Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Walk in the woods and plans

Yesterday I was one of the affected bloggers due to the outage, so no entry for the day . Sure...tell me I cannot play in the sandbox !!

Last two days have been good for exercise. 45 minutes on the bike on Sunday and 30 minute walk with various and sundry other exercises yesterday. food has gone well, but my body is showing signs that Mother Nature is wrapping up a gift for me, and I will almost assuredly see a gain this week. Which makes me wonder if there is some deserving organization that would like to have my works wrapped up and delivered to them ! When you are done with babies, the whole process seems like a complete waste of time and energy- and accompanied with a lot of annoyances !

But I press on. Vacation is coming up , and I want to be mobile for it. We made reservations last night on line, and were amazed at the price difference between Gatlinburg and Wisconsin Dells. In this area the Dells is a popular vacation option because it is close, but most of the "on the strip" hotels will cost you about 175.00 per night for two, and that is before the 20 dollar a head admission fee to any of the water parks or what not. We are going to stay in Gatlinburg for 3 nights for less than the price of one night in the Dells. We are blocking out 4 days for the adventure - one day to drive down , two days to do the town and one day to drive back. 15 hour car trips are something I have not done in years ! We plan on devoting one day to The Smokey Mountain National Park and one day to the Ripley's Aquarium and a few other attractions. I want to touch a stingray and Nick wants to see the sharks. Should be a lot of fun. Even those few things are going to involve a lot of walking, and then swimming in the evenings back at the hotel, and stamina is necessary.

Yesterday we went to the woods for a walk before dinner, and I am noticing that walking is getting a little easier still. There is still a lot of stiffness when I first stand up, but once I get moving the stiffness is dissapearing and my thigh muscles are working better. The bike and the other assorted exercises are helping. The pain was gone long enough that I was able to focus on the plants growing at this time. I was reminded that in this area cincfoil, horse chestnut and elders bloom when the Solomon's seal gets it's droopy berries- right before the catnip flowers and the echinachia blooms. It's a rhythm I had forgotten !

5 comments:

Marisa @Loser for Life said...

Sounds like a great upcoming vacation! Looking forward to hearing about that!

Leslie said...

That does sound like a good vacation! I love Tennessee, and you will really enjoy the Smokay Mountains. One of my dream trips is to do the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, which I think is about 500 miles. Just a slow pace, picnics, scenic outlooks and staying at little mountain motels.

So glad to hear your knees are feeling better. They say movement is the best therapy, but it's hard when they hurt!

Di said...

Leslie- as a kid we traveled the entire Blue Ridge Parkway, and it was a beautiful trip ! No motels for us- my dad was really big on camping and we stayed at a lot of little campgrounds on the way . I am so eager to introduce my son to this area, and I am really hopping we see a bear- from a distance. When I was 7 I lived through a bear attack on our camp sight ( walked into our lean two shelter) and it is one experience I think my son can pass on.I keep looking at the ads for things offering zip lining and white water rafting( the stuff of my childhood), thinking about doing it with my son but realizing he is not prepared and I am far too creaky these days to do it ! My heart wants to do all those rugged outdoors things, but... !

Becky said...

Sounds like a fun trip, will you be able to blog while your gone? I alway find it intersting what people eat and snack on while on vacation, but i can never stand to stay on a healthy track when on vaca. I'm going to the FL keys in July with family and i'm dreading what i'll be eating.

Di said...

Becky- the place we are staying at has free Wi Fi, but I will have a limited amount of time to post between checking email and sharing one computer with the guys. Our plan is to pick up breakfast and lunch foods at the grocery store and then eat whatever we fancy for dinner. One of the planned places is sort of a Chuck E Cheese kind of place but they serve foot long corn dogs or sausage sandwiches. By no means healthy, but a fun place and one meal is not going to kill us ( well, maybe the heartburn will !). Other than that I am not going to stress because we will be a lot more active and a couple of bad dinners are going to happen. Enjoy your rime with your family in the keys ! Vacations are the exception to the rule of what we do the rest of the time. Not an excuse to go crazy, but a safe time to catch your breath and work on maintenance skills .