Walk-O-Rama: Correction Notice on Behalf of the Editor that We Clearly Don’t Have

Dear Faithful Readers,

It has been brought to my attention that on Thursday, August 29th, the author of the previously posted blog named “EIEIO” neglected to highlight two guest walkers who were a vital part of last week’s successful walking adventure, thereby bringing shame upon what has always been known as an honest, accurate, highly esteemed source of weekly walking news. Allow me to amend that chronicle of events with the following highlights, with our apologies to those who we so wrongfully neglected to acknowledge.

Two previously devoted readers gossip about the recent Walk-O-Rama scandal

This outing could not have been made possible without the driver, photographer, and walking motivator, Sinan.  Sinan has long envied the awesome workplace that allows its employees to embark on walking excursions during lunch breaks, and now got his chance to be one of those lucky folks.  Unfortunately, he had to do so on his vacation time, not on the clock as a means of office escape.  He was a good sport about it, though, and for this we thank him.  Though he was not able to mingle with the other members who make WOR so much fun, he did politely settle for Kristen’s company, which should put an end to his longing to be part of our group.

Get up, man! This is WALK-O-Rama. But bring the chair with you for our frequent breaks

Also of importance was our long lost friend Anuj! To be fair, Anuj was due for some sort of punishment, as he did not keep updated records with Walk-O-Rama and did not inform us of his recent move to Toronto.  To make amends for this oversight, he gave the travelers a grade A tour of the city, which included the mall, the hippie district where locals were seen eating out of the garbage, and a much anticipated visit to a restaurant that was later learned to be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, the only days we were in town.  Still, his company was more than enough to keep us happy.

Anuj gives the best tours of Canada’s hidden gems

Thanks to both new WOR guest walkers. As an apology, the writer of the failed blog post, who is now suspended for a week, has been removed from this photo

A place built for failed blog writers

 

This incident, along with the countless other typos and poor word usage that have become trademarks of our blog, should help illustrate the reasons why we are in desperate need of an editor. An takers?

We hope this is not the reason that there has been a walking strike this week.  Our writer will try harder next time.  Really. Well, maybe really.

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Walk-O-Rama Special Edition: E-I-E-I-O

Everyone needs a vacation from time to time. And since Kristen was away taking hers, team Walk-O-Rama apparently thought they should get one as well. Walking can be very exhausting.  And since no one seemed up to even inventing a phony chronicle of make-believe events to share with the world, I am now forced to tell you all about mine. Prepare yourself, this story contains a lot of walking. And driving. And eating.

What was meant to be a vacation filled (or overfilled, rather) with a lot of driving and eating, quickly turned into a week-long walking adventure, exploring areas of the globe that have never been traversed by mankind before, such as Buffalo, NY and Toronto, Canada. In the spirit of exploration, I gathered a make-shift Walk-O-Rama crew of domesticated beasts, both human and animal (haha, just kidding, Mom), and began tackling the northern hemisphere, WOR style.

Having discovered that Buffalo, NY is not the most walkable city, we spent only a matter of hours there before heading northwest, or whatever direction it was, to Niagara Falls.  While others cruised about in ships that skirted along the misty falls, we walked all around searching for public restrooms and cheap exchanges for American currency.  It was a magical experience that brought us closer to nature. We spent a bit of time photographing the scenery, until we read a sign that told of a small boy who had fallen in years ago.  Having read this, we cowardly departed.

Not the best place to visit when one has to go to the bathroom

Just north, in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, we befriended a unique group of willing members at our quaint bed and breakfast.  They were very happy to frolic around the rural countryside in the clean air with us, and even took a break to eat, completing the WOR adventure.  Though their meal of grains and hay looked very delicious, it could not compare to the tasty gourmet meal that we had the pleasure of eating until near gut explosion.

Team Walk-O-Rama welcomes Misty and what’s-his-name the sheep to our group

This table was cleared of its edible delights in record speed

All signs soon indicated that we should be on our way

While there, we thought, “Why not head on over to Toronto?” It seemed walkable and interesting.  Here we encountered a whole new world of wonders, such as garbage cans that made sense, germ-wise, and a wide array of global cuisine in a not-at-all-like-America food court in the mall.  We took a ferry to the outlying islands, where more animal friends were there to greet us, and wandered around amongst a bunch of cool shops and activity centers that we were not told did not open until 10:30.  Feeling jilted, we left this place, being happy to have walked around, but not as happy as we could have been if we could have rented a bike to explore instead.

Toronto, home of garbage can innovation

…and is apparently run by chickens…

…and is shockingly walker friendly, especially for dopes like us who have no sense of direction in the morning

In fitting with our farm animal theme, we recruited one final nerdy member

Farewell Canada! Please be under less construction next time

Next on the journey was Mackinac Island, a beautiful place filled the pleasant aromas of fudge and manure.  We exchanged our farm animal companions for more befitting additions to our walking party.  Being family members, they showed all the signs of having a good time in our presence while on our outing, at least during all the times that did not involve hills and stairs.  Surprisingly, this was only about 10% of the time.  We are not sure how, but this island seems to only go up, regardless of which direction you are attempting to walk.  We are glad to say that we all earned our chocolate on this day, having walked up, down, and apparently backwards in time.  Though this was interesting and invigorating, we all agreed that we will choose the horse and buggy route next time, should we ever return.

Mackinac Island, where everything is uphill, unless you’re falling

And sometimes, as Doug learns, falling sounds like a better alternative

Welcome to Walk-O-Rama, Kim and Doug Gauthier!

The time portal

Whisked back in time when people were smart enough to ride in buggies instead of walking

Now that vacation is over and the stress has instantaneously set back in, we will take at least a short break tomorrow to squeeze in a bit more walking.  The new members of Walk-O-Rama are welcome to join us! If you leave now you should be here with plenty of time to spare, which you can use to do some of my office chores.

Hope to see you then!

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Walk-O-Rama: That Magical Place We Think We All Heard of Once Upon a Time

Today Walk-O-Rama ventured out for a field trip and successfully returned, making it doubly impressive.  We journeyed to Avalon Park in nearby Stony Brook Village, by car of course, so we could walk in a nice, relaxing environment. Unfortunately, this destination was filled with so many cute dogs, geese, and stairs that it was difficult to control our mood swings that instantaneously peaked from super excited to wanting to punch someone in the face.

Though vehicles are usually not permitted on walking outings, Celeste’s was allowed since she was delivering us to our destination.

Stationary maps near the easy part of a labyrinth are not very helpful

Ken took a break from his vacation to come join us today and got a haircut just for the occasion.  To take advantage of his newly styled do, he modeled the nearby attractions, which included the Stony Brook Grist Mill and a mailbox shaped like a duck.  All were vastly improved by our company.

Historic Stony Brook architecture enhanced by Walk-O-Rama members

Without Ken this duck box would have just seemed silly

As we walked, we pondered where we had heard that name Avalon before.  Ken suspected it was from Arthurian lore.  Kristen, who had once taken a course on Arthurian lore, had no idea.  Ken was correct.  It must have been the smart guy haircut.

Where King Arthur and NY State employees go to heal

Not long after we entered the wooded path, we quickly began to realize that there would be stairs involved. Many stairs. Huge boulder ones that seemed to go up far more than they went down.  The clean air helped us along, though, and we were comforted by knowing that if we did tumble to the bottom there would be a conveniently located floor level drinking fountain there from which to quench our thirst.

There were no escalators to be found in Avalon Park. I missed this on the website.

For those like us who find stairs to be a walking hazard. And also for dogs.

Not only was our strength and stamina challenged, but we soon learned that our wits would be put to the test as well.  We were entering a winding, twisting labyrinth that could either lead you to stairs of some place cool. More than once we encountered stairs.  Swearing happened.

We rebelled and went the opposite way, which led to more stairs

Eventually, after we were thoroughly fatigued, we made it up the mountain to the hidden labyrinth. We had vowed to remain silent as we entered in observance of its spiritual meaning, but that only lasted a few steps.  Soon after we attempted walking the labyrinth path, and Kristen, who was for whatever reason the leader, kept wandering off course forgetting what they were doing, Labyrinths can be boring.  In the end we failed, having reached a dead end from starting in the wrong spot. Feeling a bit dejected, we left to go face the stairs, buoyed only by the hope that they would all be downhill from here.

How we all felt as we scaled the steep hill. If anyone finds Ken’s torso please contact him immediately

The labyrinth that bested us all

We are lovers of nature too! And lovers of food

The only turtles spotted near this scenic preserve were some angry looking turtle cookies in a nearby shop

We trickled down the hill like the dirty goose poo water trickling past the mill

I am happy to say that there was no tumbling down the steps or wrong turns made on the return trip.  We left this newly discovered land feeling a bit closer to nature, as well as a bit closer to the end of lunch time.  At least it’s Friday! We do hope you’ll join the crew next week.  A stand-in writer will be required to chronicle the adventure, or to make one up.

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Walk-O-Rama: We Totally Just Blew Our Own Minds

If there were diplomas given for awesomeness, members of Walk-O-Rama would be the first in line for their distribution.  When that fateful day comes, know that you, too, can receive such an honor of superior excellence. That is, when you choose to be awesome enough to sign up for one of the new scavenger hunts written and designed for you by the author of this blog. Really?!! you say.  Really. For those of you who follow our adventures, you know that Walk-O-Rama loves scavenger hunts, so this project was inevitible. We love them so much that we have lost two (badly) and won one that involved a ton of eating, which we trained vigorously for.  Walk-O-Rama also mildly loves Halloween.  We love it so mildly, in fact, that we briefly considered donning costumes for last year’s Halloween outing at work, but did not. To be fair, this does have something to do with the fact that a hurricane temporarily shut our operation down.  Where am I going with this?  I don’t remember.  Ah yes. These scavenger hunts will be held this October, in the country’s Witch City, Salem, MA, during their Haunted Happenings celebration.  Hate Halloween? Hate historic Salem? That is weird, but for those of you who are weird like that, more hunts will be available in Boston and Long Island in the coming months.

Visit the new WordPress page, http://borntosleuth.wordpress.com/, and learn more about these super cool events.  And read more about Walk-O-Rama this Friday after we embark on our highly anticipated field trip to nearby Avalon Park. It should be a smashing good time.  Not smashing destruction-wise. Though Ken is our version of the Hulk, he hopefully will not get angry or overly excited about the excursion, despite its many hills and stairs and mosquitos and…darn it, I’m mad just thinking about it. See you there?  We hope so.

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Walk-O-Rama: Three Cheers For…Oh Wait…What?

Today was a day for celebration.  Having learned that Celeste had just finished her final three credit course, almost certainly with an A (due to the increased blood flow to her brain thanks to our walks, of course), we made up our minds to eat to that. This was proposed in the early morning hours as we all pointed fingers via email to decide who should choose a destination.  So happy were we to have something special to honor, that our excited brains malfunctioned in all their giddiness and we entirely forgot about the reason for our outing as soon as we gathered for departure.  Poor Celeste.  We cannot be held accountable. Let those who have newly earned degrees be burdened with the blame.  Celeste.

We were very pleased to see that we had not yet frightened away new member Peggy, who showed up punctually donning her best sneakers (accompanied by Ken, with his trademark excessively large bowed sneakers). Ken proudly wore his Walk-O-Rama shirt today, or perhaps not so proudly, depending on the state of his laundry – it could well have been his only option and, therefore, last resort.  We will believe it was the former.

Kathy also joined us again today after a very long hiatus.  Though neither she nor Peggy stayed for the celebration that we forgot was for Celeste, they did make us look good by continuing on with the walk after we had veered off in the direction of food.  Their persistence to keep on walking was so dangerously infectious that Ken had to corral everyone back together as they absentmindedly breezed past the routine path.  The phenomenon could not be explained with any knowledge that we are familiar with.

Foreboding black clouds hung over us – seriously, just us – the whole way there, which gave us pause as it seemed like rain might be a suitable excuse to tell everyone why we were all wet when we were actually just being tempted to invade the nearby summer camp slip and side.    Instead, we focused our attention on more important matters, such as finding a very large quantity of squirrels and chipmunks to eat the peanuts that Kristen had brought along.  As it turned out, Peggy is also a fan of the protein packed snacks, which is good to know.  More will be brought in to lay in a row on the floor to lure her out of her office if she ever tries to skip out on walks in the future.

They should not be required next week, however, as the adventure in itself seems way more alluring than unsalted nuts.  We hope to take a Walk-O-Rama field trip to some nearby trails to make friends with wildlife and ride on the big Grist Mill wheel.  We hope to see you there!

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