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Here's a big happy 30th birthday wish to Jacob, who with his sweetheart Hilary just completed hosting an amazing family reunion, themed La Vie En Rose.  We've been celebrating France in general and the arts and cuisine of Paris in particular for the past year leading up to our three days together in person.  Well, Jacob and Hilary, I'm not quite ready to let go, so I got my goofy hat on one more time and dedicated this morning's walk to A Tour Of La Verkin Wards ... a play on words to Le Tour De France, the amazing 2000 mile bicycle race that kicks off July 5 ... in Leeds, West Yorkshire!  Yes, the same tour I love to watch in part because of the amazing scenery, is giving us the gift of three days in England before continuing throughout France.  The third of these days could be titled Le Tour De North Zone, starting in Cambridge (my final missionary area, and the fine university town for which William and Kate have been named Duke and Duchess) and winding through the north part of my mission, through the stunning Epping Forest, and into central London.  I'm getting misty just thinking about it ...

OK, enough of that before the Boredom Committee permanently shuts down the tortoise's meandering prose.  Today's walk began at 5:46 am in the hopes of hitting the cool of the morning (77 degrees, so you know it's going to be a scorcher this afternoon ...) and started in 1st Ward, then passed through 2nd, 6th, 4th, 7th, 3rd, and 5th before returning to 1st.  A fun 5.04 mile walk (hmmm, sounds kind of like the New Orleans telephone area code) with 251 feet climbed in 1:31:21 hours.  Tortoise rating:  4.2 for the 1.23 mile uphill portion; calories burned:  787.

If I haven't scared you off yet, I have more pictures and a map waiting for you when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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I got to walk with Josh this afternoon, he took this picture of me by these pretty purple flowers across the parking lot from La Verkin's Wanlass Park.  Our walk was 2.20 miles with 59 feet climbed in 44:20 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  348.  For a map and more, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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The picture above is at the 500.00 mile mark so far in 2014, reached earlier today.  So why a second post in one day (labeled with the "3/4" add-on to hopefully put a smile on Becca's face)?  Because of my self-imposed two mile daily minimum.  So ... later in the evening when I was running errands, I took a short break to get that completed.  The second walk was 1.33 miles with 105 feet climbed in 27:07 minutes, up and back on the hill near my Hurricane office.  Tortoise rating:  4.6; calories burned:  210.  This in turn made the total miles today 2.12 in 46:29 minutes.  For a map and updated yearly stats, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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Look at this fabulous family I have that all walked around the block with me to finish the first 500 miles of my 2014 quest to 1,001!  Pretty nice birthday eve present if you ask me!  We walked 0.79 miles with 19 feet climbed in 19:22 minutes. Tortoise rating:  5.6; calories burned:  137.  Lots more pictures with the map, so join in the celebration and click below to continue reading (boredom committee, I dare you ...)

Cheerio!

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The tortoise tried unsuccessfully to get a boredom committee representative to accompany him on this morning's walk, partly on the grounds that the temperature would already be too warm even early in the morning.  I waited until 9 am to walk in this attempt, and now present the Shady La Verkin walk to show the delights of summer morning walks here.  It was 78 degrees and just the right amount of breeze when I started walking, and there is a surprising amount of tree shade available almost immediately after starting a walk, as illustrated in the picture above.

The walk continued for 4.21 miles with 325 feet climbed in 1:30:00 hours.  Tortoise rating:  3.3 (based on all the climbing occurring in 1.08 miles of the walk) ; calories burned:  682.   For a map, a plentiful array of additional pictures, not to mention the ever boring year to date statistics, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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Today's walk ended with a view of the official pace car used by the Boredom Committee to hand down warnings and sanctions against this blog when it provides insufficient boredom to the masses.  This followed a 3.20 mile walk with 65 feet climbed in 1:01:59 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.7; calories burned:  501.  Clicking on the link below will reward you with a map, another picture, and more stats for anyone feeling stat deprived at this point ...

Cheerio!

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The lights of Hurricane ... worked until 10:15, then hit State Street for a 4.26 mile walk with a 91 foot climb in 1:07:32 hours.  Tortoise rating:  5.7; calories burned:  719.  For a map, a picture, and the continually boring yearly stats, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!