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Mile 531.  Day by day, step by step, Tortoise is regaining a little of his strength.  He is a gradual kind of guy!  Same path as the past couple days -- took a minute and change off the time this morning, which means his heart got worked a little more -- yay!  Today's walking thought goes back to 1973, by Ezra Taft Benson ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 500, for the fifth time since January 2014, on June 25.  As mentioned last week, Tortoise purposely picked up his pace about a mile a day to reach this today when he thought he was going with his grandchildren on the riverwalk at the end of the Zion Canyon road today.  As it turned out, his newest granddaughter, Leah, had a tough night, which meant Leah's mother Sarah had a tough night, which meant Grandpa Tortoise was taking four of his grandchildren with him without Sarah's help.  So, it was decided to take them to Tortoise's version of Grandpa's Pond -- playing in the rocks and shallow water of La Verkin Creek about a quarter mile down from the creek trailhead in Confluence Park.

This time, the children were in an exploration mode.  And the water was extra calm, which helped a lot.  They wound up going down the creek to the Virgin River, which they liked even better that day, making sandcastles in an "island" (a sand bar).  A wonderful time was had by all!  The thought of the day was by Thomas Monson ...

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 1,104.  Tortoise is continuing to catch up on posts from past days when walks happened but writing didn't.  This one is from December 30, 2015, a classic loop walk up the hill from Lou's office, this time by way of Stout Park above the ballfields at the corner of 600 North and 200 West in Hurricane.  The day's walking thought is by Randall Ridd ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 1,000.  Bluejay was the closest to figure out what Tortoise was trying to do in the past few weeks on his goal for this year -- he thought Tortoise was trying to do it before December 1.  Having as much of Lou's family to enjoy it with him was his motivator to try to do it today ... before some return to their homes after Thanksgiving.  Tortoise enjoyed Bluejay's singing (see yesterday's comments) over this happy day.

Lou picked the warmest (44 degrees), calmest part of the day to do his one thousandth mile by going a half mile northeast from the Crosby Family Confluence Park with Floryne, Becca, Josh, Ethan, Kate, Riley, and Maude.  They then turned around and retraced their steps.  Lots of celebratory pictures when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 902.  Tortoise started walking right after the office closed.  At 5:30 he had completed his first mile, and this was the view.  It was warm and pleasant, so that part didn't seem like November.  Lou continued to do a loop up past the north Hurricane ball fields, then continued on 975 North as far as 120 East before filling in the loop back to his office.  For a map, the day's walking thought by Thomas S. Monson, and more tidbits, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 731.  Welcome to Tortoise's 1,000th published walking post!  Lou has gotten some highlight pictures and other tidbits together that he hopes you will enjoy on this lovely occasion, so please click below and join him on the other side ...

Cheerio!

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Mile 701.  Tortoise did a loop up the hill from his office after work for his 98th consecutive non-Sunday walking, a new personal record for Lou.  To see a couple more pictures along with a map, walk details, and the day's walking thought by José Teixeira, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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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!