Okay, I'm a walking fool. Put a trail or walk directions in front of me and off I go. Usually, I am with my BFF Susan Medlin, or my husband, Bob. The main reason for all the walks is that I signed up for the AVA: America's Walking Club's Centurion Program. In order to earn the patch for this year, I have to walk 100 walks by December 31. This will be my third year to complete this program. As of today, I have seven walks left to go. No problem.
We had just returned from five nights at Galveston Island State Park (my blog about Galveston to follow shortly). I developed a mild cold (no fever) on Thursday, December 3. When we returned to San Antonio, I kept away from people for the first few days. By December 9, it was time to get back to walking.
Here's a rundown of the past nine days:
Wednesday, December 9: Today, Susan and I did a 7k walk around her neighborhood. The halfway point was their community's clock tower. (I am one walk away from earning a "Rockin' Around the Clock" patch!)
After the walk, we worked on a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a craft room, complete with a stained glass lamp, dolls, modge podge, paintbrushes, sewing machine, quilts, and other crafty-person implements of creativity. There were even jigsaw puzzles and craft how-to books on the shelves in the puzzle!
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| Villages at West Creek clock tower. |
Thursday, December 10: Today we did a 5k walk Susan designed in their Villages of West Creek neighborhood which is completely different from yesterday's 7k walk. Today, we walked on quieter streets with views.
After the walk, we finished the 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle from yesterday.
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| A neighborhood in Villages of West Creek |
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| A view of the rollercoasters at Sea World San Antonio. |
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| A bit of the tropics on a cold day. |
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| Fall colors (finally) in December. |
Friday, December 11: Today, our destination was the Salado Creek Greenway trail from Lady Bird Johnson Park to Tobin Park. This is one of our favorite 10k walks in the summer because the Salado Creek Greenway Trail south from Lady Bird Johnson Park has a lot of shade.
What we saw today were a lot of deer, everything from fawns to bucks. It's a very pleasant walk, all on trails, and nothing next to busy roads (although the trail does cross under a freeway). You can zip along and not have to worry about following a lot of directions as the trail is out and back.
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| The trailhead info sign. |
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| Doe and fawn. |
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| Close-up of the fawn. |
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| Someone's in the holiday spirit! |
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| A beautiful buck blending into the trees. |
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| The trail took us through the Los Patios businesses. They deigned to let us pass. |
Saturday, December 12: The 10k Christmas walk was in Boerne (pronounced Burney), Texas, today. The city is having their Christmas Market in the town square. We didn't stop/shop, but just kept on walking. In a normal year, our Boerne Christmas Walk would have a pancake and sausage breakfast. However, due to coronavirus, we could only have a couple of people in the room at a time to sign in and then we headed outside to walk.
Ellen Ott, however, brought a donation of tasty goodies from Broadway Daily Bread Bakery. At the end of the walk, everyone got to pick out a sealed package. The type of goodie you ended up with was a surprise. Susan Medlin had a chocolate chip cookie which she loved. I got a pecan bar. Mmm!
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| An old barn made into a new business. |
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| The history of Boerne. |
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| A water tower on the Old No. 9 Trail. |
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| Cibolo Creek along River Road. |
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| Veterans' Memorial with a cathedral in the background. |
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| Another view of the Veterans Memorial. |
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| Autumn has made it to South Texas. |
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| Historic building. |
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| A very cute Little Free Library. |
After our walk, we made our way to Dairy Queen for lunch. Susan treated me to lunch because I drove today. Thanks, BFF!
Sunday, December 13: On November 21, I did the Pearsall Park traditional Volksmarch (which means the start and checkpoints were run by local club members), but Susan and Darren could not go on the day of the event because they were traveling. However, they paid to do the walk and got instructions so they could do it when they got home.
I went with them today because I really like this walk. Thankfully, it was cloudy and cool again, just like the first time I did it. There isn't much shade, so not a good walk for any temperature over 65 degrees. A number of hills will have you huffing and puffing! Great views, though, of Kelly Field adjacent to Lackland Air Force Base.
Heavy fog greeted us when we started walking. It made the photos look Oriental.
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| Trees in the fog. |
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| Looking down at Kelly Air Field. |
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| Darren and Susan heading down a hill. |
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| At one point, we thought we would get rain. |
We finished the walk just as the sun was coming out from behind the clouds. All of us were hungry, so we had a pow-wow and decided on IHOP for lunch. That was sure good after walking six miles up and down hills!
Monday, December 14: 10k walk today was from Mission Concepcion in south San Antonio to the Blue Star Arts Complex. Our goal was to have lunch at Stella and then return to the mission. Mission accomplished.
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| Confluence Park has displays about conservation. |
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| The San Antonio River Watershed. |
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| German immigrant Carl Guenther helped found San Antonio. |
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| Confluence Park |
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| Stairs from Confluence Park to the San Antonio River. |
We ate lunch at Stella at the Blue Star Arts Complex. They are known for their artisanal pizzas. Susan had a mushroom pizza. I had a garden salad.
This is a nice walk along the river, but not one of the best for summer. There is very little shade.
After the walk, I showered and headed off to my appointment with the dentist. I was past due for a cleaning. All went well at the dental office.
Tuesday, December 15: I took the day off from walking because my knee and Achilles tendon were giving me a little pain. Instead, I swept and vacuumed (using different muscles LOL).
Wednesday, December 16: We wanted to get in a quick 7k walk, so I visited Susan. We walked the clock tower walk again. Then I came home.
Thursday, December 17: Today, we chose to do the Crownridge Canyon 6k walk. I love the park portion of this walk. There is a moderately easy trail for the first part of the walk and then you go into a more rustic trail. Once we finished 4k in the park, we had another 2k to do on steep hills in the neighborhood next door. Good exercise for sure. Hunger had set in and we set our sights on Red Robin at The Rim for lunch. I had a Banzai burger and a side salad. My burger was very yummy. Susan didn't get what she ordered, so we're not sure which burger she ended up with; she said it was good, though.
And there you have it, eight walks in nine days. That totals 69 km (42.8 miles).
Tomorrow, the ladies from the RV park are going to lunch at Guenther House, one of my all-time San Antonio favorites. I always have a hard time deciding what to eat there. In addition, they have a bakery with cinnamon rolls, strudel, etc. Oh, what's a German girl to do?
An update on our shed raising: We are blessed with wonderful neighbors and handymen in our RV park. They have been helping us build our shed. It's like an old-fashioned barn raising! We have been impressed by the speed and craftsmanship that they bring to the job. We can tell how much they enjoy what they're doing and take pride in all the steps along the way. Here are photos of what they've accomplished so far.
There are still a few things to finish up, but it's looking really good!
That's all for tonight. I'll get back to more travel blogs this weekend. Good night.
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