16-232

Mile 651 .  It's a beautiful evening!  Let's walk home from work! Up and down the hills of Hurricane's 600 North Street, accompanied by a thought by Neil Andersen and later by some very high quality tunes (at least Tortoise thought they were) ...

Cheerio!

16-228

Mile 635.  Greetings from MacArthur Park at Wilshire and Alvarado in the Westlake district just west of Koreatown in central Los Angeles.  Traffic was agreeable, helping Tortoise arrive for his appointments sufficiently early to enjoy an abbreviated 2 mile and change walk to the park and back before they started.  Walking thought this afternoon was provided by Vincent Haleck ...

Cheerio!

16-132

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!

16-98

Mile 258.  Is this a pretty place for a playground or what?  This was about a mile and a quarter into Tortoise's walk up the 870 West hill, and beyond, this evening.  Walking thought was provided by Henry Eyring ...

Cheerio!

16-8

Mile 17.  Tortoise quiz of the day:  Where is Lou standing to take this picture and what direction is he facing?  Hint:  The Pine Valley Mountains tower 6,500 feet over the hills in the horizon, yet are entirely shrouded by the clouds.

This and other pictures were taken along the way up the hill from Lou's office.  The day's walking thoughts are by David Bednar and Thomas Monson, followed by some moving tunes ...

Cheerio!

16-4

Mile 7.  Tortoise is not quite ready to let go of his favorite relaxing Christmas instrumentals, so he listened to a few, after the day's walking thought by Dieter Uchtdorf, as he took a short spur for just a moment up the East Cinder Knoll trail to get a little more altitude.  This was after walking to the credit union and then up the hill to the phone towers on 600 North and back to the office.  Lou took  a couple pictures too ...

Cheerio!

15-293

Mile 852.  On this fine day, Tortoise went to a continuing education seminar in St. George, and was hosting a youth gathering at his home, at his usual walking time, to watch a live "Face to Face" internet broadcast with The Piano Guys.  What a treat!  So, Lou went on a rare and glorious midweek midafternoon walk when the seminar ended.  He started at the Sullivan Virgin River Soccer Park in Washington and headed southwest on the Virgin River trail until its break at Riverside Drive.  He continued on Riverside Drive to Waterfront Drive, which is the picture you see above, shortly before the Virgin River trail resumes.  Tortoise got pictures of the trailhead, then looped back to Riverside Drive and returned to his starting point.

This was another day that Lou had a hard time choosing the lead picture, so you'll want to continue reading to see those, plus the day's walking thought by Robert Hales, and a couple Piano Guys tunes.  (It was hard to choose those too, but Tortoise thinks his choices will bring a smile to your face) ...

Cheerio!

14-282

Pioneer Hills Trail to T-Bone Trail to Pioneer Park to Red Cliffs Parkway Trail ... brings you this view and more in just 4.18 miles!  (Less if you don't purposely pass the highway underpass to your parked car so that you can walk that "extra mile").    Tortoise completed today's edition (rated 3.7) in 1:18:58 hours and burned 655 calories en route.  For a map, more pictures, a video, some tunes, and the walking message containing THE secret for living a long, happy, and useful life, by all means click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-281

Love this picture taken on the Middleton Powerline Trail about three miles into today's 4.79 mile walk with 452 feet climbed in 1:39:28 hours.  Tortoise rating was 3.3, including a one tortoise allowance for consistently sandy walking conditions.  I'm sure Dr. Carter would be pleased with my heart rate on this one ...

Please click below to continue reading so that you can see the map, watch Tortoise's YouTube video, see additional pictures plus a YouTube Cold Play lego video that totally makes me think of Rachel, and ... check out a little of what Ted Brewerton had to say about Light ...

Cheerio!

14-211

Yeah, the tortoise walked today, we'll get to that in a bit after we talk about Glen Worthington Beecher, my brother, who passed from this life this afternoon at age 59.  We don't know a lot about his passing yet, his body is on its way to Salt Lake now for an autopsy and then we'll know more.  We do know he was in pain the past week or so, and had difficulty breathing.  But he didn't choose to go to a doctor for it, that's partly why the autopsy.

Rather than dwell on what we don't know, Tortoise will focus on what we do.  Glen was a gifted artist, and got great joy from thousands of hours doing mostly portraits with pencil and paper as a young man.  My mother has one he did of President Kimball that has always really seemed to capture his spirit.  He had a special love of comic book and cartoon characters in general and Superman in particular, and could make short work of drawing an amazing likeness of any of them.

Pictured above at age 13 with me at our Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob's house in what was called Granger then and is part of West Valley City now, he already was well on his way with this talent.  (My thanks to Jodi Stevenson for keeping track of this picture and sharing it)

14-210

Greetings, as the tortoise passes the American Legion building in Hurricane on his walk home from work tonight.  3.29 miles with 213 feet climbed in 1:01:03 hours.  Tortoise rating was 4.7 on the 1.48 mile uphill portion of the walk; 515 calories were burned.  For a map and tonight's instrumental gem, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-184

The tortoise was reminded today that magical mystery tours, whether walking or otherwise, can take you to multiple dead ends.  Sometimes those dead ends reveal some of the best views such as the one pictured above near the end of today's 4.28 mile walk with 256 feet climbed in 1:21:59 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.7 on the 1.83 mile uphill portion of the walk.  Calories burned:  671.

For a map, more pictures, and ... the rest of the story, as gentleman Paul Harvey would say, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-170

I walked to Valley Academy for my final board meeting this evening ... the long way so that after the meeting I could quickly walk back to the office, pack and go home, and have my walk done for the day.   3.47 miles with 162 feet climbed in 1:03:43 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.2; calories burned:  540.  For a map, another picture, and more quite boring stats, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-169

Willyne is at camp giving the church Young Women the time of their lives, Sarah is at the house with her 3 and could use my car today ... so I walked to work by way of Tortoise Track to add a little to the uphill portion.  Then later I walked to and from lunch. Total of both was 4.91 miles with 298 feet climbed in 1:32:17 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.9; calories burned:  765.  For maps and much, much more, please click below ...

Cheerio!

14-88

Got up early before my first appointment and walked some more of the Santa Ana River trail.  I got within two miles of the beach.  The closer I got the better the smells got.  Salty sea air.  Fragrant bushes growing in the river bottom when I got past the paved section.  In places they have full trees growing in the riverbed, and this is southern California!  Then a little before mile 2 as measured from the beach starting point, the trails on both sides of the river are combined by sending everyone on the east side over the classic bridge pictured above.

I'm clearly not the only one who was enjoying this ... I quickly lost count of all the cyclists and even pelatons that passed me both directions. It was sunny, around 60 degrees, and a fine morning.  In the true meaning of the word fine, not the misused version when someone doesn't want to tell you how they feel.

Walked 5.44 miles, with 46 feet climbed going below streets and back up afterwards, in 1:27:39 hours.  I continued my normal practice of not stopping the clock when taking the pictures, so the tortoise got a good workout today.  Feels good! Tortoise rating was 6.8; calories burned:  903.

There's a map, lots of pictures, the promise of Eli coming (a fine tune, there I used the word again), and more waiting for you when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

14-16

Took the long way home from work tonight, gave me this nice view of my home and my neighbors ...

3.85 miles with 183 feet climbed in 1:06:33 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.2.  Calories burned:  597.

For a dedication to my sweetie of nearly 36 years, plus a few other tidbits, please click below to keep reading ...

Cheerio!

14-1

Two fun walks to start the new year!

One with 4 generations to begin the celebration of Willyne's birthday

and one for the tortoise to get his exercise.  Please click below for more pictures, maps, and some tunes to introduce the tortoise's walking plans for the new year.

13-324

Still pushing to get done with my work project, so around 8 pm I set out on the same walk I did last night, in similar conditions, cloudy, still, and 51 degrees.   Supposed to start raining about now, but not quite yet.  We can use it, as always in dry, dusty, but not desolate (that's for you, Bradley and all the Turnpike game crew) southern Utah.

Maybe it was the tunes I found, maybe I'm just in a pushing mood, but I did a personal record on this hill for the second day in a row, this time at 9:16 as compared to yesterday's previous record of 10:02.  (The hill portion of this walk is 0.54 miles with 108 feet climbed.  Tortoise rating:  4.6)  OK, there are people who could run this in under 2 minutes, but I'm the smiling walking tortoise, and this is good stuff.for me :-).  The overall walk was 1.35, done in 21:51 minutes.

Please click below for a map, tunes (the original 1968 Classical Gas instrumental masterpiece), and calories consumed/burned details ...

Cheerio!

13-291

Love the full harvest moon rising over Zion National Park in the distance

Stopped at the mall on the way home from taking Willyne to the shuttle ... did my walk there.  1.51 miles with 115 feet climbed in 30:38 minutes on a clear, calm 67 degree evening.  Tortoise rating on the uphill return portion of the loop:  4.8 (HumanaFit gave it their category 5).

For a map, info on calories consumed and burned, and some walking tunes in an attempt to keep me company after I said goodbye to my soulmate for a few days, click below to keep reading ...

Cheerio!

13-257

Worked this morning, went to a high council dinner party with Willyne tonight up on Kolob.  It was beautiful, food was good, fun to get better acquainted with all these new people we're working with.  Today's short walk:  0.5 miles walked with 20 feet of stairs climbed in 12 minutes.  (Total miles walked since 6/28:  117.43) Weigh-in:  235.3.  Please click here for info on calories consumed and burned today ... and some more energizing tunes :-)

Cheerio!