Walking Zombies

There are no zombies in this blog, and there's a good reason for it. I've never seen a zombie before. =)

In fact, I still haven't, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case you were wondering....

Getting back on track, I have not hiked any additional streets since my last entry. Last time I checked my map, there were about 25 streets left to be hiked, most of them far outside of the city limits. I decided to take a closer look at the streets left that are within the city limits, and was surprised to realize that just two are left. Two. One, two. Chorro Street and South Higuera. That's it.

My original goal was to hike every legal, publicly accessible streets within the city limits of San Luis Obispo, and I'm just two streets away from that goal. Should I write the mayor and ask for some sort of award? Should I start a Thru-Hikers of San Luis Obispo club? Should I call out the media to film me walking down the last street in San Luis Obispo?

Not sure what I can get together with about a week left in town, but I intend to hike those two streets before I leave. =)

In other news, for those who kept up with my movie roll in I Know Who Killed Me, at long last, I finally got to watch the movie. The reviews for the movie were terrible, but if you ask me, the critics were much too kind. This movie is perhaps the worst, god-awful movie I have ever suffered through in my entire life. Two hours of my life, vanished away forever. Amanda even said that the movies she was in were pretty bad, but nothing compares to the train wreck that Lindsay Lohan put together. The only thing I can be thankful for is at least my name did not make it into the credits.

The scenes filmed in San Luis showed up pretty much exclusively in the first 15 minutes or so of the movie. If you are going to watch this movie despite my best warnings not to, for heaven's sake, stop once the SLO scenes are done.

Even with a DVD and pausing capabilities, I did not find myself in the background. That's not to say I wasn't there--the scenes were surprisingly dark. I say surprisingly because they sure spent a heck of a lot of money and effort lighting up the stadium like daylight to make it so dark in the movie that barely anything was visible. For all the footage they shot, mere seconds made it into the film.

Only two shots were locations that I clearly recognized. The first was of Madonna Mountain and Bishop's peak through the slats of the second story of the administration building at the high school. I recognize the scene well because that's the same scene I had everyday in Mr. Frick's class. (He was my American History teacher.) I have no idea if he's still at the school or not anymore. He could be retired by now. *shrug* Only students from the high school would have recognized that particular view, though. They tried to make it an artsy kind of shot with the slats sliding by, but I found it rather distracting myself.

The other recognizable shot was of the Fremont Theater, which was actually referred to by name in the movie which surprised me. The city name was changed, but they used the actual name of the theater. It's a beautiful movie theater built in the 60s or so, lit up with neon lights and is wonderfully beautiful. They filmed those scenes at night, which is the best time to see the theater lit up in lights, and it did look beautiful in the movie. Probably one of the few good decisions they made while creating the movie was to include the Fremont in a background scene.

The scene filmed at City Hall I recognized only because I was there when they were filming it. Nothing from the background jumped out at me, and I probably would not have recognized it as being city hall if I hadn't known previously about the filming there. Downtown San Luis Obispo was equally unrecognizable, and I didn't even see Bubblegum Alley in the background. A sad, sad thing to have cut. *shaking head* Well, I did recognize that tree that Lindsay hides behind, the one when she looked me direct in the eye. You can see that gleam in her eye, starring across the street at me, but I'm off screen and out of view. The tree is recognizable, but again, if I didn't watch it being filmed, I wouldn't have known which tree downtown it was off the top of my head. You could probably find it if you wandered around long enough with a picture of it to compare to, though.

In any case, I consider it rather a relief that my face was nowhere recognizable in what may perhaps be the worst movie of all time. How I got mixed up in that fiasco, I may never know. Do yourself a favor, however, and avoid this movie at all costs. It's terrible, and you don't even get to see my face in it!

Around Madonna Mountain

I actually walked a bit two days ago, but have neglected to post about it since I've been so busy with Atlas Quest. (Have you enjoyed the new stats I've made available?)

But for completeness, I should point out that I hiked around Madonna Mountain (a.k.a. Cerro San Luis) on Friday. It was a beautiful day for a hike, and the scenery along the way was pretty nice as well, catching the first hint of green grass growing in the light of the setting sun.

It would be a phenomenal walk if it wasn't for the fact that cars go whizzing by at insane speeds while walking along the shoulder of the road. The scenery is there, but the peace and quiet is not.

The official hiking began when Foothill Boulevard changed into West Foothill Boulevard (I bet most locals didn't even realize the street name officially changes into West Foothill--I didn't before I started my thru-hike of San Luis!). I followed West Foothill to the intersection with Los Osos Valley Road, then followed Los Osos Valley Road to Madonna Road and back into town to complete the loop. At Madonna Road, the official hiking stopped since I'd already done that section before.

I also stopped on West Foothill just long enough to hike Blue Granite Lane. I was tempted to skip it--this section of road was well outside of the city limits and went off the side of the map I had. The road was lengthy, but only the first 48 steps were publicly accessible. The rest was gated off as part of a private driveway. I ended up hiking it, but it almost feels like it's not worthy of being counted. It's not in the city, it's off my map, and there's almost nothing to it.

I did skip a few other small streets at the far end of West Foothill, though, after feeling guilty about including Blue Granite Lane. They too were outside of the city and beyond the edges of my map. Heck, most of West Foothill I wouldn't have included except that it's the main artery between the Cal Poly area and the Laguna Lake area. The quickest route between the two areas of town involves going outside of it! If it wasn't such a huge artery between parts of the city, though, I wouldn't have felt inclined to hike it at all.

So, there you have it. Three more streets and several more miles done.

Total Streets: 576
Total Miles: 159.19

Need a Limo?

Today I started my street walking on Fernandez Road and Fernandez Lane. Most people probably don't even realize these streets exist. You actually have to drive up a highway onramp before veering off at the last second to get the streets. I had to dodge some traffic to get here myself. I didn't have a car, and there are no sidewalks to these streets.

Then I walked over to Fontana Avenue, and along the way noticed a limo parked on the side of the road. I can't be sure because it was dark (a nighttime jaunt!), but I think it was purple. There was a for sale sign on it, for just under $8,000. If you're interested, let me know. Where else can you get a purple limo for just eight thousand bucks?!

But I digress.... I hiked up and down and around a couple of neighborhoods. The first included Fontana Avenue, Loma Bonita Drive, Los Feliz Court, and Los Alamos Court. Half those streets were actually blocked off by yellow tape because they had been just been repaved. It was weird, kind of like nobody lived in any of the homes around there. Not a single car was to be seen. Not in any driveways, none on the street. It was a world without cars.

The next neighborhood I hit was the one that most people who take their driver's test end up doing three-point turns and showing off one's driving skills, including myself. In case you're curious, I didn't pass my driver's test the first time out, but I'm happy to report that I hit no kids or dogs during my test either. =) What else did they want from me? *shrug*

Anyhow, the streets of this second neighborhood included Margarita Avenue, Alicita Court, Via Ensenada, Via la Paz, Via San Blas, Camellia Court, Estelita Court, Calle Jazmin, Calle Lupita, Calle Malva, and Lirio Court.

Then, rather than be the responsible adult that I usually am and walk back to my mom's house using legal routes, I ducked through a closed fenced onto what was very obviously private property and hiked over the ridge that was in my way instead of around it along Tank Farm (a scary walk!) or around the other side along South Street (waaay out of my way). I'd never cut directly through this private property before and wasn't really sure how all the roads and trails intersected back there, but I found my way through without a hitch and called it a night. No arrests made. =)

Total Streets: 573
Total Miles: 155.66

On another note, for those of you wondering just how much longer my 'thru-hike' of San Luis will continue, I predict... not much longer. I counted up the streets on my map that I have not crossed off yet, and only 31 are left. A few of those are actually WAY out of town and I'm wondering if it's even worth nabbing them, but I'm so close to crossing off every street on the map, including those outside of the city limits, I might have to just to satisfy my need for completeness. I'm even thinking about going back to hike Country Lane which, if any of the neighbors see me, might involve a visit by the police. Hard to claim I couldn't see those huge no trespassing signs, but still.... it's ON MY MAP, officer! ;o)

And a few of those streets left to be hiked are major thoroughfares through the city, which means they're very long streets. Just hiking one or two of them will likely be all I get in a full day of walking. So there's still quite a bit to do, but I'm definitely closer to the end than the beginning!

Shop 'Till You Drop!

I hate shopping. I really do. It's an annoying little chore, and today was no different. I started off by walking to a nearby gas station and used their ATM to get $20. No fees, no problem. Just testing my new card, though. I didn't actually need any cash at the moment. =)

Then I walked over to... oh, wait a minute. I better not tell you that.... that'll be a surprise. ;o) I did stop somewhere else where I purchased exactly 102 items of a certain thing, but since that's a surprise for many folks on Atlas Quest, it's hush hush. So hush.

Then I walked over to Costco, where I splurged for a churro, a slice of the combo pizza, and a berry smoothie. Yum, yum. I also went inside the store and looked around a bit. I looked at digital cameras. I looked at books. I looked at DVDs. I looked and looked and bought precisely nothing.

So then I walked across the parking lot to Circuit City and looked at their digital cameras. I really wanted a camera that took higher resolution photos than my current camera, specifically so I can turn the pictures I take into calendar photos that will fill the whole page.

Oh, the cameras were slick. First I gazed lovingly over the smallest, tiniest little ones I could find. They probably weighed a tenth of what my old camera weighed--and that's a big deal when you have to carry it on your back for thousands of miles. Then I realized.... They were kind of too small. Where did the batteries go? *slapping forehead* They used rechargeable batteries, with a recharger that plugs into a wall socket. That's a problem for me, because there won't be a lot of wall sockets where I'm going....

I needed a camera that took regular old batteries. Old fashioned, perhaps, but they work and are easily replaceable in any trail town. Those AA batteries are best--they're everywhere. So I started looking for cameras that took two AA batteries, like my old digital camera had, except there was absolutely nothing to mark how each of the cameras were powered. Did they think nobody would be interested in this critical little fact?

You'd think looking at the display cameras, it would be obvious. Except they've attached the display cameras to a base that covers the power source.

So I asked one of the employees, how can I tell which of the many cameras available took AA batteries?

I think the question surprised her, and said it's pretty obvious if you looked at the display camera. (Until she tried it herself and she had the same problem I did!) Then she asked, "Are batteries really that important?"

"Uhhh.... Yes."

"Can I ask why?"

So I told her about my upcoming hike from Key West to Springer Mountain, a journey of nearly 1,800 miles and I didn't expect many wall sockets along the way to power up.

Now that she knew I actually had a reasonable explanation for my unusual request, she became much more helpful suggesting a couple of cameras, and I finally decided to get the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S700 digital camera. 7.2 mega pixels of pure bliss. It's not much smaller than my existing camera, but it has the resolution I need, and still has the 3x optical zoom. And it runs on two AA batteries. I also bought a 2 gig memory card for it. That should fit my picture-taking needs.

Outside of the store, I pulled out the camera, inserted batteries (included with the camera!), and figured out how to click a couple of pictures. I couldn't get the memory card in, but the camera has 24 megs of space which was good for a dozen pictures or so. There was nothing wrong with the memory card, but it was packaged in one of those impossible-to-open plastic cases and I didn't have a knife, scissors, or any other sharp objects to free it from that plastic prison fortress. It would have to wait until I got back to my mom's house, but at least I could still take pictures with the 24 megs of memory already on the camera.

Now I planned to loop around back to Madonna Road the long way to get some more street walking in. I walked this section of Los Osos Valley Road--there's a LOT more walking left to do on this road, it's not done by a long shot--to Auto Park Way where you'll find more cars for sale than anywhere else in the city. I'd only been back on this street once before, delivering flowers for Valentines Day a few years back. I had a couple of days free and thought it might be fun to deliver flowers for a couple of days, and it was FUN--I don't think I've seen so many people who've been so happy to see me. =)

Then I headed down to Calle Joaquin. One end of the street has a AAA office, so I went in and picked up a map for Georgia and Alabama. (You know WHY!) And then followed the road to the other end at the top of a small hill at the south end of town where KSBY has their building. They're the fine folks who give the news at 6 and 11 each evening on NBC. They also do some morning news as well, but I don't think I've ever seen it then. Since I was up there, though, I decided to drop in and ask if they gave tours of the place.

The lobby was FILLED with toys. Looked like a toy store in there. Turns out, they're at the end of a toy drive for children in the area. The woman manning the front desk (or would she have been "womanning" the front desk?) told me that yes, they do give tours, then gave me the phone number and e-mail address of the person to contact for tours. They probably won't give me a private tour, but more likely would try to lump me in with another group of people. Hey, no problem!

I took some pictures from the hill and their array of satellite dishes then headed back down to Los Osos Valley Road. Need to make sure the camera works okay, right? =)

I stopped at Quiznos for a free sandwich again. I donated blood again last Monday, so I had another coupon burning a hole in my pocket. After my pigging out at Costco, I can't say I was actually hungry, but I likely would be getting hungry before my street walking was done, so filling up now (for free!) seemed like a good use of my time. I also used the time to rest my feet (which had not had more than a five minute rest since I left my mom's house) and read the instruction manual for my camera.

Then it was off to hike more streets including: Long Street (finished this street--already hiked it partly before), Hind Street, Meissner Lane, Granada Dr, part of South Higuera, Empleo Street, Bonetti Street, Sueldo Street, Empresa Street, Prado Road, Access Road, and Elks Lane.

Then I called it a day and headed back.

Total Streets: 556
Total Miles: 153.46

PS. In case you're wondering, that first picture was taken from Meissner Lane. Shocking to think that a scenic farm is so close to the middle of San Luis! =) Enjoy it while it lasts. I have no doubt that it'll eventually be developed. Perhaps not for decades, but it'll happen.....

Good Doggy, NOT!

Did some more street walking today, including Los Ranchos Road, Country Club Road, Alta Mira Lane, White Oak Lane, Countryside Lane, Lewis Lane, Madbury Court, Charles Drive, Kathy Court, Joan Place, Peters Place, Gary Place, Gallant Place, Marshall Way, Anneford Circle, Glennheim Court, Club View Lane, Glenview Lane, and finished up the section of Broad Street I hadn't done before.

The title of the post refers to an incident that happened at the end of one of those streets.... Don't remember which one it was. They all tend to blur together after awhile, and I didn't make a note of which street it was. Oh, Joan Place. That's it. I think that's it, at least. I'm 90% sure that's the street.

The street is short, heads uphill, and turns shortly to a dead end. I was disappointed when I turned the corner and saw a few kids playing at a house almost exactly at the end of the road. Not that I don't like kids or anything, but to complete the street, I needed to walk to the VERY end, which would be relatively close to the kids. And knowing there were kids about, lurking, suspicious adults would likely be about as well, and sure enough, she was sitting out front playing with another kid. The street ends in a circle making it easy for cars to turn around without a three-point turn, so I walked towards the left side of the street, away from the kids, the mom, and a large, ugly dog, but I was absolutely going to walk to the end of that street.

The dog got up and started barking at me--not an uncommon occurrence, actually. Happens every time you walk around town, and usually they're on leashes or behind fences so you can laugh at them as they pretend to be ferocious. =) This dog actually was on a leash, but a LONG leash that stretched most of the way across the dead end parking lot, and it starting coming after me, barking it's head off. The leash didn't look at all that secure to me either, but at least it was something. The woman got up, walking towards the dog. Not exactly encouraging it, but not exactly trying to stop it either.

I reached the end of the street, and the woman reached the dog grabbing it but watching me. I pulled out my little notebook, checked my pedometer, and wrote down the number of steps I took on the street. (209, assuming it was Joan Place, which I think it was.) I can only imagine what the woman thought watching me do this. I was actually wearing pretty nice clothes too, with a button up shirt and a collar. Not exactly homeless-looking or threatening or anything, but it had to make her wonder what I was writing down in my little notebook. Perhaps notes about her dog, to report it later? Or maybe something more sinister, such as the number of kids in the yard and the fact that the house is protected by a dog. She didn't say anything to me, though, so I smiled and waved but said nothing in return. =)

Then I turned around and headed back down the street. As I left, though, I heard her telling the dog, "Good watch dog!" Which really annoyed me. Good? That dog wanted to attack me for doing nothing more sinister than walking down a street! A good watch dog would respect property lines and learn not to go after everything walking by. A good watch dog will wake you up at night if someone is trying to break in. A good watch dog will be friendly until you say or do something that obviously is a threat to property or people. I wanted to turn around and tell her, "Stupid watch dog. Stupid!"

I hope that dog barks at a bird all night long. See how good she thinks he is then. =)

Total Streets: 543
Total Miles: 147.54

Another Good Day of Street Walking....

Nothing too exciting to report today. No plane crashes, rocket launches, fires, or deaths or injuries. All-in-all, a beautiful day for walk. =)

Today's walking included a number of new streets that my map of SLO does not show. Several make up an otherwise undeveloped area east of the airport. In fact, those roads have cones across them blocking traffic from entering, but I, being on the mighty foot, disregarded the codes (none were on the sidewalks, after all!) and explored the new roads anyhow.

At the end of Prospect Road, I did something that's probably illegal, or at least should be, but there were no signs prohibiting it and they didn't take any measures at all to prevent it, so I did something I never did before. I climbed up to the top of a water tank. =) It's not completed yet, but the main structure looks finished. I looked through the holes in the side to get a gander inside--I've never been able to see the inside of a huge water tank like that. There's a ladder that went up (or down, I suppose, depending on one's perspective) the side of the tank. It didn't seem especially sanitary considering it's supposed to hold gobs and gobs of water. Mud had been tracked in at some point. But maybe that's normal. *shrug* I've never seen the inside of one of these things before.

Then I climbed up the ladder on the outside of the tank, up to the top, where I sat down and admired the view. There's a swinging guard on the bottom half of the ladder that covers the ladder when closed and blocks access to the upper half. It wasn't closed, though, nor locked down, just inviting anyone rambling by (such as myself) to climb to the top. I have little doubt once the area is developed and the tanks are in use they'll make such a careless mistake.

So that was the one slightly exciting thing I did.

The complete listing of streets I hiked include: Aerovista Place, Airport Drive, Aero Drive, Crestmont Drive, Caballeros Avenue, Machado Lane, Hacienda Lane, Ranchito Lane, Cabrillo Lane, Candelabra Place, Windmill Way, Edna Road, Kendall Road, Prospect Street, Morabito Place, Allene Way, and Farmhouse Road. (There's an actual, honest-to-goodness farmhouse at the end of that road!)

I didn't actually hike to the very end of Edna Road--it goes a long way out of town, so I stopped when I reached the point where it left the edge of the map. It's far outside of the city limits as it was, and there wasn't really much of anything beyond where I stopped.

Total Streets: 524
Total Miles: 141.91

And We Have Liftoff!

What a day! What a productive day!

I decided to use the coupon I had for a free sandwich at Quiznos for lunch this afternoon. They gave it to me after I finished donating blood last Monday. I decided to redeem it at the Quiznos on South Higuera, which is a bit off my usual beaten path, but that's okay because there was a whole heck of a lot of streets in that area I had not yet hiked for my San Luis Obispo thru-hike.

The route I followed more-or-less was the one I originally planned to do last Monday until I learned about the runway expansion changing the streets in the area and I no longer knew what to expect. Now that I knew about the new road to connect between Tank Farm Road and Buckley, I would use that.

I finished up the northern half of Santa Fe Road--the southern half I finished last Monday. It used to be one long street. The extended runway chopped the road in half, however. One name, but now two streets. I also hit Clarion Court since it was in the area.

Then I crossed over to Buckley using Hoover Avenue before finishing the streets in the area including Rustic Way (a surprise street, since it was not on my map) and Esperanza Lane which had a sign in front saying there were "meat goats" for sale. If that is what I think it sounds like.... Do people eat goat meat? That's one I hadn't heard before.

Jespersen Road was something of a mystery to me. It was on my map, but just a tiny section of it before it ran under a box with the legend for the map, so I had absolutely no idea what was behind that box. Was the road short, or did it run on for miles? Was that the only road, or was the big box hiding a bunch of intersecting roads? I had no idea since I'd never traveled back there before.

It was a longish road, perhaps half a mile, but that was it. No intersecting roads to be hiked. One of the people coming out of their house watched me suspiciously. I waved and continued my hike, wondering if they were going to call the cops about my "suspicious" behavior. I don't think they get many people walking by this area.

Speaking of which.... I've been making a special point of trying to seem friendly by waving to people as I pass them in the hopes they don't stick the cops on me. There have been a series of daylight rapes in town by an unidentified man, so women in particular are likely to be more worried about my "suspicious" behavior than they normally might have been. I'd rather not alarm anyone if I can help it. =)

Fortunately, however, nobody is likely to suspect me of being a murderer since they arrested two people for a murder that happened three days ago now. At least I don't have to worry about people thinking I'm a murderer! A rapist is still on the loose, but I no known murderers are lurking in town anymore. None that aren't in jail, at least. A regular crime spree going on this week. *shaking head* Don't think rapes and murders are normal in San Luis. This is the third murder this year, and I'll have you know Seattle gets WAAAAY more than that every year. *nodding* Not sure how many rapes have happened this year (and most likely, a lot of them never get reported), but it's probably no worse than anywhere else you might visit. The daylight attacks by strangers along busy roads are rather usual, however, and has spotlighted the issue recently.

But I digress....

I finished up Buckley Road, then followed Vachell Lane and Venture Drive out to Quizmos where I ordered lunch and pulled out my map of San Luis to plan my plan of attack. I also started crossing off all the roads I already hiked from the road index. I couldn't find my last map with the streets already marked off that I had done, so I have a fresh, new map and the streets needed crossing out. Took me over an hour to get them all. Not many streets are left!

Then I continued my hiking on the side streets around South Higuera, starting with Suburban Road, Short Street, Cross Street, and Long Street. I kept my eyes open for a building housing TrueLink. I used to work at TrueLink when it was in a building on South Higuera, but after I left they moved offices to somewhere else in one of these sides streets near South Higuera. I couldn't remember the street name off the top of my head and never saw where the new offices were. Heck, I didn't even know if they were still in San Luis at all. But I kept my eyes open for them out of curiosity. Never found it, though.

I did, however, find an ostrich roaming behind a fence along Suburban. I had no idea there were ostriches there. (Or at least one ostrich--but there could have been others hiding for all I know!) I also walked up and down Suburban twice looking for a street named Horizon. It was on my map, but that road does NOT exist. I never found it, at least, and I walked that street twice looking for it!

Long Street really isn't that long, but it is longer than Short Street. I did not finish hiking Long Street, however, since it crossed Tank Farm Road where there are no stop signs or pedestrian crossings, and since I valued my life, decided not to dash across the busy road to the other side. I will complete Long Street another day, but I did get the section south of Tank Farm Road completed.

Then I hiked through a couple of neighborhoods including streets such as Perla Lane, Los Palos Drive, Vista Lane, El Mirador Court, Contenta Court, Encanto Lane, Los Verdes Drive, Villa Court, Del Sol Court, Linda Lane, Del Oro Court, Las Praderas Drive, Mariposa Drive, Chuparrosa Drive, Carissa, and Zaca Lane. Zaca Lane, I might add, is the only street in San Luis Obispo that starts with a Z. The Z section of my index is DONE! =)

Today was a big day in another way as well. After finishing Zaca, I had finished 28 streets and 7.61 official miles (not counting the backtracking at dead-ends, walking to Santa Fe Road, and such), I was pooped and almost ready to call it quits. It was nearly 5:00pm by this time, however, and I knew it would take me over an hour to walk back to my mom's house.

I stopped at a convenience store and bought a couple of snacks and a drink. I was going on a stakeout, and I was hungry. I needed sustenance.

I headed towards the railroad tracks where I knew of a nice overlook with a good view of the southern horizon. By the time I arrived, it was a little after 6:00 and quite dark. Without a flashlight, finding the small trail to the top of the lookout and not breaking an ankle on a road was a slight challenge, but I made it with no mishaps. I sat down on a rock, put on my jackets (it was getting chilly too!), then munched on Red Vines and drank Coke while waiting.

What was I waiting for? A rocket launch! Vandenberg Air Force Base is located probably 40 miles south of San Luis, as the crow flies, and they like to launch rockets from there over the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't happen every day, of course, but it's a regular launch site for satellites going into orbit. Usually, they launch rockets at horrible viewing hours, such as two or three o'clock in the morning when I don't want to stay up that late or don't want to get up that early. For this particular satellite, however, they needed to launch it within one minute of 6:31pm. They first attempted to launch it last Wednesday, but the launch was scrubbed due to high altitude winds. Thursday and Friday were busts as well due to general lousy weather and low-altitude winds. This evening, however, it was partly cloudy and did was not at all windy in town. The high-altitude winds might be there, but they would have been higher than the few clouds in the sky that seemed stationary. I hoped tonight would be the launch. I couldn't be certain having not watched the 5:00 news, but the stars seemed aligned, as it were.

So I sat on my little hill, with a sweeping view of the southern horizon, munching snacks and waiting for 6:31 to strike. My watch might be off by a few minutes, so I couldn't be sure exactly when the launch would happen, but it would be within five minutes of the time my watch showed. I was sure of that.

I waited. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. 6:31 came and went, and nothing. A minute or two later, however, I noticed a small glow on the horizon that I didn't remember being there before. The glow brightened noticeably, brighter than anywhere else along the horizon by a significant margin. It was the launch! YES! A few seconds later, an enormous bright light shot above the horizon, lighting up the sky. SWEET!

It only took about five seconds, rising fast, before it went behind one of the few clouds in the sky. I couldn't see the rocket anymore, but I could see that bright glow coming out from behind the cloud, then emerging again from the top of the cloud. Not quite as bright the first time around, but still significantly brighter than anything else in the sky.

The rocket went behind a second cloud and emerged again, dimming dark enough that it could have been mistaken for a plane at this point, but then I saw what looked like a dot of light drop off from the main dot that continued to go up, higher and higher. Could that be one of the stages of the rocket, completed and falling back to earth?

The rocket continued going up, though, and eventually went behind another cloud that finally obscured it for good. That was fine, though--there really wasn't much left to see anymore. It was too far away now.

Darn, it's fun to watch a rocket launch. Not your every day occurrence. =)

Then I walked back to my mom's house and typed up this blog entry. Oh, yeah, it's been a good day!

Total Streets: 507
Total Miles: 136.63

Another Day, Another Road

When you're on a roll, you're on a roll! Today wasn't nearly so extensive as my last day of hiking--only three roads, and even then one of them doesn't really count.

I started with Fixilni Road, which has been teasing me by sitting in plain view on Johnson. I thought it was a new road. It didn't exist last year. No houses are yet built up on it. But alas, it turns out they just extended an existing street I had already hiked. I went head and hiked the new portion just for completeness, but the road has already been counted in my totals.

Then I hiked California Avenue. I had put this road off for months and months because I knew the north end of it was closed due to construction on the new football stadium at Cal Poly. I didn't want to hike it until I knew I could hike its entire length.... which is now!

The new stadium is a beaut. Completely unnecessary, in my humble opinion, but it is fresh, crisp, clean, and new. My high school graduation took place on this field. Call me old fashioned, but I feel college should be about learning--not sports. I'm always just a little bit saddened when I see millions of dollars spent on a new stadium that could have been spent on teachers or classrooms or computers or something more useful than a stadium.

The seating capacity for the stadium has increased dramatically. The bleachers actually rise directly over California Avenue--the reason the road was closed during construction.

Then I hit Orchard Street. Frankly, I have my doubts if this so-called street should even be included, but I worked so hard to get it in I will. =)

My first problem was finding the street. It's not one I was familiar with, and in fact only knew about because it was on my map as a short street connecting between California Avenue and Highland Drive. I kept my eyes open while walking along California, but saw nothing. Fine, I thought, I'll find the entrance on Highland instead.

The only thing I found there was an unlabled dirt road leading to a bunch of orange trees. That must be the road, I thought, because there was nothing else around that came close to being called a road.

I followed the dirt road... directly into a dead end. I could see California Avenue on the other side of a chain link fence with a 'no trespassing' sign. Hello? That's a public street on the other side! If anything, I felt like I was trapped on the wrong side of the fence.

Not wanting to walk back to Highland, I followed the orange trees deeper into the orchard. Until I reached a brick wall. Mustang Village was on the other side, but there was no access from where I was.

I had two choices, I figured. I could walk back the 789 steps to Highland Drive, or I could jump the seven or eight foot brick wall.

I decided to jump the wall. I squeezed my foot into a small hole near the base of the wall, pushed myself up, and swung my legs over.

Once I was on the top, looking down, I started having second thoughts about jumping down. What if I twisted an ankle when I landed or something? But it was too late--the drop down was the same on both sides. I had to jump down onto one side or the other, so I picked the direction I was headed and dropped.

Happily, no twisted ankles or bruised egos. =)

Now I'm downtown, writing my walking adentures on my PocketMail device, after completing 2 streets and 1.98 miles of street walking.

And the hiking continues....

It's been quite some time since I did my last hike in San Luis, but that's mostly because I haven't been in San Luis much for most of the year. Now, however, that's where I'll be spending pretty much all of December, and--as I like to say--the hike must go on.

If it gets me a bit more conditioned for my upcoming thru-hike from Key West to Springer Mountain (nearly 1,800 miles), good for me. =)

Today I started by donating platelets, so I walked over to the blood bank where they took out all of my blood. Afterwards, I ate some cookies and fruit juice, and only then did I start my hiking. The blood bank is near the south end of town, so that's where my street walking took me.

My goal was to hike up Buckley Road to South Higuera, then hit the streets near that intersection until I tired of walking. Maybe even ride a bus back to the house because frankly, it's a long walk back and I hate walking down Tank Farm Road.

That plan went out the window almost immediately, though, when I bumped into one of my old Pizza Hut co-workers a block or two south of the blood bank--Jenny. (Hello, Jenny!) She told me that Sante Fe Road no longer went all the way through from Buckley to Tank Farm Road--a route I intended to turn into a loop the next time I donate blood next Monday. Santa Fe Road goes right next to the airport, and they extended the runaway across the old road. She also described some new streets in the area that were not on my map. This was unknown territory, and I wasn't sure if I could make a loop anymore. I decided to change my plans to use a loop if one existed (or backtrack if it didn't), then do my original hike along the entire length of Buckley next Monday depending on how today went. I was winging it!

I did start up Buckley Road, then hit pretty much every road it intersected until my feet felt like they were falling off. Stupid me, I forgot to bring water with me. They told me when I left the blood bank to drink lots of liquids and no strenuous exercise for 24 hours--I think they'd be very disappointed if they realized I was going for a four hour hike with no water immediately upon leaving them. =)

This area of town, just south of the airport, is technically not within the San Luis Obispo city limits, but it's close enough to count in my book. After all, the address on their mail still says San Luis Obispo as the city! But it's actually county property and not part of any city at all. Much of the area is farm and ranch land and largely undeveloped. Roads off of Buckley are as likely to be gravel as they are to be paved--which added to my winging it because my map only showed the paved roads. I've been out in this area perhaps twice in my life, and this is probably the area of town I know the least--and maps wouldn't help me out for much of the way!

At the same time, I was looking forward to exploring the area seeing as how unfamiliar I was with it. And, my gut instinct is that someday, most of it will eventually be developed and eventually added to the city of San Luis Obispo. Roads will get paved, farms and ranches will move away, shopping malls will be built. It seems kind of obvious. The land is flat, empty, and easily accessible, and largely unprotected. It might stay this way for years or decades to come, but eventually.... the growth of the city will spill out, and this is an easy place for it to spill out on. The east side of the city is blocked by the imposing Reservoir Ridge (a name I gave it--it has no official name so far as I know). Much of the land towards the north is mountainous. And another mountain chain blocks the west side of the city. To the south, though, it's flat and the most logical place for growth to go. There's still room towards the north for some development (which probably will happen too!), but it's the south where I think the long-term, large-scale growth will likely happen.

Which is sad--it's a nice area. Open creeks, cows mooing, and friendly people. One guy was practicing a golf swing while keeping a watching eye on a young kid driving a tracker. He said he was teaching him how to drive the tracker, and the kid was loving it!--but admitted, "Once he figures out he's doing work, he won't enjoy it anymore." =)

You'll find lots of horses out in this area as well. People in the city store them there, or take riding lessons from businesses here, or whatever else they do with businesses. I found what appeared to be the bus barn for the buses running the county-wide routes.

All of which was interesting to me, because I had no idea most of that stuff was there. =)

Ultimately, I walked down Hidden Springs Road, Thread Lane, Buttonwood Way, Mellow Lane, Angie Lou Lane, Davenport Creek Road, Ranchos Oaks Road, Serpa Ranch Road, Evans Road, Three Sisters Road, Santa Fe Road, and Old Santa Fe Road.

Two roads I saw but did not hike were Mourning Star Way and Country Lane since they had large "No Trespassing" signs in front of them and looked largely like long, unpaved driveways. Don't want to be breaking any No Trespassing laws or anything! Anyhow, they weren't paved, and despite the fact I have been walking most unpaved roads, I decided early on that any road deemed illegal to hike (such as Highway 101) was okay to skip. Thus, they were skipped.

Santa Fe Road, as Jenny told me, did dead end at the extended runway, but a new road named Hoover (is that the best name they could think of for a new road?!) did cut across to Tank Farm Road just west of Santa Fe Road. Sante Fe Road is now cut in two, and I only finished the south end of it, so that won't be counted for in my totals. I'll count the road once I finish the north end. Hoover Road, I realized, I'd have to hike back along to finish my hike up Buckley Road, so I didn't bother to "officially" hike it on my way out.

And that was my hike this time around. Eleven streets done, two partly done, and 5.54 official miles logged. (I figure I actually hiked closer to 15 in total today--five to get me to the blook bank and back, then most roads were dead ends so I had to hike to the end, then hike back... over and over again, nearly doubling the official 5.54 mile tally.)

Hopefully I'll get this city done before I start my thru-hike in Florida next month! That's my goal, at least. Not sure.... I've been spending a lot of time trying to get AQ stable and running well in my absence. Lots of loose ends to tie up.

Total Streets: 477
Total Miles: 127.04

Stalking Lindsay

Once again, I spent much of the afternoon and evening stalking Lindsay, this time in downtown San Luis. Shooting was supposed to start at 3:00 this afternoon and last until 3:00 in the morning. I showed up downtown around 4:00 in the afternoon and found the film crew busy at City Hall. A "New Salem" County sheriff's vehicle was parked out front along with a KSBY news van. I leaned back against the wall of the city/county library across the street to watch the happenings. While the filming did take place at San Luis Obispo city hall, I suspect it's supposed to play the New Salem courthouse in the movie. I'm just guessing, though. Maybe it really will be New Salem's city hall. In Murder by Numbers, the real San Luis courthouse they turned into the San Benito police department. (So far as I know, the real San Luis police department has never been used in a movie.)

I couldn't really hear anything about what was going on, but they filmed a group of paparazzi and reporters chasing after a guy in a sheriff outfit (and possibly someone or two he was escorting, but it was hard to tell from my position). All the reporters were shouting out questions, and the sheriff stopped near the stop of the steps seeming to tell them all off before walking into the building.

They did this scene several times. Before one of the shots, they were trying to clear gawkers on the other side of the street where I was, but one of the guys pointed at me and said it was okay for me to stand there since I looked like I was just waiting for a bus or something. I was pretty far off to the side, though, and doubt I would have made it in that shoot but, in theory, it's possible you might see a suspicious looking guy wearing a white hat who looks like he's waiting for a bus in the background. That would be me. =)

One of the reporters was a real reporter for the local news station, KSBY, named Amy Andrews. I've seen her on TV before, but was rather surprised how short she was in person. The news, I always thought she looked freakishly tall. =)

Lindsay Lohan, I heard one person saying, had the day off. Sheeze! *rolling eyes* The star of the show doesn't have to work?

After they got the shot they were looking for, they started closing up. I wandered down to Higuera Street since I heard there was filming going on over there as well and they actually closed that street off completely to cars. Pedestrians were still allowed through, however.

It didn't take long for me to realize that actual filming would not be happening anytime soon. They were taking down the "One Way" signs. Higuera Street, at least through downtown, is a one way street. Apparently the script calls for it being a two-way street, however, so they had to remove all of the "One Way" arrows then parked a bunch of cars facing the wrong way on one side of the street. I hope they remember to put those "One Way" signs back up after they finished filming.

I left. Did some work on Atlas Quest, ate some dinner, then later this evening walked back downtown to see what was going on. A large crowd of people hovered around Mother's Tavern, so I headed there.

I couldn't help but notice all of the cars parked on the street. They all had graffiti such as "Go Owls!" or "We're #1!" and "We Won!" Which was actually a pleasant surprise to me, because they never told us definitively or not if our team won while we were cheering them on last night. =) Oddly, the handwriting on every single car seemed to be the same.

The street was a mess. Trash was thrown everywhere, streamers were thrown up and through the trees. It looked like a riot or a really good party was in progress.

The side of the street where Mother's Tavern was located was off limits to us gawkers, but plenty of extras were there wearing blue and cheering their epic football win. I stood on the opposite side of the street by the Frog and Peach Pub (for those of you familiar with San Luis) to watch the action. I heard some people behind me telling another person where Lindsay was in the crowd, near Bubblegum Alley. Speaking of which, I was pleased to see the put up lights along the entire alley, so I hope that means it'll show up well in the movie. =) That place is great!

The did a rehearsal run where Lindsay walks down the sidewalk towards Mothers. Cars, lined up in both directions along the street started their engines and drove forward. A large crowd of extras behind Linsday were told to mime their excitement. Throw their arms in the air, wave wildly, and generally pretend to be excited about winning the big game--except all without making a sound. I guess they'll dub that in later.

Lindsay walks down the street with a couple of girls, one on each side of her, and appears to stop to look at the menu on the wall of Mother's Tavern--or at least where the menu would normally be. Who knows what they put up there for the movie. Maybe they just happened to stop and say something. I don't really know what they stopped for, but they did stop briefly. Then Lindsay yells, "Wait! Erin!" Or something like that. Maybe the name was Aaron? Maybe it was something else entirely. And she dashes down the sidewalk towards The Library (that's another bar--the first one in town with Internet access as I understand it--not a real library) like she's chasing after this Erin person.

But she stops, suddenly, and seems to try to hide behind a large tree. And--and this is the exciting part--she gazes across the street. Three young girls standing next to me get all excited, jumping up and down. "She looked at me!" the one said. "No, she looked at ME!" the other one said. I didn't have the heart to tell them Lindsay wasn't looking at either of them. No, she was gazing longingly at, yes, me. *shrug* What can I say? I have that affect on women. ;o)

But seriously.... After gazing in our general direction at least, she gets back out from her hiding place behind the tree and walks a bit further down the sidewalk before cut is called.

They do this a few times. They have to get all the cars back into position so they can all drive past during the whole scene. Between takes, several fans yell out to Lindsay, but she seems intent talking to the other crew members about something. She's also easy to lose in the crowd of people. It was during the filming that she was easy to follow since everyone kept away from her then instead of milling around her like they did between the takes.

I watched for about an hour, until nearly midnight, before growing bored of the same shoot being taken over and over again, so I finally left to come back and report back about my stalking of Lindsay. =) They're scheduled to continue shooting until 3:00 this morning, so they're still out there. They have the street closed off until 6:00am--presumably to give them a few hours to clean up all the trash and streamers they've thrown all around before businesses open again tomorrow.

Lots of fun. =) No new streets hiked this time. I think they'll be in town for at least a couple of more days for filming, but alas, I do not know when or where they'll be tomorrow. I'll have to see if I can find out. Hmmm......

-- Ryan