

Out of the last four days I have walked three of those days and traveled over 25 walking miles. I also have clocked some biking miles since I am using my bike to help me move around quicker after walking the streets I need to walk (it’s not cheating, I checked). These twenty five miles took me to the south eastern corner of Lansing. This very large area was south of Holmes, north of Jolly between Pennsylvania and Cedar. Then I used my bike to get to some straggler streets out on Miller and Aurelius. I rode my bike 7 more miles on top of the 9-11 mile walks. I am starting to get tired. Sometimes I feel bad about pushing through this quickly. I think it wouldn’t be my preferred method. However, I am still walking with the same interest to my surroundings that I’ve always had, I am just walking farther. When I first started in 2010 I was only able to walk about a mile (20 minutes) before I became winded and was ready to stop. Now I can easily walk 6-8 miles before I start having any aches or fatigue. In fact, today I only walked 3.66 miles and was frustrated that I wasn’t able to walk farther (it started raining). It has been about three weeks now since I decided I needed to step it up (pun intended). My goal was to walk 10 miles every day until I felt I had a really good shot at completing this walk about by October 4. Even though I haven’t met that goal I do feel I am making progress. The south side is very daunting with super long dead ends, high volume traffic streets and urban sprawl. If anyone is interested in some long walks, let me know! I would love to have an exercise partner.

These are some of my finds over these 25 miles of south eastern Lansing:

Two Little Libraries

A house totally decked out for U of M (I noticed their trash can was green and at first thought they must hate that they have any green on their property. But then I thought, it’s a trash can, they probably asked for that color; haha).

Kendon School and Park; totally adorable!

Marscott Park

This house:

The River Trail with a path to get on at Willard (off Aurelius just south of Forest)

The most south eastern neighborhood in Lansing

From East to West

Yesterday for my First to 500 work out (yes, I’m still trying to earn points) I decided to bike the river trail. A couple of weeks ago I did the ride in from Haslett, through MSU campus onto the river trail in East Lansing and onto the River Trail in Lansing. That trip I took the north route and rode to the very end just west of Tuner Dodge. I didn’t do any walking so I wasn’t really “allowed” to make it a City Saunter post. This time, though, I walked a section from my map that I was missing so I can count it! Yesterday’s trip I again rode my bike in from Bath Township, through MSU campus and onto the river trail. This time I cut left soon after Potter Park. This route takes you to Moores Park. I rode it to the very end there and stopped for a few photos.
It’s funny how you can travel parts of Lansing over and over and still find an area you’ve never been to before.
My section of street I needed to walk was Mt. Hope from Moores River Drive east back to Pleasant Grove. It ended up being about .81 of a mile. I think that counts! As I walk more and more areas I will have more and more chunks that will need to get walked. Using my bike to travel from one to the next might be my best option. I just wish I didn’t have to travel the 12 miles to get into Lansing first. I’m sure I will figure something out though! Good Travels!

Multi-Tasking

A recent article flittering its way through Facebook land had the audacity of proclaiming the ineffectualness of multitasking. Even with a quick Google search I found multiple articles claiming the death of multitasking. What once was considered a skill is now looked at as doing multiple things mediocrely.  I’m thinking that this is a media no news story. How many people really do one thing at a time? I don’t even think I could. I have always been a multi-doer. Many days I have a running chat window going with someone while I edit photos or write a blog or work on design projects. I’ve been known to dictate a list to my husband while we drive. With the twins out of school for the summer I often find myself writing blogs on a notebook while watching them swim in the pool. Today was the king of multi-doing. Today I would drive the twins (and their bikes) into town, park at their grandparents, let them ride their bikes on streets I need to cover for City Saunter. We will eventually make our way to the park at the front of Scott’s Woods to play for a bit. Afterwards we will continue on non Sauntered streets until I reach a section that I also need to take notes on for the Lansing Walkability Audit. And in my perfect world the twins will be hydrated, fed and eager to assist me with my measuring and observing. Ahhhh genius! I’ll give you all a moment to get a tissue to wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes.

First off it took an extra hour to hook the car-bike-contraption thing onto the car. It is now noon. We didn’t eat lunch but we did have a late breakfast. I decide to go anyway. Twenty minutes later we arrive in Lansing at Grandma and Grandpa O’Meara’s house. Grandma’s not home, but Grandpa greets us and sends us on our way. The kids on their bikes are the perfect way for them to travel while I walk. We don’t usually get very far if I make them walk. On their bikes they don’t even complain when we go down one block and turn around to head up another street. They easily make their way through the neighborhood listening obediently to instructions to stop and look for cars. Using my map to successfully navigate our way we make it to the park successfully. After a short stay we were off again. I knew at this time it would have been best to make our way straight back to the car. I didn’t. I pushed one last task onto our little group of travelers. Out onto Pennsylvania Ave. I pulled out two clip boards stuffed with papers and instructions.  We began check boxing specific information about intersections and sidewalks. I really had hoped that using the measuring tape to measure the ramps at every intersection on a busy street would have been a blast for the kids. It was not. We completed about 3 intersections and two blocks of sidewalks on the odd side before the twins had their melt down. It’s fine. We were at Pacific and I hadn’t walked that street yet. In a few blocks we were at my in-laws’ street. The twins made the turn and were heading the last three blocks to their house. My dilemma was walking one more block to connect my Pacific walk and complete that section or stay with the twins. I’d watched the twins carefully make their way in this neighborhood for over an hour. Despite not being use to riding bikes in neighborhoods, I trusted that they’d be just fine. They turned left and I quickly continued walking the last block of Pacific. Alone I was able to really enjoy the last length of the walk but my true peace didn’t hit until a saw two bikes, one boy and one girl, parked out in front of grandma and grandpa’s house.