Sad Statistics

I've been reading a book called "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson, which chronicles a man's walking journey over the Appalachian Trail (about 2000 miles). I came across a few sad statistics (please note these book was published in 1997, and things may have changed). Let me quote his words if you don't mind. He seems to have said it better than i ever could.

"Now here's a thought to consider. Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz (his friend) and I walk further that the average American walks in a week. For 93 percent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in the car. On average the total walking distance of an American these days -that's walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, around the supermarket and shopping malls-adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 300 yards a day. That's ridiculous." (pg. 135)

For those of you who like a visual example, I've done the conversions for you. 300 yards is equivalent to 0.27 kms. That's the distance from House of James on Emerson to the Tim Hortons on Gladwin. That's ridiculous! The length of Tim Ave (that's where we live) is TWICE the distance that most people walk in a day!!!
To Dan and I, that seems utterly ridiculous. Dan even commented aloud when I told him the distance, that he was shocked and that these stats are from over 10 years ago. He wonders how much they have changed!!!
But somehow these don't shock me. How often do we drive around (wasting precious expensive gas) to find the closest parking spot to the mall? Walking from one store to another seems like too far a distance, so we hop into our cars and drive to the next store.

Last summer, we were lent a car for almost 6 weeks. Dan and I enjoyed the vacation from walking, and took the opportunity to tour around the Lower Mainland (a staycation if you will). But about 5 weeks into it, i took the car on a beautiful day to go shopping. All of a sudden, i realized that it was a bad thing for me to have. I wanted to drive from Michaels to the Seven Oaks Shopping Center. Why do i need to drive??? The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold. I normally walk, so what made it different? It was at that moment that i realized that having a car makes me lazy. I don't walk short distances, i prefer to drive. It was awful. I couldn't wait to give the car back to its owner (who couldn't have come home at a better time. Another week and i would have driven it off a cliff somewhere)

Walking has become second nature to us now. We love it. We talk more as a couple, as opposed to listening to music silently in the car. We spend less money, since who wants to walk home a large item, or even who wants to walk 30 minutes just for a Starbucks? I found that I am more relaxed and less anxious and uptight. Having a vehicle makes me rush and feel like i can't get somewhere fast enough. Walking relaxes me, slows me down and calms my nerves. Walking keeps us healthy and active. We are strong advocates of walking if at all possible. We know its not possible for everyone (i mean, it does have its downsides) But we do encourage people to slow down and try it. Even if it means pulling into a far away parking spot and walking from one mall to another.

Father Forgive us, for we have sinned

Confession time!
We feel the need to come clean about some activities in our lives that we find counter to everything we stand for. In the last week, we have done two horrible things.
#1. We took a Taxi
-Our excuse: it was in the name of bringing home a load of groceries that we were not physically capable of lifting ourselves. (See how far you walk with a bag of flour in your arms!) Plus, the grannie cart was on its way to the retirement home and couldn't last the trip. therefore, we caved, and took a taxi.
#2. We bought bread
- Our excuse: we had a coupon for 6 FREE hotdog or hamburger buns from Cobs bread. We didn't have to buy anything to get the free items. But we remembered the Apricot bread that we sampled last summer from Dan's parents. Our mouths craved it. Therefore, gluttony took over and we bought a loaf. And boy was it good!!! (Please note that we do routinely buy hamburger and hotdog buns as it is still beyond our skill level to make)

Motorists and the "F" Bomb

It was supposed to be a nice quiet evening walk down our street, but instead our peace was screamed away by enraged motorists. Granted, neither episode was directed at us, but we were definitely witnesses in the line of fire.

Episode 1: "Kids taking back the streets vrs enraged "F" Bomb dropping SUV driver"
Children frequently play on the streets in this neighbourhood. It isn't uncommon to see upwards of 10 children riding bikes down Tims Ave. Today we actually witnessed one girl fall off her bike near the middle of the street. As she was still lying on the road (uninjured, just slow to get up. Don't worry, her mother checked), MR. SUV driver came barrelling down the road from one of the neighbouring buildings. The mother yelled at the driver as he drove by, "Slow down! There's kids on the road." The SUV driver stopped his car, put it in reverse, backed up aggressively, stopped in front of the mom and yelled (we will remove all expletives for your reading pleasure), "This isn't a park, your kids shouldn't be playing on the road." The mother shouted back, "Can't you see the kid lying on the road?" A few explicative from the SUV driver and he drove off aggressively (yet again) down the road.

Episode 2: "Cyclists verses South Fraser Way"
A mother and her son were biking down South Fraser at about 9:30pm. Along came aggressive young male in sports car (with two lanes available for driving), who drove right next to mother on road. His passenger yelled out window, "Get on the sidewalk. Use the bike lane, "as his driver road off enraged. Mother yells back, "Go to hell, you expletive"

Comments from observers (aka Amanda and Dan)
1. Where are the bike lanes? This town is distinctively lacking bike lanes, wherever they are remotely necessary. This is not the first time we've heard these comments about bike lanes and South Fraser Way from motorists.
2. Why can't children play on a nice quiet street? What's wrong with that? They are merely taking back their childhood and choosing more constructive behaviours than sitting in front of a TV for 14 hours a day.
3. Since when did the "F" bomb become an intelligent phrase? Don't people know what that means? And if they did, don't you think that propositioning someone for sex is counter productive to venting your anger towards said person?
4. Why is it that it is commonplace to see drivers of SUVs/Trucks and sports cars screaming obscenities at random people? We know you have an inferiority complex, but MUST you share it with the world? (This is just a generalization and by no means is this inclusive of all SUV/ sports car drivers)

Views from the road

Walking around town lets you see the most interesting vehicles. Today, we saw two unusual and one funny.
#1. A Chevy 12 passenger Van with a lift kit. Picture a monster truck, except its a van.
#2. Army camo Volkswagon style van. Probably a Unimog, but Dan's unsure. Amanda has no idea what a Unimog is.
#3. At the corner of South Fraser and Trethewey, a tractor. That's right, a tractor. In the middle of the city, in all its slow farm implemented glory.

Movin' and Shakin'

Sorry for the distinct lack of up keep, but our lives changed dramatically over the course of three weeks. Without going into details, we found it necessary to move from our beloved house on Princess St. to a new abode about two blocks away.

The Background Story: After realizing that we needed to move, we began looking around for a places within walking distance of work and bus stops, as well as something in our price range. This proved to be futile. The first week was nothing but crack shacks, "4-20 friendly" homes or mansions out in the boons with a large price tag. We had our hopes set on a duplex a block up the road from where we are now. We decided to do a quick walk-by to check it out, before the viewing the next morning. It was nothing short of an "act of God" waiting to happen. As we were walking home disappointed, Amanda remembered seeing an ad for an apartment on Tims Ave, a block down from the duplex. We decided to walk by to see what the neighbourhood was like and perhaps see the "for rent" sign hanging in a window. As we started down the road, we walked past an apartment where a couple of our friends had lived in years previous. Much to our delight there was a "For Rent" sign out front. Although this wasn't the advertised apartment, we were interested. We went home and called the number and arranged a viewing for the next morning. By 9:30 the next morning (when Dan should have been at work), we had decided that this was our new home. Two days later, we had the keys to the new apartment and began a progressive move in.

The MOVE: For most people, moving is an inconvenience and a pain. But for two young people with NO vehicle, moving becomes a bit more adventurous. With nothing but our two arms and a broken grannie-style shopping cart, we set out on the adventure of moving by foot. We admit, the bulk of our boxes was moved by Amanda's work SUV, but we still did take a lot by foot. (just ask the elderly couple in the building next to ours, who still think we are moving!) Moving boxes and odd sized items with a cart proves to be a somewhat arduous task. A thorn in my side, or maybe it was one of the broken ribs from the side of the cart. Nonetheless, we moved a great deal of stuff by foot, proving that even without a vehicle, it is possible to move a great deal of what you own by foot. One thought we had while moving was that even the pioneers, who didn't have cars, still had horse drawn cart or even just horses in which to move things. We didn't even own a fully functioning grannie-cart, but still made it. Another thought we had, was that you really decided what is important in your life to move, when you have to move it by foot. (Do i really need a Christmas plate or that extra pair of pants?) The funniest and most painful load by grannie-cart was moving a cooler full of fridge food. The cooler kept falling off the one side and into the half broken cart, finishing off what many overloaded shopping trips had started.

Side note: The grannie-style cart has died and it currently residing in its permanent lodgings in the Canadian Tire parking lot dumpster. May he rust in pieces. Needless to say, he has been replaced by a brand new YardWorks Garden Wagon.

Adventures: What if and Might-bes

"A lot of things in life people don't do because of the 'what-ifs.' But 'what-if' this happens or 'what if' that happens. What if you run out of petrol? And it stops us doing things. You know? In actual fact, the 'what ifs' and the 'might-bes' are what makes it so exciting. Because every time we got in trouble and every time your bike broke down, we met people who helped. It's a really optimistic view of the world I have right now, in that all the people, all around the world, have been incredibly generous, nice people." -Ewan McGregor "The Long Way Round"

This has really made me think about why we don't go on more adventures. We are held back by the possibility of trouble or disaster. But in actuality, those disasters and troubles you have along the way are what make the trip fun or memorable.
Examples from our own life:
#1. "A hike, at night, in the dark"--there was no hike up Golden Ears because we had car trouble. But I do remember Jocelyn holding up her cell phone and using it as a flashlight so that we could see beneath the car.
#2. Trip to Lacombe: To be honest, driving from here to Alberta isn't that exciting, but getting food poisoning along the way made it memorable. Also being nearly asleep and having Dan yell, "Timmmmmbbbbbber.....(long silence) Creek." And startling me awake with his Timber, as I thought a tree was going to fall on the car. Those are what made the trip memorable.

Here are two examples of regular trips, that turned into adventures because of those "what-ifs." But we don't let those things hold us back from more adventures. In fact, the spurn us on and cause us to desire more adventure. What will happen next? What kinds of things are we going to encounter? How will we deal with those types of situation? These invigorate me, rather than scare me. Perhaps that's why we're so full of adventure stories. I encourage you to go on that dream adventure. Don't let the "what-ifs" stop you; let them persuade you to go on.

Concrete Jungle Verses 'The Great Outdoors'

When you tell people that you are going to hike one of the great hiking trails (Juan de Fuca, West Coast, Trans Canada, Pacific Crest), people seem to marvel over your accomplishment. They applaud your efforts and ask a bazillion probing questions. BUT, when you state you are going to walk to Langley, or walk to Hope, you are faced with blank stares followed by one of two questions. Why? or What the hell for? Somehow your sanity comes into question when you talk about walking down a road for 20km. But really, what is the difference between walking on a sidewalk, or walking down a trail?
In all honesty, it wasn't that long ago that walking was the main form of transport for the majority of the population. It actually still is in the "underdeveloped" nations of the world. Walking is somewhat liberating. You can walk anywhere you want on foot, but are limited to highways and roads when in a vehicle. You get to go where you want, rather than where you are told to go. You also get to go the speed you want, rather than the posted limits. No cop is going to arrest you for walking too fast!
Walking on a trail, or in the "concrete jungle" is just that: walking. The landscape may change, but the point to walking is still the same. Neither the concrete jungle, nor the "great outdoors" has to have a destination, but both can. Walking is pure enjoyment, transportation, necessity-it is everything you want it to be and more. It is one of the universal constants, nor matter your social class or location, everyone has to walk (even if it is from your mansion to your car). The loss of this mobility is incredibly disheartening, confining and frustrating. It is one of the fundamental skills of life, alongside eating, and breathing that we take for granted. If we lose that function, we realize how much we miss it.
The what, the where, and they why of walking isn't that important. What is important is that you are out there, putting one foot in front of the other. Walking is a universal concept that binds us together like few other things can.

The Addiction of Walking

I guess the old saying is true, "Once you start, you just can't stop." You find yourself wondering, "I walked this far, how much farther CAN I go?" Its almost become an addiction. We find ourselves trying to make excuses to go out and walk. Running multiple errands over several days doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. (perhaps this also has something to do with the nice weather we've had recently.) There is also a certain sense of pride and accomplishment when you talk with others about what you do. The fact that we walk everywhere seems to astound people, and that builds our esteem and enthusiasm to keep doing it. We just want to keep walking.

Lessons from the Road

#1. Getting an early start is important. Take advantage of the "cool crisp" morning air. Nobody wants to brave the mid-afternoon heat (or even late morning heat for that matter). Visualize yourself in 30+ degree heat: do you really want to be out, let alone walking in that heat? Let's face it. Most of us aren't as tough as we think we are.

#2. Walking changes your sight line. Things that you see when you drive, suddenly aren't as visible. And then, there is a whole new world to discover that you can't see from your SUV. We realized as we walked that there are beautiful meadows that are only visible when you are walking. Plus, large landmarks were missed entirely, because eyes were focused elsewhere.

#3. Cyclists are rude. Especially those "professional" looking ones. The fancier the gear, the higher degree of snobbery we received. Those with garage sale bikes at least made eye contact or gave a smile!

#4. You don't realize when you are driving the amount of debris that is on the road. Garbage, garbage everywhere! Not to say that all of it is completely useless. We did find a ball of twine. But the rest was pretty much fast food containers or bits of car, or semi loads that were dropped.
Note to drivers: Its called a trash can. Get off your lazy arse and put it in a can (preferably the recyclable kind.) Come on folks, we hike our trash for 20.9 km!!

#5. Honking and waving to long distance walkers really lifts their spirits. It gives them motivation to keep walking.

Walking Trip

Just a few pictures from our trip the other day.