Walking Time

I have been taking advantage of the warmer weather and walking outside instead of inside the house or in a store.  I walk around my neighborhood and it makes me miss having a dog.  I feel a little silly walking around the block without a dog on a leash.  I could use a chicken but I don't know if they would cooperate.  I go for a walk in the morning and another walk in the afternoon. My afternoon walks are usually longer and I am to walk at the warmest time of the day which I guess would be 4 o'clock.  I take advantage of the local parks with tarred paths that are dry and clean.  I haven't been able to walk these paths without pain for many years and I see improvements have been made.  One path by my house has a purple martin gourd nest colony and I was happy to see that.  Some of the trees have plaques giving information about the tree species have been added.  I like those too.  In the photo above is a red oak tree I have always liked because it has legs; a hollow hole in the trunk at ground level.  Yesterday I took a long walk on the Rum River Trail.  I remembered the last time I walked that trail.  I believe it was in 2004 on Easter. Offspring #2 and I spent the cold Sunday picking up trash on the path.  We picked up cans, bottles, one tire, papers, and one complete set of underwear.  Halfway through our expedition my back and hip hurt so bad I wanted to quit.  I limped back to the car and we loaded all our trash.  We went out to eat and as my bones warmed up in the restaurant I regretted that long walk down that path because I knew I would be in pain the rest of the evening.  Now things are different. I can walk down the same path and not suffer the rest of the evening,  I got used to life like that.  I avoided long walks.  I spent more time in a kayak or on a motorcycle instead.  Now that I can hike again, I have more options on how to spend my time.  But I don't want to cut back on time in the kayak OR time on the motorcycle.  I guess I will keep all my present warm weather activities and cut back on couch time instead.