Nice Long Walk Recap: It was either a marathon followed by a 10K or a 10K followed by a marathon (whichever sounds more impressive). I left on foot from my house at 6:40 in the morning and arrived home by car at 6:40 in the evening. And in between, I had walked 32.2 miles from my house to Mission San Juan de Capistrano, 69,700 steps, at an average pace of 17:30 and we raised more than $5500.00 for the San Antonio Foodbank. It was a fabulous fun day. Thank you all for your friendship, support and donations. My favorite parts of the day, in chronological order, were: Number one, walking out my front door at daybreak. It was cool and clear, the full moon was shining bright overhead and I was heading out on an adventure not exactly trekking the Peruvian Andes to Choquequirao (where I would be but for the pandemic) but an adventure nonetheless; Second favorite part was the video that I was able to capture of the big white bird in flight when I walked the boardwalk across the wetlands. I’m a big birder so I was excited to be able to check “big white wetlands bird” off my list of lifetime sightings. Third favorite part was meeting my friend “of long standing” Jane Bockus who escorted me along the river to the Alamo. When I was in law school, I interviewed with Jane for a part time clerking job at Clemens & Spencer. I got the job and spent my career there. Jane and Cary had the closest of friendships. It was so fun to catch up on old and new. Jane lives in King William and knows all the goings on and loves to bike and hike, knows the routes and escorted me to the Alamo and then along the Mission Reach to Southtown. Jane’s a solid steady walker too. We walked together about 6 miles with no damage to my average pace. My fourth and most favorite part of the whole day was when I set my all time one day walking record. I was sorta like “holy cow, I just walked more than a marathon” and it was still only about 4:00, and was lovely and quiet along the river and I was feeling great so I thought I might go all the way to Espada but I felt differently an hour and a half later! And my final favorite part of the day was when Will pulled up and pushed open the passenger door of his bright red Isuzu Impreza with cold bottles of water for my chauffeured return home. Having a responsible teenager with a driver’s license is a great asset and he’s a great boy. Second Century Scholar at SMU starting at the Cox Business School in the Fall. His Mom is as proud of him as I am. So it was almost a perfect day, all in all, except for those super comfortable light weight Nike running shoes. They were great for walks of 10 or even 18 miles and they were even great on my Nice Long Walk for my toes and the balls of my feet where I sometimes have problems with blisters but not with my heels. Seems they were rubbing up and down on my heels and I got heel blisters but otherwise I came through just great. Someone mentioned to me, I’m sure with the best intentions, that walking 32 miles for my 64th Birthday is a half mile per year suggesting that a full celebration of my requires one mile per year. But seriously, walking another 32 miles back from Mission San Juan to my house isn’t even under my consideration, at least not until the blisters heal and only then if we get a really nice day. Thanks again, keep safe, keep well, keep your distance.

Blessedly a cool front descends on our city later today so tomorrow is going to be cooler and Thursday sunrise temps are forecasted to be in the low 60’s! Yay! So I think Thursday is going to be a fabulous day for my Nice Long Walk. I’m super excited. I’ll be heading out at daybreak walking from my house to the Alamo. 23 miles is a long way to walk but not my record. In Oct 2017, I walked 26.6 miles, the last 2 stages of the Camino Frances from Arzua to Santiago, in one day. So if I get to the Alamo with no problems then I’m going for 27 miles. And I’m donating $64.00 to the Foodbank for every mile in celebration of my upcoming 64th Birthday. It’s going to be a great fun day and the more of my friends who join in the more fun it’ll be! So if you haven’t done so already please click the link and make a donation of any amount to support the Foodbank. Or for even more fun, post a message with the amount per mile that you’d like to pledge, follow my progress during the day and you can pay once we see how many miles I total! Either way your friendship and support is greatly appreciated. Keep well, keep safe, keep your distance!