walk instead of drive

My husband and I trekked to the drugstore last night (over 2-1/2 miles round trip). The bonus to this activity was the beautiful twilight * * *

Yesterday in the evening, my husband and I put on empty backpacks and walked to the grocery store. We purchased nonperishable items that filled the backpacks.

It was a beautiful evening to be walking together, getting exercise, handling an errand, and saving gas. Killed lots of birds with a single stone!

Timestamp: Sun, Sep 21, 2008 9:08CDT

Last night my DH and I combined an evening walk with a trip to our local ATM. It’s a little farther than a simple neighborhood walk, but it was great to do this errand without consuming any gasoline.

Yesterday I had two places to go that were just a strip mall away. So I parked at the one place but and hiked to the other. Every little bit helps.

I did a brisk walk in our neighborhood yesterday for 45 minutes. It was a warm, cloudy, foggy late afternoon. I moved pretty fast, so I’m considering it a light workout.

It was good for my soul to be outside and see how the grass is getting green, the water is flowing in the brooks, the birds are making a racket, and the kids are outside playing basketball in their respective driveways. No, I probably didn’t burn as many calories as I would have at the gym, but I am regarding fitness in more dimensions than fat-burning, cardio training, or body building. I saved some gasoline, too! Woo woo!

It was a warm enough afternoon that my DH suggested that we try walking to the grocery store. We got our backpacks out and walked the four mile round trip.

It was great! After we returned, we weighed the packs to get an idea of what we had just accomplished. My pack weighed 16 pounds; DH’s pack was 25 pounds.

This activity took the place of going to the gym and using gasoline to get groceries. We had a chance to be together plus enjoy the sunny outdoors for an extended period of time. Yay!

Yesterday I walked to the salon (sounds upscale, but it’s really a walk-in no-frills franchise) to get my hair trimmed. It took 20 minutes one way. Thankfully it was warm (in the 50’s) with very little wind, the sun was shining, and I had my boots on, so all the puddles due to the melting snow were a joy to forge.

I’m making a point to select the parking spots farthest away from the entrance to the grocery store, drugstore, and office.

This way I get a few more steps in for every trip I have to make by car (hey, it’s below zero here, it’s not safe to be on foot!).

Also, I like to think that someone who really needs to be closer to the building gets that parking spot (a mother with one or more children, a handicapped senior citizen, or a person who is late for an appointment, etc.).

I just wrote about a trip on foot instead of driving.

Walking somewhere with someone you love makes the journey shorter and easier!

My husband and I went to the forest preserve to walk about, to get a dose of sunshine yesterday in the late afternoon. There were deer everywhere in the preserve!

There was a group of two does and a younger one grazing along the trail. The mama doe kept a very close eye on us as we walked past within ten yards of them. It’s a little sad that they were NOT spooked by us. The little one was so cute; it sort of pranced behind its mother when we walked by—maybe that was its way of displaying some skittishness? (Is that a word?)