Recently in walking Category
I am happy to say that I am moving around again. This year I am determined NOT to sit inside every weekend! Yesterday, I made it out (in the rain no less!) to do a little Geocaching. I also plan on going out today (in the rain no less!) and catching a couple more sites as well.
I enjoy walking now more than last year mostly because I've actually been able to lose about 40lbs by just changing my diet. While I was never like some techies who were nothing but vending machine junkies, but I did drink a fair amount of sodas for example. Now, I drink NOTHING but water... and lots of it. I'm up to about 4-6L of water a day now. My meals before hardly had ANY veggies. Now, my meals are mostly veggies as they should be. My snacking comes and goes, but at least the snacks are usually a banana... though salty pretzels are working their way in every once in a while, which isn't good for my blood pressure (though it is under control through medication these days).
So, my plans this year are to get out and go Geocaching hopefully at least once a weekend, and have at least one big weekend hike (10-20 miles) each month. Those are my plans, hopefully they are better than last spring/summer/fall plans which fell through rather badly. I only went overnight hiking once last year, and only did about 3 day hikes total. No where near what I was aiming for.
In the 3rd week of June I'm going to Sedona, AZ with my mom and stepdad, sister, nephew, and niece. While there I plan on doing LOTS and LOTS of desert hiking and maybe some camping. I got to do some desert hiking a year and half ago when I was Tuscon, AZ for a few days for work... it was WAAAAAY fun. Such a different experience than hiking the mountains of the east and west coast, er, big hills compared to the Rockies I've been told. So many new and different things to see and not sweating at all is nice... but wow did I go through the water!
I have the reputation, rightfully so I recon, of not visiting my friends. Fortunately for me, they'll not let a little drive get in the way of visiting me however. I got a call at 8:30am (yes, look at the time stamp from the other entry from today) from Dan that he, Suz, and the kids were coming down to do some Geocaching in the area! I crawled back in the bed, slept till 11am and then sprung out at the motivation of someone getting my butt out of the house and walking like I should be doing every chance I get.
They got here about half past noon and we grabbed a bite to eat, then starting caching. We actually did a great job today. We found 5 caches (2 of which I'd previously found). The kids were great and enjoyed themselves greatly. I have to admit that Geocaching is even more fun with kids! I'm sure Ceylon will enjoy it more when he is older than 7 months. :) Thomas (5) and Simone (3) had a ball though, and so did we adults. Suz captured 3 miles of walking on her pedometer for the day, so not too bad with the youngsters. We were rained on (well drizzled on) for the entire extremely humid day. That wasn't enough to dampen the spirits though, lots of fun all around.
We found, Out of the Frying pan, Two Ponds, and Cache Aid !.
GEOCACHING - (GC66EE) Jump Here by jaym
So, I've posted my first GeoCache! Originally I posted it back in June when down in North Carolina for vacation, but it was rejected since it was a virtual cache, and I had not put a question to be answered in the cache description. The reason you have to put the question in there is to keep a certain population of GeoCachers from just claiming the cache without ever actually visiting it.
It saddens me that such a group of folks exist at all. There is no prize for getting the most caches, no reward, no contest... if a sick person has to claim to have went and enjoyed something without actually going out an enjoying it, I think they are punished enough in their own sick little mind games they must play with themselves. But, I updated the cache as you can see if you visit it, so now, all should be well and it should become active again for others to go and enjoy.
GeoCaching in general has been a great motivator for me to actually get out and get some exercise of late. Without it, I am sure I would not have gotten back into hiking and instead would still have no motivation to go outside. Of course, this summer in DC is enough de-motiviation to keep it from happening right now. I've only been out one weekend so far this season thanks to temps in the upper 90's and humidity of the same numbers. I am looking forward to the humidity to break, I guess I only have August left, then hiking should be come FUN again when the temp/humidity goes down.
So, if you haven't checkout GeoCaching as of yet, I highly recommend it, a $120 GPS and you are set to participate for quite a while. There are caches hidden all around the world! I'm looking forward to traveling overseas again in order to pick a few caches up from wherever I am. My sister and her kids seem to be into it now, I'll have to find out their logins and see how they are doing. Again, I highly recommend it, check out: www.geocaching.com and enjoy yourself!