Shawn Clubb had e-mailed me a week or so ago and we made a plan to meet in Forest Park, walk in the Kennedy Forest and I would be interviewed. I guess Shawn told me in the note FOR WHOM he would interview me, but I had not paid much attention and didn’t know. In fact I didn’t know until the interview was almost over and I finally asked him for whom he was doing this interview. It turns out he has the Dogtown “beat” among other responsibilities, for the South City Journal and, being a member of my e-mail list, decided to join me on a walk and do an interview.
We met, as arranged, at 9:30 AM, right along by where the St. James School picnics used to be, just west of the zoo. We both saw the other sort of looking around for a stranger, and we each asked…. Are you…..???? Once we introduced ourselves I just sort of automatically took the lead and we headed into the woods, which are now quickly greening and thickening. No longer could my “cut directly across the woods” work. We stuck to the gravel path first, which became a dirt path at times. First we wander out toward Skinker to the lovely small savannah there and then circled back around and took the path on which the Osage Indian custom is played out of the tree inside a hollowed out tree.
I really leaned a lot today. Shawn is an experienced bird watcher and naturalist. First, while I was just blabbering along, he stopped short and said there was a snake crossing the path. I totally missed it, so we sort of hurried over to the side of the trail to find it, but it had disappeared into the underbrush. Not more than 5 minutes later as we emerged from the woods just behind the Art Museum, there was yet another snake, which I would again have totally missed, but this time Shawn called out in time and I was able to follow the snake as well as it disappeared into the underbrush.
We walked down Art Hill, over a few bridges, and along by the Boat House, up to the Muny. All along the way he would identify flowers, trees and birds. He really knows his birds. Just as we were crossing over near the Muny I decided to show I knew something anyway and blurted out, “Look at the beautiful mallard.” WRONG. Shawn gently pointed out that was not a mallard at all, but a beautiful female wood duck. Now one would think that with a name like “wood duck” I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to hear that wood ducks often sat in trees. That was like a lightening bolt of revelation.
Just about two or three Sundays ago I was with my oldest son, Bob, and his two darling daughters Kyra and Katie and we were walking along the same path from which Shawn and I had emerged, when Bob pointed out these ducks sitting in the trees and he mentioned he had never seen ducks sit in trees, and I realized I had also NEVER noticed this before in my life. We thought this was quite a phenomenon. Now it all became clear. I may well have seen such ducks dozens of times before, but never noticed it as unusual or even noticed it at all.
We walked along the west side of the Muny, and right on up the long hill, through the thickening grass which was filled with many many tiny and beautiful flowers. Again, he knew the names and such which, of course, I didn’t.
Finally we walked up alongside the Jewel Box, picked up the walking trail and followed it back across Hampton, down along Hwy 40 and back past the zoo to Shawn’s car. All the while we were talking a great deal about Dogtown, or at least I was going on and on and on, I’m sure much more than he had bargained for or wished for.
However, we (at least I) were still going on, so I invited him over to La Dolce Via for a cup of coffee and a scone, and, having walked a lovely 4.65 miles, we drove on over to the coffee house, sat outside on this magnificent day. Finally, in kindness, Shawn did drive me home.
The whole walk and visit was just over 2 hours, so while we seemed to stroll and even pause now and again in some conversation or other, or while he snapped a photo or two, we did walk a decent clip.
The day was simply ideal. Warm but not hot, light breeze that cooled without chilling, sunny without burning or being oppressive. However, I didn’t wear one of my Irish caps, just forgot, and I do note now, a couple hours later, a wee bit of warmth on my forehead. I think I got a good deal of sun.
As you know from these journals, I almost always walk and/or ride alone. And I like that. It’s a great time to think and plan and just go into myself. But, today it was a delight to have an informed and interesting companion and made today’s exercise rather special.
Today’s exercise was special for me in another regard. I started this year out very well. As you know, in order for me to “count” a day as “having done exercise” I must either walk a minimum of four miles, or ride 20 miles, or some combination of the two. I have a year’s target to always take exercise 2 out of every 3 days minimum. I had started out the year so well (thanks to the relatively mild winter). But, from March 18th on there was disaster. It got much colder, our coldest weather of the winter, and March Madness was on with the 8 or so games a day in the early stages, and I went 8 straight days without doing exercise, perhaps a record in the past 4-5 years. I was horrified. Note that at my par of 2 out of 3, that meant I lost the equivalent of 16 days of exercise. Finally March Madness ended, spring came and I have now done exercise for 9 consecutive days.
Today I crossed back into better than par. As of today I have done exercise 69 days and missed exercise 34 times, so I am ONE day ahead on my 2 out of 3 par. Wheeee. And, given the weather forecasts for the next several days, I should emerge in the next week being ahead 8 or 10 days before I miss again. It is my great hope that I will now lengthen that distance between exercise and non-exercise days to give me a large cushion for the cold weather of next winter.
It was a lovely day, and now I plan to continue it here in Dogtown, by heading out to my front porch with a light lunch, a nice bottle of red wine, and sit, listening to National Public Radio and enjoying the lovely afternoon while keeping a careful watch over Tamm Ave.
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