Reining in the Roaming

 

Our travel since February has been limited to a ten-mile radius from our downtown Austin condo. But for the Pandemic, we would have been in New York City, Amsterdam, Paris, the Pacific Northwest and, at least in Dallas-Ft. Worth!

We used to take frequent walks, setting out on the streets and trails within a three-mile radius of the apartment. That provided lots of variety. (Not to mention a lot of fun stops for snacks and shopping. Oh, what a pent-up demand there is in my mind for indoor meals and shopping!) Since we have gone into relative isolation, however, walking from here is both a little more fraught (too many people around especially construction workers) and confining (we can't walk three miles away and return without, ahem, a comfort stop). Early on we had a little car trouble with one of our cars so sometimes we just stayed inside and walked around the apartment. (Which has the advantage of hydration, bathroom and snack stops made easy.)

For a while now we have taken out our 'good' car (fourteen years old but it works and the AC works which was important through the summer) and driven to another neighborhood (within a ten-mile radius and often less). We park somewhere and take a walk. In circles if necessary. I have in my mind that we will eventually have walked all the walkable street miles inside that radius. (One of my many thought-of but not executed projects is to take a map and mark up our progress. And, yes, I know I'll never make it before the pandemic or I end at less than three miles a pop.)

Anyway...while we walk I take pictures with my iPhone 6 (yes, still using it). I then post the walk on Facebook without really identifying the neighborhood. My friends (over 1000) and my husband's (over 4000) and friends of friends may see them. Discussions ensue. Guesses as to the neighborhood. Sometimes people see their own house or one they used to live in! (Sometimes we do this on purpose.) Yesterday we walked in an old, diverse neighborhood that is, nevertheless feeling the Austin real estate boom with infill. There are still lots of fenced front yards fiercely protected by dogs, a bit of trash and hoarding, and some inoperable vehicles (we parked behind a van with no license plate).

There were also soaring infills where the property was more likely to be protected by security cams.

In the ensuing days of Holidailies I may just pick a picture from our daily walk for this blog. In you are a Facebooker, you can find me here as well as in this blog. In real life I'll be within ten miles of downtown Austin!