Saturday, February 9, 2013

Walking in the Rain -- Sat., Feb. 9

6:00 a.m. Really? Bob said, "Do you want me to reset the alarm for 7?" "Yeah," I replied.

Our goal for the day was to do two 10K Volkswalks at the Del Webb Resort in northwest San Antonio. When we finally got up and got moving, a look outside foretold our weather for the day...low-hanging clouds and drizzle. The temperature was 50 degrees at 8:00 a.m.

We followed the ava.org instructions to Del Webb Resort. I should have Google mapped the route because we ended up going way farther than we needed to from our location at Travelers World RV Park. The short route was 22.7 miles.  The route we took was 32.4 miles. Not only that but we got lost on the way there because we didn't see Lone Star Parkway, so missed that turn. 

By the time we made it to Del Webb Resort, it was 9:40 a.m. Registration for the walk was in the Del Webb Resort Center. Wow is that place nice! They have a huge work-out room, billiard room with three pool tables, meeting rooms, and lobby area that looks like it would be a great place to relax on a rainy day. In the registration room was a table with refreshments that looked so good--coffeecake and brownies. My mouth was watering. (We should have had them when we saw them because when we finished our first 10K walk, the coffeecake and brownies were all gone.)

After signing in for the Randolph Roadrunners sponsored Volksmarch event, we were off on our first 10K walk by 9:51 a.m. Umbrella and camera out and ready for use, we decided to do the Alamo Ranch neighborhood walk first. 

Nice paved sidewalks along the walk.

We headed out the Del Webb Resort gate and passed their entry fountain. Most of this walk was on main thoroughfares throughout Alamo Ranch and other neighborhoods. Many new subdivisions are going up in this area.



 


"Working for the weekend."
The rain and wind were particularly pesky on the hilltops along the walk. Earlier in the day, the precipitation remained a drizzle, but enough moisture that I kept my umbrella up most of the way. There was also 85% humidity which kept us feeling damp. I had on a T-shirt and fleece sweater, but Bob was wearing shorts and a T-shirt with his ubiquitous baseball cap. At least he had protection from the moisture, but no coat.

We passed a school, but spent most of this walk on Alamo Ranch Parkway for a long, straight distance. It went on and on. I didn't take a lot of photos because it all looked the same. Oh, except for the entrance into Alamo Ranch (one of our checkpoints on the walk) which was very nice.

A checkpoint for the walk. You can see how gray the day is.
After finishing up our first walk and checking in at the registration area where my Volksmarch books were stamped, it was time to make a decision about our second walk. We decided to do a 6K (3.1 mile) walk instead of  the 10K due to the weather. (Another reason we made this decision was that the last 4K of this walk duplicated the last part of our previous walk which wasn't very interesting.)

It ended up being a good decision to do the shorter walk because the drizzle turned to rain. We were happy that the 6k walk made use of trails through the woods at Del Webb rather than sticking to the streets. It made for a much quieter and less windy walk. I only took one photo on this walk of a funny yard decoration...they had three of these unique garden gnomes in their yard. We thought they were hilarious.

Looks like alien monsters have captured these gnomes!
All told, we started our walk day at 9:51 a.m., finished our 10K (6.2 miles) in one hour and fifty minutes. We started our 6K walk at 11:56 a.m. and we finished at 12:55 p.m. for a total of 16K (9.6 miles). Then we were off to find lunch.

We ended up at McAlister's Deli where Bob had a California Turkey Reuben with potato salad and I had a Spud Ole and chicken tortilla soup. We were hungry.

The rain was really coming down on our drive home. We're so happy we didn't complete a second 10K walk today. We'll save that for tomorrow.

Travel Bug out.