November 13, 2014
by David Ryan
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If You Can Wander Here, You Can Wander Anywhere

While traveling to Tennessee to visit my wife’s mother, we stopped in Conway, Arkansas for a couple of days to visit my wife’s sister and her family. Because we were traveling with dogs, we stayed in a Motel 6 overlooking a Walmart parking lot. After having breakfast at the Waffle House next to the motel, it was time to walk the dogs. And nothing says, “let’s go for a walk”, like the combination of a Motel 6, Waffle House, and Walmart.

The only thing better than having a Waffle House next door to a Motel 6 is have a Walmart on the other side.

The only thing better than having a Waffle House next door to a Motel 6 is to have a Walmart on the other side.

But as we started, good things began to happen. We immediately spotted a gap in the motel parking lot fence with a path leading towards the Walmart. Gaps in a fence are always an invitation to continue walking. We followed the path and then headed to the backside of the Walmart. There we could see a wooded area in the distance.

Who knows what you'll discover when you venture through a gap in in a fence?

Who knows what you’ll discover when you venture through a gap in in a fence?

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November 3, 2014
by David Ryan
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Wandering Through the Bosque in Autumn

With game seven of the World Series the baseball season came to an end last week. The week also gave us Halloween and the beginning of November. With that we are now at the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice.

It’s not by accident that Halloween, All Saints Day, and the Day of the Dead come at this time of the year. Less developed cultures looked at this transition as a “thin time” where one could pass from this world to the underworld with ease. In Greek mythology Persephone returns to Hades every year when the pomegranates ripen to assume her role as queen of the underworld. And in a sense the transition from the busyness of fall to the dormancy of winter is a symbolic passing to another world.

Conversely the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, too, is also a time of passing. And again, not by accident, it is celebrated by the tradition of Groundhog Day and Candlemas. They are an acknowledgement that winter cannot last forever and that it will soon be time to get busy again. Ironically, the first awakening of the baseball season occurs a little more than week after Groundhog Day when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

The bosque (cottonwood forest) along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, too, is not immune to laws of nature and is in a period of transition. Here is some of what I noticed while wandering through it this past week.

The summer flowers have long turned to seed, but the fall flowers are still hanging on.

A summer flower along the Rio Grande in the autumn.

A summer flower along the Rio Grande in the autumn.

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October 27, 2014
by David Ryan
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The Bisbee 1000

A week ago Saturday I finally made it to the Bisbee 1000. The 1000 is an annual stair climb race held in Bisbee, Arizona on the third Saturday of every October. Background information on the Bisbee 1000 can be found in my book, The Bisbee Stairs.

After its being on my “to do” list for several years, I finally made it to the 1000 but not as a participant, rather to sell copies of the Bisbee stair book. From my vantage point in front of the courthouse, I had clear view of the starting gate, the finish line, and where the course crosses itself. The course is more or less a figure eight across old Bisbee that loops back and crosses in front of the starting gate.

Although the course is only 4.5 miles long, it is much tougher than its distance implies. In addition to several steep uphills and downhills on the road, runners have to run up nine stairways for a total of 1094 steps; thus the name Bisbee 1000. A world class runner would be hard pressed to run the race in less than 30 minutes.

Pictures of many of those nine stairways can be found in previous posts on Bisbee in this blog. All of them plus many more are described in the book.

Here's stairway number 5 on the course. This one has 151 steps. You run up this stairway right after running up the 75 steps of stairway number 4.

Here’s stairway number 5 on the course. This one has 151 steps. You run up this stairway right after running up the 75 steps of stairway number 4.

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