Feb 22, 2010

Today is walk 53 and what a special walk it was. I'm beginning to think this little journey is becoming infectious, and I am truly honored by the people that want to become a part of my journey. This is Greg Billings, an old friend of mine who's best known as the lead singer of The Greg Billings Band, and Stranger. We go WAY back and I was just blown away when he said he wanted to get in on a walk. We met at Kapok Park in Clearwater, and put in a solid hour. Talking about old times, old friends, and where we are in our lives now. This is a great way to catch up with friends.

Greg told me he lives near this park and regrets that he only gets out to enjoy it a few times a year. I hope to change that. We're gonna do the bigger circuit soon.

Even though the day was dreary, the park was just beautiful, full of wildlife and plant life. And hills.... oh yes, one in particulary had me working!

Greg taking in the sites!

I HAVE to draw attention to this trash heap that is visible to those of us who use the park. I will continue to point out attention to this, it's now starting to really bother me that people are mistreating their surroundings like this. What was once a nice water retension area is now a dry trash heap. Come on people, we can do better than THIS! I don't want to see your trash, and I can't believe you want to life in it. Clean up your act.

Feb 21, 2010

This is Clearwater Beach as seen from Sand Key Park. If you look to the right, that's the Memorial bridget to get over to the beach. Sand Key Park is a perfect blend of wilderness and natural white sandy beach.

This is a beautiful breakwater constructed of huge stones jutting out into the water. God, what a beautiful area we live in.

The Captain Memo pirate ship heads out into the Gulf for another tourist run. Everybody needs to do this trip once and drink the rum from a breast-shaped mug.

There's a community sailing marina right around the corner where they rent and give lessons to people. These sailors are all on a tow line behind a power boat, but I'm sure they could do this all by themselves too. Riiiight.

An egret scopes out the deep water for some close food. I think he found a little squid. Beautiful day for walk 52.

Feb 20, 2010

Walk 51 today happened down in St. Petersburg, FL at Tropicana Field, also called The Trop. I went down to FanFest, working as a volunteer for Bright House and Bay News 9 and thought it would be a great place to take in a walk. I was right.

Thousands showed up to walk down on the field where the Rays play, and take in all the sights and sounds of the stadium. There were things to buy, things to see, and autograph signings too.

This amazing display of a Ray's shirt is built entirely of Pepsi products. Although I like Coke products, I prefer this display over all the others. Impressive.

Here I am among thousands, my secret agenda: Walk 51, they don't know they're part of something special. I mean OTHER than FanFest.

My best friend Barb was there for Bright House Sports Network. We met each other working in this business 25 years ago, and here we are working in the same business, still together, still kicking butt! Thanks for being part of walk 51 Barb.

Feb 19, 2010-Walk #50

I got called back out to work tonight to check on a problem, and I thought I would be walking WAY late. I've come to really enjoy walking more in the daytime, but I took advantage of the opportunity to use the parking garage as my road course tonight. Turns out, the view from the top is pretty fantastic at night. I had a good time.

This is the course. Pretty well lit at night, sparse cars and my path lies ahead. Just goes to show you, there is NO excuse for not walking. You can walk anywhere!

Feb 18, 2010

Sometimes, a walk is just a walk. That's how I was feeling tonight. I was feeling a little anxious, didn't really want to go out but I had to keep the streak going. So I set out to take just a short walk, and something great happened. As I walked, whatever was causing me anxiety began to fade away. The cool air felt good going into my lungs as my breathing became a little more settled, and I realized that tonight I was going back to my original premise for doing these walks. Just to get out there every day. Lately I had been consumed with adding distance or time, and tonight, it was about commiting to the original goal. It made me feel good, that I had my priorities straight when I set out to do this. Get out and walk. A walk a day. It didn't have to be anything spectacular. And tonight, with that knowledge, I actually walked a little further than intended, and felt better after doing so.

I can't tell you how many times I walked this route and never really noticed this sign. It's big, and artsy. Very nice. For a sign, that is. But it shocked me that I never noticed it. I thought about how many times we walk through a day never really seeing things around us. And this made me more thoughtful about noticing things around us every day. Lesson learned. Again.

Feb 17, 2010

The cool thing about twilight walks is that there's just enough light to play around with on your photo shoots. You can make it look dark and spooky...

I thought this tree looked a little more menacing than it came out on camera. This tree is almost entirely dead, they had trimmed it all up today, but this huge remaining trunk is riddled with rot, and will probably have to come down soon.

This is looking west on a twilight walk. Love it when there's purple in the twilight sky.

I tried a little photo experiment here by using the timelapse thing. The problem was there was only one car that passed and that explains the red tracer line on the right of the picture. Now that I know it works though, I'm gonna play around a little more with it. That is, if I can sit still long enough.

Feb 16, 2010

My buddy Michael at Roadkilltshirts.com sent me a few t shirts today for my walks. He thought I needed to move down to a 3x and he was right. They fit just fine. So now I have my first official sponsor. Welcome aboard Roadkill. You're part of the journey now.

Took this picture for my friend Marcia. She raises little baby squirrels and this guy peeked around the corner to check me out on my walk. Hey there little fella!

You gotta have fun out there on your walks. This road just BEGGED to be made into a photo joke. There's always something out there. It's all how you see it, AND how you frame it.