1. My favorite places to go walking are near water -- I especially enjoy walking paths that go around a pond or a small lake -- and walking in towns and cities. One of the things I enjoyed most about living in Maryland was having a small lake just a stone's throw away from our apartment home and being able to walk in along other watery areas. I also loved walking the streets in Washington, D.C. and the same was true in Eugene. In Eugene, I enjoyed combining walking city streets and walking near water when I'd walk through neighborhoods near our house and then along the Willamette River and end up at Delta Ponds in North Eugene.
I have to admit, I haven't found comparable experiences since moving to Kellogg. The closest -- and it's a very good experience -- is when I hike along creeks, say on the Coal Creek Trail or the Pulaski Tunnel Trail.
This morning I thought that it might be fun to walk the streets of Wallace's downtown. There are blocks in downtown Wallace to walk up and down and I'm always wanting to get the geography of downtown Wallace a little clearer in my head.
So that's what I did. I parked on 5th Street and walked Pine, Cedar, Sixth, Seventh, Fifth, and Bank -- not in that order -- in a circuitous route, reminding myself where different places are -- like Blackboard Market, Wallace Brewing, Cogs Gastropub, Slab Meat, Fainting Goat, Eureka Sally's, and other spots. It's too bad I wasn't hungry or feeling like having a beer -- it would have been fun to stop in somewhere for a refreshment, but I just walked for about 25 minutes and racked up over 2000 steps.
This walk didn't satisfy my ever present yearning for walking in a city -- I won't lie -- but it was pretty good and I can see myself returning to try out other routes and expand upon what I did today.
2. After walking, I felt like driving for a while. I didn't get on the freeway. I drove the old highway to Osburn, on into Kellogg, and then drove uptown and headed west on McKinley, out of town, to Smelterville and eventually to Pinehurst.
I started feeling a little hungry. I also have been imagining going to an out of the way tavern in Shoshone County for a bottle or two of Miller beer.
Ah! The Pine Creek Tavern!
I walked in the Pine Creek Tavern and two men were at the bar and every table was vacant. I sat down at a table, ordered a Miller beer and a hamburger with fries.
The beer was just what I wanted. It was kind of sweet, easy to drink, very cold and refreshing. It tasted great with my thick burger dressed with mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion, and dill pickle. It tasted good with my fries and fry sauce, too. As I've written about in abundance over the years, I love craft beers, but I don't enjoy them very much with food. I like to drink craft beer and then eat or eat and then drink craft beer, but, on the whole, I don't enjoy most craft beers while I'm eating.
It's a whole different story, though, with American mass produced lagers. I really enjoy washing down a burger and fries or slices of pizza or even a breakfast of hash browns, sausage, and eggs with a Budweiser or a Miller or a Rolling Rock. Sometimes, I like to combine orange juice with an American lager or tomato juice or a V-8.
Today, it had been at least a year or more since I'd enjoyed a cold Miller beer served out of a Shoshone County tavern/bar/Lounge cooler turned way up.
I was so happy when I returned home that I sat in my chair, put my feet up on the ottoman, enjoyed Luna affixed to my chest, and fell into the old familiar burger-fry-Miller beer sleep I relish when I have had one of these lunches.
3. I awoke from my afternoon hibernation and looked at my pedometer and decided I'd like to get in over 3000 steps today. I don't have a lot of stamina right now and I'm wanting to build it up so I can return to hiking in the hills. At first, I thought I'd walk down to the Gondolier convenience store and pick up a bag of popcorn or some other snack, but my better self rejected that idea and I just took a walk in the neighborhood and pushed my step total to around 3400. That is the highest total I've walked in quite a while. I decided that rather than berate myself for not having walked more, I'd congratulate myself for getting out and moving around.
There are all kinds of rewards for any amount of walking I do, but the one I enjoy the most is the way it helps me sleep at night. My tired legs love the relaxing feeling of being stretched out at night and walking helps me sleep deeper and longer. Copper seems to enjoy it, too. While Luna spends the night either attached to or very near me from the waist up, Copper, who never makes contact with me during the day, presses herself against my lower legs at night.
The three of us have some negotiating to do during the night as I am up about three or four times (at least) to visit the water closet, but we work it out and neither Luna nor Copper protest. In fact, sometimes they take advantage of my getting up to take a stroll in the house themselves, munch on a little food, have some water, visit a litter box, or, sometimes, Copper enjoys batting the little plastic golf ball with a bell in it around the living room and the hallway outside my bedroom for about ten minutes or so.
But, they always return, assume their spots, and we fall back to sleep again.
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