Tag walking

And we’re walking

Angel Ackerman 1 Comment

Since my trip to Niagara Falls with the Liberty Bell Wanderers, my family has joined me as official members of that group and the American Volkssporting Association. With their help, I recently finished my initial 10-event book and will now have my own walker number.

I am thrilled with this activity. Volkssporting is non-competitive walking or bike riding, typically for 5k or 10k distances, though sometimes 6k or 15k. The local group that sponsors the walk will have a start location posted on the AVA website. At that location, usually a hotel or a YMCA because of the flexible hours of the facility, there will be a “start” or “walk box.”

In the walk box, there’s a registration form, a start card and a stamp. You fill out the registration form, stamp your book(s), and fill out a start card. Also in the box are directions and envelopes. The envelope allows you to mail your completed start card and payment to the walk administrator (otherwise known as point of contact.)

From there, it’s like a walking tour/scavenger hunt. I usually ask my 11-year-old to read the directions and the map because it’s a good skill for her to practice.

We have recently done North and South Bethlehem, New Hope PA/Lambertville NJ, and Doylestown, PA.
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In Bethlehem, we visited the grave of poet HD.

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In Doylestown, we hob-knobbed with the history.

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Apparently, Doylestown has concrete castles similar to the Edison-inspired concrete house neighborhood in Phillipsburg NJ.

New Hope had lots of artsy views.

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Not to mention a mansion that could have belonged to one of my husband’s relatives…

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But Lambertville NJ had the most amazing falafel and kufta…

My daughter, who’s struggling to transition from her active elementary school years to a more sedentary middle school life, is outside again and moving so that makes me happy. My husband likes to walk and likes our adventurous day trips. I am so thankful for such a fun family activity.

And unlike bowling, it doesn’t require heavy equipment or ugly shoes.

O Canada

Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

I can’t believe the trip with the Liberty Ball Wanderers has reached its final night in Niagara Falls. A tad sad really. Today I hit my 35,000 steps in one day milestone from Fitbit. I’ve gotten close many times but never made it…

But let me take a small step back. We went to Bollywood Bistro last night, a vegetarian-Jain Indian restaurant (one of nine Indian restaurants nearby), for dinner. I ate about $30 worth of food by myself I was so hungry after the 14 miles I covered during the day. The food was scrumptious.

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After that meal, we went on a 5k around Goat Island. I collapsed in bed around 10 and woke up still stuffed from dinner. I wandered down to the lobby for my first cup of coffee and managed to eat another oversized breakfast before embarking on the boarding crossing walk into Canada. We walked about 4 miles along the Canadian side of the falls, exploring various gardens and historical markers in addition to the breathtaking views of the falls.

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We came back to the hotel to play the Hampton Inn version of Mr. Potato Head.
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Then back onto the bus we went to visit Cave of the Wind (otherwise known as the place where you get dressed in a yellow garbage bag, wear cheap sandals, walk along some wooden steps and stairs to be sprayed with ice cold water). All kidding aside, the views of the falls were amazingly majestic. I think it may have been more fun than Maid of the Mist.

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We reboarded the bus for our long awaited border crossing into Canada as a group. Our first stop in Canada was the gardens near the Butterfly Conservatory. My husband and I visited here about 15 years ago and we adored the Butterfly House. But time did not allow it today. From the gardens, we traveled to Niagara on the Lake which I heard compared to New Hope and Cape May. It was cute.

We did a 5K that took us down to the waterfront, to the park across from Old Fort Niagara (which I visited once with my grandmother probably nearly 30 years ago), along Queen Street and back to the main drag.

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We bought butter tarts (a local dessert) and wine. We had to buy the wine after we had an amazing wine flight and cheese platter at Shaw’s Café and wine bar (named after George Bernard Shaw the playwright).

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Not to mention our waiter Andrew was a sweetheart and easy on the eyes. Okay, so the restaurant was gorgeous too, with winding stairs and a path through the kitchen to get to the washrooms…
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I’m so tired right now I have to postpone any further thinking… We leave at 8 am for another town and another 5k before we head home. Hopefully I can post a gallery of some of the pictures I have here, including phone booths and mail boxes.

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Eating Ice Cream with a Fork

Angel Ackerman 4 Comments

While I was in Russia, I received a small group email from my friend Gayle. She and two of her family members were booked to travel with Liberty Bell Wanderers on a bus trip to Binghamton, NY; Buffalo, and Niagara Falls.

A seat had opened up and they needed to fill it with someone who could get time off work and had a passport for some travel in Canada.

I fit that criteria.

I got up at 3:30 am to drive to Gayle’s so we could drive down to the Philly suburbs and meet the bus before 7 am. We stopped at Wawa and I got some watermelon, always a good start to the day.

  
We started our day with snacks on the bus while we journeyed to Binghamton, NY, where we met the local walking club reps at the YMCA for 5k or 10k walks.

  

The architecture in town was fascinating. They had mosaics frequently on display. They also had a Boscov’s department store downtown.

  
Our group had lunch at Uncle Tony’s where we enjoyed the juicy marinated local sandwich, the spiedie. Delectable.

  
Then when we returned to the Y, they had BIG bowls of vanilla ice cream for $1. They ran out of spoons so I used a fork.

  
We’re currently on the bus, watching a documentary on Niagara.
 

Time to Go for a Walk

Angel Ackerman 2 Comments

After breaking my hand last winter in the midst of a multi-year gradual weight gain, I embarked on a fitness journey late June 2014. 

Some of the changes in my lifestyle (dedication to at-home weight training) stemmed from personal need– I had no strength in my right hand after my injury and favored the left side of my body. 

But some, like bike riding, came from the people in my life. Give a ten-year-old a bike and that child can run you into exhaustion. Two people heavily influenced my dedication to walking.

I work retail and walk about a mile an hour. I really don’t need any more steps. My friend Gayle walks all kinds of places and she has inspired me to use the car less. I have a goal in life to live somewhere that doesn’t require a car. My husband hopes that will be in an urban American environment and not some hut in a developing region in Africa.

The other inspiration for my walking efforts is my traveling companion, M. He is tall. I am short and have even shorter legs. His stride is way longer than mine so when we travel I have to work hard to keep up with him.

We leave for Russia in less than four weeks. More about that later.

Gayle has a walking blog and she posted this a couple weeks ago: National Walking Day. To celebrate, I decided to walk to do my morning errands. I clocked almost 2.5 miles and got the opportunity to reflect on how sadly “unwalkable” many areas are.

I live in a town attached to the city that happens to be the county seat. I walked a half mile down the main street that serves both municipalities. This street passes into a third municipality and intersects another main road in a commercial area. The sidewalk ends for about a block in front of a now empty factory (where I’m sure many employees had to use the bus). 

The sidewalk resumes under the major highway, but you have to cross the entrance ramp for said highway to reach the commercial plaza where I was headed. I needed to have my photo taken for my new drivers license.

There’s always that one guy who never uses his blinker and almost runs you over. Because there’s no light, only a yield.

But I made it.

 

That’s an insanely boring picture, I know. It was 30-something and the center/DMV had two minutes before it opened. 

 

 

I took my place in line. I was #3 for photos. Took about ten minutes.

  

I rewarded myself with an egg sandwich and bought the family a dozen bagels. 

 

The whole adventure took about an hour and fifteen minutes.