Where Have We Been Walking?

    Walking has been a major part of our regular exercise for years and years. I walked and John ran in Boulder when we were first married.  We walked in Castle Rock during the years we owned and operated the funeral home.  In fact, during the end of that time, when we were deciding whether or not to sell the funeral home so John could attend seminary, we walked daily on a gravel road east of town called the CCC Camp road.  (It had provided access to a CCC camp in  Douglas County following the Great Depression.)  While we lived in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where John attended seminary, I walked daily, even on the coldest and snowiest days of the Wisconsin winters.  John ran during his lunch hour at the seminary with two other students.

    We walked--rain, snow cold or sun--during our years in Granby.  We walked daily from our various homes in the Denver area before retirement.  

    During our years of RVing, we walked in circles in RV parks, along the roads leading to the parks and in every destination we explored in our travels.  Our granddaughter Kylie started running during her early school years and I was inspired to begin running.  That ended several years ago, but our walking continued.

    Now we are in an apartment in Lone Tree in the Denver area.  We have been walking on the streets around the apartment house and also looking for other places to walk.  We have taken the light rail to nearby Park Meadows Mall and walked there.  Earlier this week and once a couple of weeks ago. we walked in the nearby Bluffs Regional Park.

    This week, we went somewhere new.  We drove to Aspen Grove Shopping Center and walked to the nearby Carson Nature Center and picked up the Platte River Trail.  

    These beautiful flowers are in the Aspen Grove parking lot.

    This is the area along the Platte River--dried grass and lush trees.

    Finally the trail came close enough to the river that we could see it.

    We spotted a snowy egret sitting on a rock in the river.

    We first saw roundabouts when we first traveled to Europe.  They are becoming more prevalent on our roads in this country, too.  But a roundabout for bikes and pedestrians?  That was something new for us.  We made sure to walk correctly when we came to them.

    This attractive sculpture is located at the entrance of the Carson Nature Center.

    Today, we drove to the Lone Tree Recreation Center, part of the South Suburban Recreation District.  Using our Silver Sneakers memberships, we set up accounts at the rec center.  We can now sign in at any South Suburban facility with our membership number.  We can use the facilities for free but may have to pay for classes we attend.  Today we walked on the indoor track.  I miss being outdoors since the weather here is beautiful now.  But the track surface is cork and much softer and easier on our feet and knees.

    Before retirement, we used the Goodson Recreation Center near our house to do weight training and to walk when the weather was too hot or too cold.  Goodson is also part of South Suburban.

Our apartment house has a fitness room where we can weight train.  I don't know whether or not we will use the weights at the Lone Tree Center.