playing the sympathy card

social

Got it figured after hearing the same spiel from the hotel van driver. The conversation starts like so:

    Driver: Where you from?
    Guest: The state of ______ .

Armed with this knowledge driver starts into team sports dialog, namely school basketball teams. This is genuine conversation starter but it leads to the colleges that his children are attending and how he struggles to pay tuition expenses, works 3 jobs… the violin starts. Can’t help pony up a better tip after such a performance. Clever. Wonder if he has kids for reals.

South Carlsbad State Beach

jogging

Beach Access at Lifeguard Station 29 is by steep bluff trail eroded by local surfers. The sandy portion between cliff and surf can be narrow at high tide and it is strewn with smooth water worn pebbles. There are few beach goers mostly from a camping park above. For a change of scene I made the return run topside via bike lane on the Blvd.
[ gmap pedometer ]

Lost and found

computers

Left the NJ Turnpike an exit too soon and was deposited in a ghetto of Elizabeth Port with no easy way out. Mean streets. Felt a bit like Chevy Chase in his Vacation movie about to ask for directions as he tries to get on with gangsters in Harlem. Lucky the Maps Google app on my smartphone was my rescue.

Philadelphia FlarePath

jogging

My initial read was peripheral airport support, taxi stands, arterial freeways, and remote parking but I stepped from my hotel island on an airport perimeter trek and found recreation anyhow. Fort Mifflin and Hog Island Roads border active runways and reed shrouded water front. Traffic is light and wide soft shoulders offer relief. I ducked through these rushes for a view of tanker ships, and on the distant shore of the Delaware River, BP Oil and the Mobil Refinery in New Jersey.

San Luis Potosi

jogging, places

San Luis Potosi`in Mexico is off the beaten path; not the usual tourist stop over. Most of the visitors are managers and executives from GM, Toyota inspecting their component parts manufacturing. Ventured out of the Westin hotel “compound” and into upscale residential just a jog away.

A 2 mile neighborhood loop to see how the other half lives.

Green Bay

jogging

The Fox River Trail is a fine greenway system. Alarming though that they collect a usage fee ?! for bikes or blades. Could start a trend… Find the trailhead at Adams and Porlier Streets and cruise asphalt surface or softer shoulder. [ g-maps pedometer ]

Cache La Poudre

jogging

The River Trail — Poudre River Ranch section: features the Greeley Canal #3, a large hay meadow, cottonwood groves and a stretch along the sandstone ledge between the top of the river bluff and the river itself. Miles of concrete path shared by friendly local folks on bikes and the occasional stray cow. [ g-map pedometer ]

GTD

social

DMV line behind a young woman sporting a black tattoo the size of a fist on the nape of her neck. A civil servant has come round to generally be helpful making sure that everyone has selected the proper line to stand in. A man has no cash/check only but a Mastercard and gets sent packing. Tattoo is here for an ID. The officer asks leading , “How’d you get here?” and gets an “I drove” response; which began a painful seesaw: If you don’t have a license how’d you drive… and “I have a license!” then “Whatcha need an ID for then…” She couldn’t make up something give a good answer and although he kept drilling he wouldn’t or couldn’t get her to hang herself. I’m not sure of the objective. Harass? Inform? Make an arrest?

Glacier Park Intl

jogging

10 minutes into this run and buildings and road noise are distant. Not that Kalispell is a metropolis; a western outfitters store is browseable and the antique shop too. A grain elevator raises tall just past that. Locate the Great Northern Railway of NW Montana – Rails to Trails Historical Route which cruises open pasture land views. Montana is fine summer country. [ g-map pedometer ] A separate run through Lawrence Park briefly stays with and then crosses the inviting Stillwater River as it parallels Kalispell’s Whitefish Stage Rd. suburbia on paved greenway. Local knowledge informs that Californians have discovered its reasonable value. [ g-map pedometer ]