Hangin’ in the shade on a beautiful Saturday. Guy on the left claimed to be a direct descendant of Man o’ War. This was probably my most significant conversation of the day!
Can’t believe it was only two weeks ago today I left Zilker Park. Seems as if it were a couple of months.
Combining two days into one - pretty tired last night, though it was a relatively short eleven and a half miles from where Scott picked me up (and dropped me off) to Tyler. Had a few little things I needed, so it was a nice break. Quite the contrast from the last two days - all the stores that were absent in the 35 miles prior were all concentrated on yesterday’s last few miles. Not a lot of significant photo ops! It was a bit strange to be back in “civilization”.
On my way to hotel, I passed the Materials Management building of a regional healthcare system based in Tyler, and had to laugh. On several occasions, I have given presentations to their capital equipment procurement group, starting with Computed Radiography about 15 years ago, with Scott, Direct Digital Radiography 12 years ago. Several others ensued, the last being late last Fall, when I talked about Cone Beam CT. They never bought anything from us, but we had fun trying! And oh so happy to have left that behind.
You’ll be glad to hear that the ominous evil assault walking sticks have been replaced by a new pair, one of my errands. One of the tips of the original pair had fallen off, so it did look a bit like an evil spear. I don’t really use them to walk - they’re more of a percussion instrument, and they do keep my hands busy. I don’t wave with them anymore in favor a peace sign!]
And though I’m chompin’ at the bit to finally cross the Texas state line, I have made a change to my route. Original plan called for walking just south of Shreveport and into Louisiana. After looking at distances and lodging and such, I’ve decided to keep heading north towards Texarkana and then crossing Arkansas. Not sure yet whether I’ll go diagonal or along the south. TBD… have I ever mentioned just how much I enjoy this freedom??
I was contemplating taking today off, but decided instead to make way towards Kilgore then Longview tomorrow. Have yet to take a whole day off, but am preferring to just have shorter days. They’re a nice break, and 10-12 miles has become quite a bit easier in only a couple of weeks. I knew I had to get into better shape and ramp up to the 20 miles I’m trying to average, and am pleased to say my body has responded. What I’m really pleased about is the recovery times. Last week it would take me at least a couple of hours to come around. Today, after 18.7 miles, within an hour I felt fine. Being very generous with water and fluids, makes all the difference even though when I start off, my pack is 10 pounds heavier than when I arrive. It’s worth it.
I’ll do the math tomorrow, but I think I’m just short of 250 miles. Had fun thinking that I had walked the equivalent or Mexico City to Acapulco, San Antonio to Dallas (Plano actually), Washington D.C. to Strawberry Fields, NYC! If these stats are accourate (and they’re close!), that’s just a mere half a million steps, as suggested by last week’s fitbit stats. We’ve got this.