This morning was great North Carolina fall weather. Clear blue skies but with a slight touch of overnight frost still evident at 8.30am.
We try to get a least one decent walk in every day, usually within our neighborhood, but this morning whilst lying in bed, thanking God for another day in which to live life, I suggested to my wife that as we had to go to our bank today we might walk rather than use up that precious resource, gasoline.
Anything for an easy life, she agreed, with some hint of enthusiasm.
Let's get this straight. We are used to walking. Since taking early retirement we walked miles every day in our country of birth, England. After moving to Spain we continued our daily walks, including up (and down) some very steep hills. Since moving to our new home here in North Carolina our walks have mainly been restricted to our quiet neighborhood. We were not ready for the American culture of the automobile, where it seems as a 100 yard trip means getting in the car.
Our 45 minute walk today included a length of narrow (by US standards) two-lane road which lacked sidewalks. We quickly realized that Americans in general are not only not used to walking, but also not used to others walking whilst they are driving. We had several close encounters with vehicles, usually whilst their drivers were busy chatting on their cell phones or drinking coffee and seem totally oblivious to us pedestrians.
On reaching the bank, we had to cross a busy intersection, controlled by traffic signals and even on the crosswalk had another encounter with a vehicle turning right on red, perfectly legal, but the driver did not expect anyone to be using the crosswalk.
We took a somewhat safer, if longer, route home only to discover that I had left my checkbook at the bank or, my worst fear, having dropped it on the way home. Bang went the "save the planet" scheme as we jumped into our car and drove the bank where fortunately our friendly teller had the "missing" checkbook ready for us (she would have mailed it to us on completion of her shift).
The moral of this story - best leave the bright ideas to my better half!
Take care when walking and when driving, watch out for those pedestrians, they do exist.
1 comment:
Squee!!! Welcome to the blogosphere, Mick!
Yes, there were times when I felt like I wanted to take a walk around here, but drivers are not all that friendly. (They appear to be friendlier in Chapel Hill though.) Thoughts of taking out the bicycle, even worse. But then again, seeing how bicyclists ride around here makes me realise why drivers don't have much respect for them.
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