I actually wasn't wee-wee'd up, and most of the day it didn't even occur to me that it was Cinco de Mayo. I just like using that phrase ;)
Another day where I felt really good and wanted to get out and get some exercise. Seth had a long study session to go to, so I thought I'd go get a closer look at a couple of things in town. All the years we've lived here, I've driven past these planet monuments on 8th Ave. I've been curious what they look like close-up, but never actually went over to see.
There are also two nice-looking wooden walkways that lead off the north side of 8th Ave and I wondered where they led. I assumed they hooked up somewhere back in the woods. My plan was to park at Westside Park, walk east on 8th Ave, take the first wooden walkway leading north, follow it around until it came out on the 2nd walkway farther east on 8th Ave, then continue east until there was a safe place to cross the street and walk west on the other side, following the planets back to the park. I figured it would be about 2 miles--very doable.
NOT TO SCALE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ N /|\
~ Westside ~ |
~ Park ~ 1st walkway 2nd walkway
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ X X
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
8th Ave.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* * * * *Mars *Jupiter *Saturn *Uranus *Neptune *Pluto
| | | \
S \ \ \_____Earth
u | \ ___Venus
n Mercury
(We'll see if this looks even remotely readable when I finally post it)
So...the walk didn't exactly work out the way I planned. Getting to the first walkway was fine, but it didn't hook up with the 2nd one. It ended in the middle of the woods with a bunch of dirt paths leading off from it. I asked some other people if they knew where any of the paths went. They said if I kept going straight I'd come out on 16th Ave. At that point I figured I'd rather walk more out of my way and know where I was, so I went forward. There was a sign as you exited the woods onto 16th Ave. saying this system of trails was part of the watershed for Hoggetowne Creek and Possum Creek, and that about a mile east was a way leading to Fred Cone Park, which had another trail. I knew I didn't want to go that far, and this sign gave me hope that there would be another sign pointing to wherever that 2nd walkway really was, so I turned east and just kept walking.
There either wasn't another sign, or I just missed it. I walked to 22nd St., turned south, hit 8th Ave. again and picked up with Pluto just a little west of the intersection on the south side. There was a plaque at that end which told me this was called the "Solar Walk".
Each monument showed the symbol of the planet--Pluto will always be a planet to me--and some quotes either directly about the planet, or at least something about space. There were quotes from scientists, authors, presidents. On the panel that faced the street there was a plaque on each obelisk with information like when it was discovered, mass, gravity compared to Earth, distance from the Sun, a bunch of other stuff.
It was pretty cool, even if my knees had clocked out somewhere up on 22nd St. On the way back I discovered the 2nd walkway was just west of Neptune, and that that trail dumped out on 25th Terrace. If I had known to walk down 25th Terr. off of 16th Ave. I could have trimmed 1-1.5 miles off my trek. Oh well. The second half of the walk was definitely slower paced than the first half, but I did make it back to my car (and my water). I estimate I ended up walking about 4 miles instead of the planned 2.
I was utterly exhausted but I knew I'd be done for if I didn't stretch and/or soak, so I went to the health club. I had packed a gym bag ahead of time for this, so I had my swimsuit and everything handy. I did a little stretching (not enough) and then hit the hot tub. It felt so good :) When I got home I knew I'd better use the RTS so I did some of that while slumped on the couch. Oof.
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