The "Walk"

Once upon a time, on a mild summer day, I decided to go on a walk. I happen to live close to a trail, which is quite pretty. I wanted some company on this walk, so I asked Ashley and Andrea to come along! They happily agreed! Soon after they both arrived at my house, we headed down the street with wild abandon.....no cell phones......no water bottles.........just us and our walking shoes. After all, it was just a nice afternoon stroll, right?

WRONG! Failure to communicate, led us on a journey that I am crippled from today. I feel as if I turned 75 years old overnight. Arthritis set in as I slept. If I can even stand, I hobble to my destination.......with a slight hunch of the back too. How did this immediate aging occur? Well, back to the story..........

The trail picked up at Fort and Sunset, and we headed east. Conversation was flowing, birds were chirping, flowers were blooming..........dodging the bicyclists was no problem. In fact, the company and conversation was so great, that none of us even stopped to ask: Where are we going exactly? As we get farther and farther I'm thinking, "I wonder when they'll want to turn around?"

The fitness level of Andrea and Ashley compared to mine is unmatched. That is, THEY run and exercise (high endurance levels). I try NOT to run and exercise (LOW endurance levels). The pace we had immediately settled into was FAST, and I was fading, but still keeping up. The itchy legs had come back, but by this time, they were numb.

Finally, we saw a set of stairs. We climbed up only to discover that we had hiked all the way to Battlefield Rd and West Bypass. Our options were grim. Turn around? Walk down Battlefield to Kansas Exp? Neither sounded good to me. I offered to stick my thumb out, but no one jumped on that idea. With no cell phones to call search and rescue, we decided to head down Battlefield. At this point, I don't remember much of the return trip......just that I fell back about 10 feet behind Andrea and Ashley..........and when we finally crawled up my driveway, we all collapsed on the floor in my living room.

That was my exercise for the next decade. I have no idea how far we actually walked, but I'm sure it was well over 7 miles. Next time, I'll arm myself with water and a cell phone, just in case.