Leaving Gilroy

Spectacular Saturday morning....way too early...but spectacular. The plan is a one mile walk to the VTA stop at Hale and Main, the #68 to the Gilroy Transit Center and walk 16 miles home. Piece of cake.

Blogging this as I walk so excuse the typos. I think when i do this, all the pictures end up at the end too so you'll have to scroll down some.

Picture of the throbbing heart of the World Garlic Capital. Tee hee!

So miles one through five consist apparently of chili peppers. Miles and miles and miles of them. Garlic capital? Really?

Yikes!! Like I said in a previous post...16 miles in a straight line!

Aahhhh! A very friendly (and spitting) camel/lama/alpaca thing......and more straight road to a point on the horizon!! Argh!! Mile 8 and getting tired. Hmm. Time to step up the pace and put a few miles behind us just to make it feel better.

....and there you have it.  17 miles!  Yay!  So you noticed how that went quiet there at the end?  Because it hurt!  Since the entire walk was on roads, I was walking to face oncoming traffic which (being as it's America) meant walking on the camber of the road with my right foot high and my left foot low (and both feet angled slightly, like walking around and around a hill for 17 miles).  Result, a nice big old blister on the inside edge of my left foot.  The first blister of the training and I'm sure not the last.  For now though, a lesson, for long walks, try to minimize the walk on roads and make sure there is sidewalk to get something flat to walk on.  Hmmmm.  We pick up these gems along the way I guess.

A World of Difference

Here's an interesting thought, if I look up the word "World" in the Oxford English Dictionary I get:

noun

1 (usually the world) the earth, together with all of its countries and peoples:



If I use the American dictionary on my phone I get

noun

1 A part of the earth that can be considered separately:


It is perhaps in this way that living in America I feel totally justified in claiming that I currently have the world's noisiest fridge, that Napa is in fact the world's most famous wine producing area (see their sign, it actually says that) and that, yes, Gilroy IS the "Garlic Capital of the World".  Which brings me to the real point.  I'm up to walking about 12-15 miles (or at least was before I just goofed off for a week) and it just so happens that the Garlic Capital of the World is only 16 miles from my own front door.  A plan is hatched.  This calls for a number 68 bus to the Garlic Capital (they leave every half hour to accommodate the demand) and a long and probably very  tedious walk back in a dead straight line all the way back to Morgan Hill, the world's most famous mushroom producing region.  A little homework to plan a route and the entire event will be blogged, right  here, in the world's most popular walking blog.....sorry Simon :-)

Since this will be 16 miles in a straight line, on roads, I might even blog it real time in practice for San Francisco (though the last time I tried that I got motion sickness).  Anyway, homework to do and some rest for what promises to be my first 16 miler!!! WooHoo!

 

 

Serenading 300

On the plus side, being in Vegas did give us the rather weird opportunity to celebrate walking 300 miles while standing on the banks of the Grand Canal listening to some guy from Milwaukee serenade a newly married couple in a fake Italian accent while pretending to paddle and electric powered gondola down the Grand Canal (on the second floor of the Venetian Hotel).  Got to love Vegas.

300 miles behind us!!!!   Yay!

Vegas Baby!

After altitude training in the Rocky Mountains, it was time for some heat acclimatization in the Nevada Desert.  The venue....Las Vegas of course.  Luckily it just so happens that the Interop computer networking show was going on too.  There there you have it, a two day stint to get some more sales leads and the opportunity to train on the famous Las Vegas strip.  Sadly work got in the way like you would not believe but I still managed a four miler on day one and eight on day two due to a massively late aircraft that got me back home at one o'clock in the morning.  Grrr.

As luck would have it also the company had us staying at the Mandalay Bay (same venue as the show) so the walk on day two comprised an up and a back past Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York, Monte Carlo, Aria, Belagio, Ceasar's, Mirage, Treasure Island, Fashion Show Mall.....cross the road and back past Wynn, Palazzo, Venetian, Harrah's, Flamingo, Paris, Planet Hollywood, MGM and back to Mandalay Bay.

......during which I must have second hand smoked about three packs and lost 50 IQ points.  Did I mention that I don't care for Vegas :-)