Traveling – Page 9 – My Thought Spot

Recent Runs

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I have had some great runs, and some not so, recently. I started out last week trying hard to get a nice long trail run in.

Last Friday (a week ago) we were in Wytheville, VA near the Appalachian Trail. I was very excited about running 3 or 4 miles on the AT. When I went in search of it I was driving along I-77 which runs several hundred feet below the AT. The interstate goes through a tunnel under the AT which goes across the mountain ridge. I guess they figure someone walking the AT has more horse power to go over the mountain than a car.

I ended up on the Seven Sisters Trail near the AT. I was still hoping for a longish run, but knew quickly that my efforts would probably be thwarted as soon as I started up the trail. Up literally, not just figuratively. You only go a couple hundred yards on the trail before it becomes a climb. After running for 36 minutes I heard my GPS beep telling me that I just crossed another mile of my run. Assuming I had crossed the 3 mile mark, that meant a 12 minute mile which seemed reasonable based on the terrain. I finished the run in just over 50 minutes. I was a bit surprised to look at my GPS and find out that I had run less than 3 miles! Total distance and pace was 2.93 miles at 17:17 per mile.

Saturday I tried again to do a good long trail run. By this time we were in Dunbar, PA just south of Pittsburgh. There is a Rails to Trails track from Pittsburgh to Washington DC that runs right through Dunbar. Or, so I thought. It runs close to Dunbar. I had my wife drive me to the closest point we could get to the trail. I was going to run down a dirt road and onto the rail bed. She left and within 3 minutes I was calling her to come get me. The road that my GPS showed would get me to the trail had signs down both sides saying that anyone who steps foot on that property would be shot and left to rot. Or something like that. She came and got me and I scrapped the run. I was limited on time anyway and it was probably just as well that I did not get to do it.

My efforts were rewarded on Monday when I went to another spot on the same trail in Connellsville, PA. Instead of going towards Dunbar I ran towards Dickerson Run. It was a wonderful 9.2 mile run that was everything I had been hoping for in my previous attempts.

I ran out of town along a river. I saw a few people also running and walking when I started out, but after 10 minutes or so I was all alone on the trail for the rest of the run. Because it was a converted rail road track it was very flat. There was a gradual incline over the course of the run, but nothing dramatic. I had to cut the run a little shorter than I wanted because of time, but I really felt like it made up for the two previous failed attempts.

Then we were in Duncansville, PA on Wednesday where I did a very nice 3.73 mile run up the Allegheny Portage Railroad’s 6 to 10 Trail.

Today (Friday) in Jackson, MI I ran on the Falling Water Trail. I ran 4 miles on the very flat and straight paved trail. I love these old rail beds, but sometimes when you turn around after having run 2 miles and can see your car parked at the point where you started it makes that return trip seem to take forever.

One thing I have really enjoyed about running as we travel is that I can enjoy these different locations without getting bored of running the same path over and over.

Back in the land of Internet

For the last 2 weeks we have been without a consistent Internet connection. It has been rough, but we have managed to survive. I don’t know if we could have done it much longer though. That said, we are only going to be here for a few short days and then be on the road again.

One of my friends suggested that we hit a Starbucks to get Wi-Fi. I think there is a requirement that the town have more than a few hundred people before Starbucks will move in.

I have several posts in my head that I need to get on the blog now. But not tonight. If I started now I would never make it to bed. I will try to get a couple up tomorrow and the next day. I had wanted to get an itinerary up here so that as we traveled over the next several weeks we might be able to run into some college/facebook/twitter friends. I will try and get that posted tomorrow even though the trip is 1/3 over now.

Kids, don’t take your Internet connection for granted. That would be shameful.

Cold day in Ruskin

We spent the week in Ruskin, Florida at a mission conference. It was a wonderful week. I really enjoyed meeting each one of the other missionaries in the conference and even got to interview them. I will be sharing those on Missionary Talks in the coming weeks.

Running
I got to run 3 days while we were there. Monday was 54 degrees when I stepped out the door. That was a bit cooler than I expected. I had a nice run of almost 4 miles. On Tuesday the temp was even colder–47. I personally have a rule that I can run without gloves down to about 47 degrees. Since I did not have any gloves with me, the decision was easy. Running 6.4 miles kept me plenty warm. Then on Thursday I ran just under 4 again.

Ruskin
The town had a great Goodwill store. The Goodwill is between Ruskin and Sun City Center, which is a huge retirement community. When you wear conservative suits like I do, the same suit that looks good on grandpa looks good on me. Generally the more elderly you have in an area, the better stocked Goodwill is with clothing.

On Tuesday as I ran by the Chamber of Commerce in Ruskin I noticed a funny sign out front. Under the large chamber of commerce sign there was an advertisement for Julia’s Florist. It looked like the Chamber was selling flowers to be able to pay the electric bill. I talked to someone in town about it. They informed me that the Chamber rotates advertisements for local businesses. Boring. I liked my explanation better.

People
The guest speaker in the conference was AV Henderson. Dr. Henderson is an old preacher who I have heard speak on a few occasions. It was great to be part of a team with him for the week. Saturday night before the conference started I was privileged to sit and talk with him for a couple of hours about mutual friends. It was interesting as we talked that the pastor of the church and I, as well as Dr. Henderson, had several mutual friends and acquaintances yet we (the pastor and I) only know each other because of our mission board.

Sometimes you really connect with a church and it’s people more than at other times. This was one church in which we really felt like we belonged. Those are always fun meetings.

Internet
Because we were the only missionaries there with children present, we were allowed to stay in the missionary apartment at the church. This gave us a lot more room than a hotel would. There were only two disadvantages to the arrangement. When you are sleeping just 12 steps up above the church auditorium, you can’t easily blame your tardiness on the traffic. The second thing was that we did not have constant Internet access. We had to plug in through one of the staff member’s offices. Since the church had a school using the same Internet connection, there was a filter that locked us down from several sites. Basically any social media sites was blocked. No Facebook or Twitter except through our iPhone connection. I love my phone more and more every day.

Travel
The return trip was through a different route than we came down. We were able to pass through my wife’s hometown of Homassassa Springs, FL. In Homassassa they have an animal park that she and I have visited before. It was fun taking the kids and to see how much the place has changed since the state took over several years ago.

We were also able to visit with my wife’s brother. They have not seen each other for almost 3 years. It was good to get them together again.

Truck
We have gotten a few phone calls on our Suburban we have for sale, but no one has come over to give it a test drive. As we were pulling into the driveway upon our return from Ruskin, a truck pulled up at our house. Within an hour of getting home this week, I signed over the title to our truck.

Home….for now
We will be home a couple of days and then hit the road for about 5 weeks. This was a tune-up trip to get us ready for the big one starting Monday. We realized a few things we left behind this last trip that we will make sure goes with us on the next adventure.

Back to Georgia

I am not sure that being home is very exciting. I have been home quite a bit the last few weeks and I have not posted a whole lot. However, when we are on the road I seem to be too busy to get to the computer much.

We hit the road last Wednesday for our first trip since just before Christmas. We headed up to the Atlanta area for some meetings. On Wednesday we were in a church that is pastored by a college friend. It was great to be there with him. Since we graduated from college we have not been together. It was fun catching up a bit, but mostly talking about our respective ministries.

This weekend we were in a mission conference in a church that we had not been in before. But we do have previous contact with the associate pastor. He is a man who supported us when he was in another church. He also is someone who is very tuned in to missions. He put together a great conference and the church people executed the plan well. We had a great time getting to know the church.

I got to run a bit this week. I have not been consistent in my running since I started back. It may be a good thing though. I have run between 8 and 12 miles a week for the last 5 weeks. It is about 10 miles a week less than what I want, but I think that is helping me ease back into it without injury. I did 5 miles in the rain yesterday. Fortunately it was in the 50s. Today was 4 miles at 34 degrees and no rain.

I did a bunch of geocaching yesterday afternoon while the family was taking a nap. Most of the places I hit were out on nature trails in Carrollton, GA.

Vacation Week: Saturday Twitter Meetup

Though we were leaving town on Saturday morning and had to be checked out of the house by 10:00AM, I had one more item on my to-do list for the week. That was to meet up with some friends I had met online. MarathonChris I met through the Phedippidations podcast. She has her own podcast and we have been encouraging to one another through our podcasting efforts. My other friend is MarathonGirl who I met through Twitter itself.

We mostly used Twitter to make our initial plans of me being in town and they were going to meet me for a run. The run did not work out because of scheduling, but we were able to get together for breakfast. I know it sounds strange to say I went and had breakfast with a couple of girls that I met online, but, it was totally legit. MarathonGirl brought her husband along and we all met at a Cracker Barrel.

The conversation revolved around running of course. We also talked about what our jobs were. It was fun to meet for the first time but already have an idea of the person and personality through our online presences.

I recorded the conversation (along with several hours of other recordings from the week) and will try to edit it down into a podcast episode. But don’t hold your breath on that coming any time too soon. I have a lot of audio to dig through.

We left Orlando headed back to Pensacola. We planned to stop at my brother-in-law’s house on our way up. We were not able to get in contact with him to get together. Maybe we can make that stop when we go down to Tampa for a meeting in February.

As you can see it was a fun week. This is the first time in many years we have had all the families together. Most all the children are old enough to remember this special time for years to come.