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Queue up the music, start the party, the 1000 miles (and the extra mile) have been walked "just to be the man who would walk 1000 miles for you"!

Today's adventure came on a beautiful sunny 40 degree afternoon on the Legacy Parkway Trail in Davis County, Utah west of Woods Cross and Bountiful.  It is indeed amazing the things you can see and the people you can meet when you put one foot in front of the other 291 days in a year for an hour and a few minutes average each day.  Thank you, Dr. Carter, for telling me I need to do this, and to my dear family and friends who have been such a support along the way.

Anyone up to come with me from time to time in 2015?

Please click below to continue reading, there are pictures, more details, and today's clean living walking thought by Richard Lindsay waiting for you there ...

Cheerio!

The walk begins.  The setting sun is bright enough that
most of the pictures have been saved for the return leg.

Today's turnaround point, nearing the 2425 South trailhead

The view the other direction at the turnaround point.  The bridge
to the left is for walkers and bicyclists to cross the Parkway

The view at Milepost 3, measured from the southern end of the trail

2.09 miles in.  The first 1000 miles are in the book, now the extra mile remains

Today's walk was 3.10 miles, with 16 feet climbed in 46:36 minutes, giving it an average 5.7 tortoise rating. 521 calories were burned on this walk.  

My walking map provider, www.mapmyfitness.com, has changed formats recently and the maps haven't transferred to this blog as well since.  Instead of embedding the map, let's try this link and see if that works better for you to see where Lou walked today:

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/workout/824081461#

Here are the overall stats so far for 2014 (it only looks like Tortoise is done):

1,001.01 miles walked, which is 100.00% of my 2014 goal.

313:40:52 hours walked, which is 100.22% of my 2014 goal (which was to walk 1 hour a day each day for 313 days)

48,579 total feet climbed 

158,640 calories burned
97.76% of the year has passed

Today is the first day of Tortoise's new string of consecutive walking days since missing Saturday and Monday. Overall he has walked on 291 of the 306 non-Sundays thus far in 2014, a 95.10% consistency rating.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of distance and time walked than of the year. This tells Tortoise that he is on track. Yes, this is more numbers than you are likely interested in, all Tortoise can say is he's really good at setting high goals and having them slip away because he doesn't do them every, every day.  (If you doubt this, compare Tortoise's 2013 walking record with 2014)

And now for today's walking thought, initially presented in April 1994 ...

"I grew up in rural Salt Lake County when it was an economic necessity to care for a variety of barnyard animals. My favorite animals were sheep—prompted perhaps by the fact that sheep do not require being milked twice a day, seven days a week.

"I wanted our own sons to have the blessing of being shepherds to such farm animals. Our older sons were each provided with a ewe to teach them the responsibility of caring for these sheep and the lambs that would hopefully follow.

"Our second son, newly turned six years of age, called me excitedly at my office one cold March morning on the phone and said, “Daddy, guess what? Esther [Esther was his mother ewe]—Esther has just had two baby lambs. Please come home and help me take care of them.” I instructed Gordon to watch the lambs carefully and make sure they received the mother’s milk and they would be fine. I was interrupted by a second phone call later in the morning with the same little voice on the other end saying, 'Daddy, these lambs aren’t doing very well. They haven’t been able to get milk from the mother, and they are very cold. Please come home.'

"My response likely reflected some of the distress I felt by being distracted from my busy work schedule. I responded, “Gordon, the lambs will be all right. You just watch them, and when Daddy comes home we will make sure they get mother’s milk and everything will be fine.” Again, later in the afternoon I received a third, more urgent call. Now the voice on the other end was pleading. “Daddy, you’ve got to come home now. Those lambs are lying down, and one of them looks very cold.” Despite work pressures, I now felt some real concern and tried to reassure the six-year-old owner of the mother sheep by saying, “Gordon, bring the lambs into the house. Rub them with a gunnysack to make them warm. When Daddy comes home in a little while, we will milk the mother, feed the lambs, and they will be fine.”

"Two hours later I drove into the driveway of our home and was met by a boy with tear-stained eyes, carrying a dead lamb in his arms. His grief was overwhelming. Now I tried to make amends by quickly milking the mother sheep and trying to force the milk from a bottle down the throat of the now weak, surviving lamb. At this point, Gordon walked out of the room and came back with a hopeful look in his eyes. He said, 'Daddy, I’ve prayed that we will be able to save this lamb, and I feel it will be all right.'

"The sad note to this story, brethren, is that within a few minutes the second lamb was dead. Then with a look that I will remember forever, this little six-year-old boy who had lost both of his lambs looked up into his father’s face and with tears running down his cheeks said, 'Daddy, if you had come home when I first called you, we could have saved them both.'

"Dear brethren of the priesthood, those who are entrusted as keepers of the Lord’s precious flock—we must be there with the lambs when we are needed. We must teach with love, principles of faith, and goodness and be righteous examples to the lambs of our Heavenly Father."

To watch, listen to, or read this thought in full, please visit https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/04/feed-my-sheep?lang=eng #ShareGoodness

The tortoise is smiling ... extra big!!!  Thanks for coming along for the read.