When was the last time you walked somewhere?

[Félix]

Good. I'm not either.

[Kevin]

Whew, I kinda am

[Félix]

am what?

[Kevin]

Slightly embarrassed

[Félix]

Oh. As long as it's only slightly.

[Sally, la reina]

Lori wrote: "Sally, my husband claims he gets all the fresh air he needs by walking to his car across campus, and then keeping the window open while he drives. Oy."

Depending on what time I get there in the morning I either am a half mile or a mile and a quarter from my building to my car. I can get about a block away, but then the English dept is smack dab in the center of campus, which itself, is a square mile.

[Sally, la reina]

Dave, yes, I know, I'm heavy on the commas today. I'm nauseous all the time, and rather sleepy. All the time.

[Sarah]

Maybe you're pregnant.

(That's what everyone says to me any time I mention being tired/nauseous/dizzy/having a headache/having the sniffles/having a hangnail)

[Sally, la reina]

Absolutely they do. Like it's their DUTY during my first year of marriage to ask me that.

[Sarah]

It only gets MORE frequent the longer you are married and childless.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Sarah Pi wrote: "When I'm in New York (like this coming weekend!) I walk EVERYWHERE. New York blocks just seem walkable. I can walk the entirety of Manhattan...it's quantifiable."

Me too. One of my recent trips, I took a 7-mile walk through Manhattan. Many years ago my friend and I walked from the Columbia campus to the World Trade Center. (It felt good to sit down after that.)

Here, I walk every day. I do need to take public transport to get downtown, but in my neighborhood, and downtown, I walk everywhere. Walk to the library. Walk from downtown to the Mag Mile for shopping. Etc.

[Félix]

I walk to work every day.

[Félix]

Larry wrote: "I walk to work every day. I live only 4 blocks from my office. Urban living is quite alright, for me. At least, in the city in which I live."

Ha! My post from 2009. Still applies.

[Rebecca]

I don't live in a good walking area. I live in a suburban area and that's all that's around, houses. There a couple of stores within walking distance, but you have to walk on roads without sidewalks with a lot of twists and turns, and cars that come through there aren't expecting walkers,so it's really kind of dangerous. I take walks in the neighborhood sometimes but it's pretty boring.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I live in an urban neighborhood with sidewalks everywhere but it's still very residential, shady, trees, and I live close to the lake which is nice. The problem is it's so boring, I've walked every block a million times and it's all flat. I so wish we had a few hills.

[ms.petra]

I probably walk 6 miles every day on my mail route.

[Janice]

I wish I could walk a distance again. I used to love going on walking tours whenever we'd go on holiday. Now, walking through a store can be an issue. Damned knees and hips.

[Mary]

I love to walk-it's my favorite form of exercise.
I walk about 3 miles a day.

[janine]

I walk somewhere almost every day.

[Félix]

janine wrote: "I walk somewhere almost every day."

Same here. I like it a lot. It tends to make me more mindful of my surroundings, and gives me time to think about things.

[Phil]

I'm sure I've walked somewhere recently, but mostly I've been riding. I've been putting in 115-140 miles per week on my bicycle for about two months now.

[Félix]

That works, too.

[Sarah]

On Monday instead of just driving to the lake and then running around it, I ran TO the lake and then around it. Then I walked back. Baby steps.

[Félix]

You didn't trip over any turtles, did you?

[Sarah]

No. The GIANT turtle or tortoise was in the middle of a six lane road yesterday as I took a friend to the airport. The car in front of me -with no brake lights - stopped short and I pulled a muscle in my calf trying to stop my car. I came within about an inch of plowing into them, and probably left two inches of tire rubber on the road. Then they drove on, so we tried to help the tortoise. Unlike the little one I saved the other day, which hid in its shell until I had carried it across the road, this one had no intention of being carried anywhere, and tried to bite my friend. We had to give up, but the truck behind us stopped too, and I think they helped her across because she wasn't there when I returned.

[Félix]

Snapper soup.

[Heidi]

I miss walking outdoors... it's too friggin hot here. It was already 100+ in June. I do walk when it's cooler... a lot cooler.

[~Geektastic~]

I don't do a lot of walking lately (same problem as you Heidi: it's too damn hot), but I never use the elevator in my building so I take the stairs several times a day.

[Kevin]

my son wrote a good blog about rediscovering walking. thought i'd share

http://cameronsprinkle.tumblr.com/pos...

[RandomAnthony]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Sarah Pi wrote: "When I'm in New York (like this coming weekend!) I walk EVERYWHERE. New York blocks just seem walkable. I can walk the entirety of Manhattan...it's quantifiable."

Me too. One of..."

LG, walking on the north side of Chicago is much easier than I think most people take for granted (except for, uh, some of the crap going down in Boystown lately). I used to walk from the Art Institute to Roscoe Village and back. In my head that sounds like a huge journey but, once you start, it only took a couple hours, if that, esp. if I walked on LSD (Lake Shore Drive, not the drug, dear readers) and caught Lincoln eventually to cut diagonally across town. I wouldn't do it every day, if I worked downtown, but every now and then it was fun.

I still walk a lot, but lately I've been riding a new bike. Different thread.

[Sarah]

On Tuesday night my sister and some friends and I got out of a restaurant and decided we wanted gelato, but there were six of us and only five seats in the car. I said "It's a nice night, let's just walk," but that was soundly rejected. I thought two miles downhill sounded perfectly reasonable but nobody agreed with me.
I was thinking "only two miles" and they were thinking "two miles!" Maybe I have better shoes.

[Jim]

I would have walked with you Sarah.

[Sarah]

Thanks, Jim! Next time you're in Baltimore I'll take you on the walking tour.

[Kevin]

i'll follow on my motorcycle. like parade security

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I took a walk during past the Attorney General's building, and through the grounds of Tumwater High School and back. It's sunny but cool today, a good day for walking.

I like biking, too. I biked to work a couple of days ago, now that it's finally sunny and dry weather. It took me about 40 minutes, each way.

[Pat]

This afternoon I walked to the library and the ATM. It's too damn hot.

[Jammies]

Mom and I walked about two blocks to our lunch meeting and then back today, despite the rain.

[Allison]

I walk my dogs every day. Plus the gym. But that's not really "walking somewhere." And I do a lot of charity walks (Relay, Heart Walk, Walk for Those who Can't, March of Dimes, etc)

[Mary JL]

I am unable to drive. So, I walk a lot. But when it is very hot or very cold, my allergies kick in and I can't walk as much outdoors.

I frequently walk to the bus line--it is six blocks away! The library is three blocks away.

When it is cooler, I try to walk more in spring and fall.

[Mary]

Interesting
Sad to say the score in my neighborhood is 0 out of 100!
As you might have guessed, I live in a very rural area. In some ways it would be nice to live within walking distance of things like a library and coffee shop-the closest thing is Wendy's which is about 3 miles from me.

[Phil]

I got a zero, even though they cheated and calculated distance "as the crow flies" rather than where the roads actually go.

[~Geektastic~]

My town has a score of 78. I need to walk more! Apparently, a lot of things are much closer than I realized.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

My neighborhood is 91, "walker's paradise." I knew that already, of course. But unfortunately my boredom score when I walk around my walker's paradise is 91 as well. I WANT HILLS. And forests.

[Félix]

Mine is 75. I can live with that.

Until the Missouri got angry, we could walk across the pedestrian bridge that connects to many miles of trails on the other side of the river, too.

They have closed the Iowa access to the bridge because it's on one of the levees they are watching minute by minute.

[Janice]

I finally checked my score and it said "8 - Car Dependent".

[janine]

My neighborhood only scores 70, but I can get almost everywhere else on my bicycle.

[RandomAnthony]

46-Car dependent. I think this is because you would have a hard time walking to the grocery store and some other places. But it's a good neighborhood to walk. Really.

[janine]

I think the score is only based on distances, not on whether or not there are decent sidewalks, etc. There are different ways to look at the walkability of a neighborhood.

[Jonathan]

98 - Walker's Paradise.

I think you're right, Janine. If you can bike to everything you need, you're not dependent on a car, and you're getting good exercise just going through your daily routine. Groningen seems like a great place to walk, in my opinion.

[Philip]

I never walk anywhere anymore. I live in the suburbs and drive around in circles like an idiot, mostly on food-buying expeditions. I have a back yard so don't even walk my dog. Both my dog and I are fat. I wonder if there's a connection?

When I worked in an office, which was a source of anger and stress, I used to go on walks in the middle of the afternoon just to get the hell out of there for an hour. When I was doing that I dealt with the stress better and lost weight. Now I have much less stress, almost no anger, but I do need to lose weight.

Maybe I should try the whole walking thing again.