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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| Tortoise parked a couple doors up the street from the home his parents built and he lived in from age 5 through 19. The redwood look has been changed for grey paint, and the hedges have grown much thicker. |
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| But here it is all the same. By the way, the city wanted to number this house 705, but Lou's dad talked the city into 707. He liked the number better, plus it was the latest Boeing jet number of the day. Captain Gary Lynn is well familiar with the Boeing planes, having moved up from 737s to 767s, then 777s, and now is flying the 787 Dreamliner! |
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| OK, let's start walking down the street. It is only 2 3/4 miles to church! |
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| The maturing trees have taken their toll on the sidewalks in the last 50 years |
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| First mile done. Made it to the Sunset Blvd. crossing. |
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| The sign is new. The inn has been repainted but otherwise its look is the same. |
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| Becca will appreciate this. The next two shots are where two tiny dogs lived, each of whom bit one of Tortoise's 13 year old legs. The big dogs have a scarier bark, but watch out for the bite of the little ones! |
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| Now approaching San Vicente Blvd. Some years the L. A. Marathon is run down the well landscaped median in the middle of this boulevard. |
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| Lou wanted a shot of the median, wound up with something that may make Jacob smile. |
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| Now let's turn right to continue on Bundy Drive. |
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| The Presbyterian Church that Brad Bobbs used to attend. He also came to Scouts at Tortoise's church with him for awhile. |
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| Brentwood Elementary School, with its large playground. This is where Lou waited for his parents to pick him up when he and everyone else was evacuated from school when the Bel Air-Brentwood fire got quite close. Nearly 500 homes were lost that week in November 1961, but thankfully no one died. |
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| The sidewalks don't look like they have been repaired much over the years. |
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| These inscriptions are quite common -- clearly the sidewalks have been here a good while! |
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| Approaching Wilshire Blvd. Here are where the most changes have occurred. |
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| The Ralphs Grocery Store Lou's mother patronized is still going. |
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| As is the Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist. |
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| But the skyscrapers on either side of this street were gas stations back in the day. |
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| Some upscale restaurants now occupy the spaces adjacent to Ralphs. |
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| The church now appears down the street. As a friend said recently, everything around it has changed |
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| But this 75 year old building is the one constant in the neighborhood! |
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| The metal plaques for the two wards that once occupied this building are still here. Brentwood and Santa Monica 3rd Wards. They have long since been combined and are now known as Santa Monica 2nd Ward. |
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| Views various directions from the church. |
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| East side of the street is in Los Angeles. West side, including the church building, is in Santa Monica. |
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| Which is loaded with signs! Reminds Lou of the classic Five Man Electrical Band song ... |
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| Tortoise's high school friend Chris Makinster will remember this fine building. And Becca will remember Chris, who now lives in ... Hurricane! (West Virginia) |
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| Now back to crossing Bundy Drive, on our way from church to school. Today there is a signal light. Very helpful for walkers! |
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| University High. Referred to by the locals as simply "Uni". |
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| Inside has gotten new water pipes and thankfully, a paint job, but otherwise looks as it did. |
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| Particularly the Adult Education sign. |
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| Uni |
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| For those of you who have listened to Tortoise tell his crazy story of the faceoff between winless Uni and Venice at the end of a particularly futile football season, you will see that the football stadium only has seats on one side. The field goal in question was kicked to the left. Uni students sat on the left side of the stands, visitors on the right. Both saw what they wanted to see. But the sad truth was, the game ending field goal was wide and Uni lost 5-3. (Yes, a safety was involved.) |
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| Popular place for students, and seagulls, to eat lunch. |
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| Looking down the hall at the classroom where Lou sat along to take his final exam just before the start of the 1969-70 school year for his self-taught Algebra 4 course. |
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| That plaque you may have heard Tortoise talk about where the outstanding two students in each subject in each class were honored. Gone. Nobody at the school today even remembers such a thing ever existed. Someone years ago decided it was more important to offer proof from the 1942 yearbook that Marilyn Monroe went to Uni. |
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| Now off-campus, Lou can take off his visitor badge. He felt weird wearing it at his own school, but c'est la vie! (Note that he did keep his promise to the vice principal - no pictures were taken of students.) |
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| Through the parking lot is the metallic colored Barrington Plaza, the original high rise apartment buildings on the Westside. Students used to like riding the fast elevators to the top, but didn't like to get caught doing it. |
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| Parking can be pricey these days. |
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| You might find that blue line in the sidewalk ahead interesting ... |
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| When you get close. The Westside has always been quite liberal, so support for Mr. Sanders is to be expected here. But permanently painted on the sidewalk? Wow! It appeared at more than one sidewalk corner along the way. |
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| Headed back to Tortoise's former home, this time on Westgate Ave., he has now returned to San Vicente Blvd. |
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| which he will walk along back to Bundy Drive. |
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| Back in the day, this was the Safeway store where the B & B partners bought treats for a dollar to celebrate reaching four figures in cash on hand. (Their figures included cents, so four of them was $10.00. They were thrilled!) |
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| Comerica Bank was Brentwood Savings way back when. It had an electronic sign to give the interest rate on savings accounts, which generally were in the 4 to 5 percent range. Sounds pretty good by today's standards! |
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| Vicente Foods was closer than Ralphs, but more pricey. |
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| The gas prices reflect this too. Elsewhere in the Southland gas prices under $3 could still be found on May 11. Here it's $3.899 for 87 regular. |
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| In between San Vicente and Sunset, Kenter Ave. begins and Bundy Dr. continues to the right. |
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| The plants have all grown, providing welcome shade. |
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| Swim suit designer Rose Marie Reid used to live in a beautiful home here. She was a regular at the church Tortoise walked to daily in high school. When she moved, the house was torn down and replaced by an entire cul-de-sac of nice homes. The street still is named for her. |
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| Back to Sunset Blvd. |
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| The last mile of the day with a steady uphill slope in the warmth of the afternoon always presented the greatest challenge. :-) |
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| Crestwood Hills park is a few blocks farther up Hanley Ave. from Lou's former home. He spent much time there and at elementary school a block further up Kenter from this sign. |
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| Made it to the final hill. It gains more elevation in the last quarter mile than the rest of this walk combined. |
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| In his crazy youthful days, Tortoise decided he wanted to be able to run up this hill. He started by running as far as the first mail box, where he was already hopelessly out of breath. Gradually he added a few more feet and then a few more until he was able to run the whole hill. Wow. |
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| And the walk is complete. |
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| Now for a few bonus pictures. The home of the fellow Lou used to call simply "The Man Across The Street". |
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| More and more homes are being torn down to make room for much larger homes to take advantage of the opportunity for panoramic views of the city. |
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| 704 Rochedale was Brad Bobbs' home where Lou gained his love for Magical Mystery tours, the Yellow Submarine, and all things Sgt. Pepper. |
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| Many adventures also took place at 900 Kenter, home of Gary Lynn. Looks like this is another tear down and build larger. |
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| Two doors down from Gary, was Chuck Dubin's home. It has also been rebuilt. |
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| And here is the map of the day. |
Here are the overall stats so far for 2016:
361.06 miles walked, compared with Lou's goal for this date of 359.87 miles.
26,113 total feet climbed so far in 2016, compared to a year-to-date goal of 22,148. Lou hopes to climb more than the 61,316 feet he climbed in 2015 -- but in less time each day than his 1:07:04 hour average in 2015. So far in 2016 Tortoise's walks have averaged 53:23 minutes each.
His average pace so far in 2016 has been 16:43 minutes per mile, compared with his 18:25 minute per mile pace in 2015.
Lou has walked 314 consecutive non-Sundays since his 8 missed days May 2-11, 2015. Overall he has walked on 417 of the 426 non-Sundays in 2015-16, a 97.89% consistency rating.
One step at a time can lead to great things!
And now for today's walking thought ...
"Just a few months before the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, he met with the Twelve Apostles to talk about the greatest needs the Church was facing in that very difficult time. He told them, 'We need the temple more than anything else.' Surely, today in these trying times, each of us and our families need the temple more than anything else."
The Tortoise is smiling!
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