I'm walking different trails and routes these days, thanks to a temporary relocation while our house is undergoing a deep remodel. Or rather, I'm walking the same places but from a different direction. I'm still in close proximity to Squaxin Park but I approach it from East Bay Drive. Something as simple as starting from a different place has taken me into parts of the park I had visited less frequently and into new sections. I see with new eyes and it's delightful.
One of the wonderful differences is that I'm closer to the water so I get down to the Budd Bay inlet within about five minutes. I get to see birds, boats, and the occasional hardy stand-up paddler along with people walking their dogs and enjoying the park's beauty.
Last month and again this month I traveled to national conferences. I was in Indianapolis this month, in a hotel room that let me look down at a river that was tantalizingly close, and yet blocked off by many roadways curving around and seeming to isolate the river and landlock the hotel and nearby convention center. I mentally compared that with Spokane, where you can walk out of the convention center straight onto the Centennial Trail along the Spokane River and reach a number of hotels within an easy walk, along with great downtown restaurants and shopping. (Still love my former hometown!)
The streets around the hotel were wide and intimidating—most of them were six and even seven lane one-way streets. Many of those lanes might be empty but that much width makes for a very long crossing and a hostile environment, with the sidewalk right next to the vehicle lanes that felt like acres and acres of pavement.
At least there were sidewalks, though. Busing in from the airport I had noted the almost complete lack of sidewalks along a road served by transit. Where were people expected to walk? Apparently through gas stations, parking lots, and rough patches of grass and gravel, from what I could see.
The last day of the conference, with a sore throat and cough I figured had been created by a lot of loud reception conversations (and possibly some group karaoke a couple of nights before...), I set off to find a pharmacy and get some cough drops and throat spray. It was about a mile to the closest one and I looked forward to the chance to stretch my legs and see a bit of the city. But Google Maps routed me on a curving arterial where no one but me was walking and through what felt like a vast spread of big buildings and parking lots. I chose a different route back that was at least slightly more interesting, but it still felt fairly empty of pedestrian traffic.
Later that day I finally got out on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which ran right past the corner of the hotel property. I loved the beautiful sunny fall weather with golden leaves rustling above and the art installations along the wide, brick-paved trail. And I finally got to that river! Walking back I saw happy folks on bicycles of all types, helmet-free and pedaling comfortably along the trail that gives them a safe, separated and dedicated space to roll.
I bused back to the airport along that same stretch of road with a design that only invites driving. My companions on the trip were airport workers and others accessing destinations along the route. It was a reasonably full bus and I wish those regular riders had more infrastructure to meet their needs as transit riders. The Cultural Trail is a showpiece Indianapolis can rightly be proud of; what a city does in the places that aren't right around the convention center tells me something about the improvements that still need to be made.
Alas, on the plane ride home I started realizing it wasn't karaoke and conversation that made my throat raspy. I got off the plane sick and grew sicker. My souvenirs from the trip: pictures of the Cultural Trail and a whopping case of Influenza A that has lasted for two weeks and isn't done with me yet. Good thing I got my flu shot or it would have been even worse. I ventured out for a short walk yesterday and it taxed me pretty completely. Can't wait to be back up to my normal walking pace and frequency!
Related Reading
- Why I Walk
- Walking in October: Of Travel and Timers
- Walking in September: Of Berries and Bunnies
- Walking in August: Of Sparkles and Shorelines
- Walking in July: Of Findings and Feathers
- Walking in June: Of Habits and Herons
- Walking in May: Of Downtowns and Dancing
- Walking in April: Of Multimodal Miles and Museums
- Walking in March: Of Woods and Work
- Walking in February: Of Woods and Water
- Walking in January: Of Gloves and Poetry