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Mile 420.  Another quality walk with Becca, pretty much the same path as last night, except this time we circled around the church instead of simply turning around.  Thank you, Becca!  

The day's touching walking thought was by Craig Christensen ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 417.  The journey home was completed yesterday.  Family came to welcome the Ragozzines home and to enjoy Memorial Day together.  In the relative cool of the evening, Becca joined Tortoise on a walk to the church at the corner of Main and State Road 9 and back.  That is always a treat!  The day's walking thought was by Ann Dibb ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 415.  Day 3 of the trek west took the happy crew through walking stops in Amarillo, Texas, a rest stop about halfway between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and the Coronado Center mall in Albuquerque on their way to Gallup, New Mexico.  For all you Route 66 aficionados out there, yes, that means The Mother Road was followed all afternoon!  The day's walking thought was by Quentin Cook ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 413.  On day two of the trek west with the Ragozzines there were rest stops with walks in Pearl, Mississippi and Canton, Texas in addition to other rest stops in Grambling, Louisiana and Arlington, Texas.  Pictured above is the Krystal in Pearl.  The power of suggestion is strong, as the caravan passed multiple Krystals as it entered Jackson.  Good thing, as no more were viewed the rest of the way west.  Tortoise walked with the children around this parking lot, and later around a Texas sized truck stop in Canton.  Then it was on to dinner at Rudy's barbeque in Arlington, through major road construction in Ft. Worth, before ending for the day in Wichita Falls.  Enough mosquitoes were on the loose that evening that swimming in the hotel pool was cancelled and Tortoise's final walk consisted of laps down the second floor corridor, down the stairs, along the first floor hallway, up the stairs, repeated eleven times.  Yes, Tortoise did enjoy the walk, and smiled!  The day's thought was by Dieter Uchtdorf ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 410.  Tortoise is on the road west now.  His sweet lady is driving the Ragozzine van, and he is driving Darin's commuter car, affectionately dubbed The Tin Can, because of how Lou's behind feels after just a couple hours driving between rest breaks.  Perhaps Tortoise is showing his age, just a little, ha!  Most of today's walk was on the hotel treadmill in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, but there were also short rest break walks in Jacksonville and in Crestview, Florida.  The day's walking thought was by Elaine Dalton ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 408.  A coast to coast walk on this narrow body of land that Satellite Beach sits on.  With the advent of the Intracoastal Waterway, Lou supposes it is now technically an island.  What Tortoise did today was go to the beach one more time with the Ragozzines, then walk back to their house by his usual "let's find a magical mystery tour" route finding method.  Walking thought was by Mary Cook ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 405.  Walked with the Ragozzine grandchildren to the beach as the prepare to say goodbye to Satellite Beach.  How fun has it been for them to be in walking distance to the ocean!  Sure was fun for Grandpa to share this afternoon with them there!  The thought of the day was by Ann Dibb ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 403.  Making memories with Ledge!  Today's Tortoise walk was along the beach near St. Augustine..  Lou believes it was his first recorded walk utilizing flip-flops!  There's lots of pictures here of two days of memories, including the walk.  Plus the thought, by Thomas Monson ...

Cheerio!

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Chapter 2

Mile 401.  After his aforementioned break at the Maverik at 3400 West State in Hurricane, it was a new day for Tortoise.  What better thing for him to do than to carry on ... so that is what he did.  His objective was to get to St. George Shuttle for its 4 am departure to Las Vegas.  He was equipped with two packs, one a day pack, the other a sling over the shoulder

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Chapter 1

Mile 391.  Tortoise's walk this evening took him from his home to this fine establishment pictured above, where he took off the 2 small packs he was carrying, and  happily enjoyed a bottle of cold water and a Clif bar after a longer than normal walk.  This is a one time trek, because even though he was on his way to see his sweet lady, she was less than pleased with the time of day involved.  Very sorry, dear.  It made sense to Lou, but he won't do it again.  For the rest of the story, please check back tomorrow for Chapter 2.

(Is this the shortest chapter you've seen, or what?)  

There's a thought to go with this walk, by Bruce Porter ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 385.  You're looking at part of the million dollar view that comes at no extra charge with sandwiches at the Subway in Hildale, Utah.  The mountains are very nice here for sure!  As for the sign, well that should be taken seriously too.  The stream that crosses the road is dry most of the time, but when it has water ... it has powerful water!

Tortoise was in the neighborhood this afternoon for the inaugural meeting of the UT-AZ writers group, and since he dreams of being a writer, he accepted their kind invitation ... and quite enjoyed himself.  Afterwards, of course, it was time to walk!  The day's high quality thought is by Erich Kopischke ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 382.  How's that for a fun view to start a walk with?  From here, Tortoise went up the hill and looped past the top before returning.  Walking thought was by Enrique Falabella ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 378.  Tortoise tried a different way to quickly climb a hill in La Verkin ... drop down to the river in Confluence Park from State Street, then turn around and go back up.  From there, continue walking wherever you like, in this case through Pheasant Glen and then across town on Center Street including its hill before looping back to complete the walk.  The day's walking thought was by Christoffel Golden, Jr. 

Cheerio!

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Mile 374.  A quick late night walk up La Verkin's Main Street and back.  Walking thought was by Dallin Oaks ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 372.  Home.  Tortoise went to Marilyn Hardy's funeral in the morning, worked in the afternoon, and did a short walk as evening was setting in.  Yesterday's walking thought was the last of the April 2016 LDS General Conference, so Lou returned to where he was in the April 2013 Conference ... giving you two Jeffrey Holland thoughts in a row ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 370.  Tortoise wishes Wounded Duck a very happy birthday!  To celebrate this, he ventured on to a new trail to him, the Arizona Trail, on the third and final day of his business trip today.  This was a long day, starting in Palm Desert, including a meeting in Peoria, AZ (near Phoenix), and then home by way of Flagstaff.  Pictured above are two of the landmarks of that city, the San Francisco peaks in the distance and Route 66 at the signal lights below the peaks.  The Arizona Trail goes from Stateline Campground on the Utah-Arizona border east of Kanab, to near Jacob Lake, down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and up the South Rim, becomes an urban trail through Flagstaff, and continues several hundred more miles to Mexico.  It's perhaps a third of the length of the Pacific Crest Trail that hosted yesterday's walk.  Both are National Scenic Trails.

Today's walk started at the McDonalds just south of Route 66 and followed the Arizona Trail north from there two miles to the junction with the local Cedar Trail before returning.  The cool crisp mountain air was a welcome change from the desert heat yesterday!  The day's walking thought is by Jeffrey Holland, appropriate for Wounded Duck's birthday ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 366.  The second day of Tortoise's business trip took him gradually east to Palm Desert.  His last stop of the day was to drive to the gate on the Snow Canyon Road that the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) shares for a little more than a mile.  This point is PCT mile 206.8.  Lou parked here and walked uphill into the San Jacinto wilderness.  The mountain itself towers 9,000 feet above the trail in this picture, something Fredricksen and Ledge will well remember.  Today's walk climbed 1,006 feet of elevation, the most for a Tortoise walk so far in 2016, but only a tiny portion of the mountain.  At PCT mile 204.3, light was fading quickly and it was time to turn around for today.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and the day's walking thought by Paul Johnson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 361.  Tortoise wanted to do something special for this walk, for a couple reasons.  Today completes a full year of walking six days a week, Monday to Saturday, without taking one of those days off.  Also, he is finally getting near to catching up with his walking goal at this point of the year.  Yesterday's walk put Lou within 2.14 miles, and he thought the year mark would be a good day to pass the goal too.

It was the first day of a three day business trip.  This one started on Los Angeles's Westside, a place of many memories for Tortoise of days long passed in life's rear view mirror.  Before embarking on a career at a desk, Lou used to do a lot of walking.  More even than he has resumed doing in these past five years of walking and blogging.  He wanted to go to seminary, held before school at his church, sufficiently to enroll in a high school near the church pictured above.  This meant providing his own transportation ... on foot.  Tortoise actually had a college degree before a driver's license, but then, that is a story for another day.

This day's story is recreating that daily walk that occurred from February 1968 through June 1970.  Lou hopes you enjoy it.  The walking thought is by Kent Richards ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 354.  Another walk up the hill after work.  This time the loop went down 200 West three blocks and east to Main before heading back up to 600 North for the return trip.  The walking thought was by Dallin Oaks, the picture from the beginning of the walk shown above is for Benjamin ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 350.  Tortoise started his week by climbing the hill up from his work on a nice spring evening.  He continued past Stout Park, then looped his way back.  The day's walking thought was by Patrick Kearon ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 347.  Lou went to lunch with his mom to celebrate Mother's Day a day early, then took her on a drive to show her some of the places Tortoise walks, just because she wants to know what her son is doing.  Very nice.  Following this, Lou did a walk of the La Verkin Scenic Circle trail, this time starting at the La Verkin Creek trailhead in Confluence Park, heading from there to the La Verkin Overlook, then down the old road that used to go to Zion and through Wanlass Park and some La Verkin streets to return to his starting point.  There are lots of pictures here, so enjoy, mom!  Walking thought today is by Gerrit Gong ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 339.  Tortoise walked back to work this morning on his usual path up the 600 North hill.  Walking thought was by Robert Hales ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 336.  Let's have some fun today!  Tortoise walked a mile after work to the family history center for some training.  When that was done, he walked on home, and then at the end worked in the Center Street hill in La Verkin. Walking thought was by Dieter Uchtdorf, sharing his hopeful story of rising from the ashes of Dresden ...

"In a very short time, the city once nicknamed the 'Jewel Box' was no more.  Erich Kästner, a German author, wrote of 
the destruction, 'In a thousand  years was her beauty built, in one night was it utterly destroyed.'"
  This picture has always haunted me, so I love this story of rebuilding!

Cheerio!

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Mile 332.  It is Tortoise's 38th wedding anniversary, the night his sweet lady was planning to return from helping our daughter and her family at the birth of their daughter Leah.  But, they are accepting a new job and will be moving from Florida back to Utah, so ... Willyne is staying a little longer to help them with the move, and you will get some magical mystery walks as Tortoise joins them to help with their drive across the country later this month.

This evening's walk is the classic walk up the hill from the office; the walking thought is by Quentin Cook ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 329.  Another late night walk, this one in LaVerkin starting at about 23:20.  At least it didn't require an extension of the military clock!  Walking thought was by Todd Christofferson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 326.  Today was the fourth big deadline of the season.  We have January 31 for W-2 forms, March 15 for corporate tax returns, the ides of April for individual tax returns, and ... what is May 2, you ask?  It's the deadline for quarterly payroll and sales tax returns when April 30 lands on a Saturday.  And it's every bit as a big a deadline as any of them, if you are Lou ...

So ... what you see above is Tortoise's view as he headed out for a walk at 25:43:26 on his infamous extended military clock when the work of the day was complete.  Yes, it was a minimum walk.  He headed up the hill just past the cell towers on 600 North, and a little more to make sure he would be over two miles for the round trip, then returned.  The walking thought was by Christopher Waddell ...

Cheerio!