Bad Knees Travel

Walking in the UK is more than a way of getting around. The rules about what is private property, and what must be kept with access, and 'The Commons'. They have historic use patterns that go back to before Europeans invaded the ‘New World.’ Words like ‘foot path’ ‘access’ and ‘right of way’ have a slightly different meaning in the UK. No Trespass signs, ubiquitous in the US, are almost non existent there. You are expected to know where you are not allowed, and respect it. You are also responsible for your own safety, unlike where everything is expected to be kept safe. Wikipedia has a good discussion of types of public trails. One of the groups working to keep access to paths is the Open Spaces Society . The UK presents some unique challenges for American walkers, especially for those of us that have challenged mobility. Walking is a major activity in the UK. But what is termed a ‘walking path’ may not be what we expect. Distance: Do not over extend yourself, espe...

 After months of lockdown and the paralyzing depression that surrounds it, I am back at creating new travel opportunities for those of us with mobility issues. This quarter mile walk is a little known treasure on Hwy 199 near Gasquet California. I have stopped here many times over the years on the long haul north. This is from my visit in August 2020. (Note: you will probably want to know that this was a very lightly used trail and every one was masked and used distancing .) Find my small walk at  https://cms.izi.travel/  and search for Gasquet, CA, or go to  https://izi.travel/en/browse/8f82782a-2b92-478f-8f74-d542e1b8d16b Please let me know about your online experience, and if you  have tried the Izi app let me know how it worked for you. This walk is dedicated to Pete.  I was thinking about him as I developed the walk knowing that he loved to armchair travel. I wish he had been able to "walk" it.

The desert is so dry that when it rains, she celebrates. Today I am driving west on Hwy 10. There have been small rains over the last few days. This is the best kind of rain for flowers. The Navajo describe the rains in one of two ways. Male rains, heavy but short lived rains that can dump lots of water and fill the gullies with fast moving, potentially dangerous water. Female rains are the lighter rains that drop smaller amounts of water over longer periods of time. Female rains soak in, nourishing the plants. A green under tone is everywhere, carpeting up in to the mountains. The roadside is lined with yellow bushy flowers.  The road departments are really trying to foster plants that feed the pollinators. Some areas have a pink aura, as several varieties of cacti that have a pink/purple hue mixed with pink fairyduster and  four o'clocks. Intermittent are the orangy flowers that are sticky to the touch. Occasionally there are patches of ground coveri...

I was never especially enamored of deserts until I started going to Tuscon every year to do a show. Seeing the same place over and over. Now I find myself entranced by the subtle beauty here. January, February, March. Those are the months to visit the desert.  I don't think I would enjoy July or August. As I drive through I can see the areas where rain has been a recent visitor. There is a dusting of green as plants open out for a week or so.  The flowers in the desert have to be sought out, but when you find them you they are so amazing. In the desert there are no trees to hide the mountains.  You can see their bones, tell their history in their form. You don't have to be a geologist to read the story.  The sharp edges of newly exposed rocks. Rounded forms tell of water or wind wearing the mountains down. Strata, parallel layers in the rock, speak of time under the sea, building with silt and sand, and compressing to rock. People live differently ...

IZI Travel After several false starts, I have settled on IZI travel  https://izi.travel/en  In my previous post I have discussed some of the good and bad points of this site/app but overall I think it will work. It is free. I have seen no reports of spam, viruses, or other icky stuff associated with this app. And it is not a power hog. One of the downsides is that the instructions are not intuitive, for me at least. So the rest of this post is about how to use IZI and how to install it. Give it a try, you can always uninstall if you don't like it. First step Go to the web site  https://izi.travel/en   As you play around on the site you will find that there is no HOME button.  If you get lost in the maze, click on this link, or copy and paste it into your browser to get back to the starting place. Create a profile. (Here is one of those glitches.  Now that I am signed up, I can't see what it looked like before a profile is created.) Second...

Today's Blog is for those that are helping me do this thing, or those just interested in the process of how to do all of this. If you are just interested in the walks, please skip to the next post. After weeks of tearing my hair out and wrestling electrons I have completed enough of my first tour to share it with you, albeit as a work in progress. West County Train, Forestville . Also my first "Museum" Rural Cemetery. The idea behind this whole blog is that it is for people that are marginal tech users, so I will need to create some detailed instructionals to fill in for those that are not fluent in speaking technobable. This is a learning process for me as well, so please please please let me know if you find stumbling blocks or vast canyons in my directions. I know I promised not to flood you inbox with a bunch of stuff, so I am splitting this post into two separate posts to make it possible to to skip this bit of rambling from the actual instructional on how to...

I was asked recently about why I am doing this blog. And a meme about the three stages of life Maiden/Matron/Crone set me to thinking.   There is a now a stage that many women go thru that rarely existed in the past. Between Motherhood and Crone there is a time where we no longer have the burdens of children, but we are not ready to retreat to the kitchen and bake cookies. When we have physical limits to our once vibrant bodies, but we have gained some wisdom, and we seek adventure past what was once the limits of the horizon. Putting together walking tours is one way that I can encourage those that have walking limits to go out a little past where we thought was the horizon.

I have settled on a temporary home for my first tour:  https://walkli.com/ This may become a permanent home for the simple versions of my tours. The up side of this side is that it is free to both you the user, and  me the author. The down side is that you must have data on to use the site.  There is a way to send the map  to your email and print the map and text out but it is cumbersome and apparently their server does not like all email addresses. So please join me on my first adventure in mapping a walking tour at https://walkli.com/routes/Graton,%20CA,%20USA

Know How to Walk Walking is great. But as we age, or learn to cope with knees that are uncooperative we need to adapt how we do things. Some things that we have always done need to be done differently, or with a bit more awareness and focus on balance. This is especially important when trail walking.  Here are a few things I have learned about how to manage the physical art of walking. Keep Your Hands Free Other than your walking stick and dog leash, keep nothing in your hands. Use a small day pack or messenger bag. Keep your hands out of pockets. You need them for balance. Canes or Walking Poles Having that third point of reference is huge. When properly used walking poles can improve your mobility, it is not about something to lean on. This was a well done video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7pWbhFTbvM Shoes Wear sturdy, appropriate shoes. For me, light hiking boots provide side to side stability that increases my walking ability. ...

I am researching for a good mapping program to share my walks with you. I am looking for a platform that will allow me to develop easy walks for you to download to your phone.  This platform must have these abilities: off line downloads so that you can use a walk without using up your data time.  It must have text capabilities, audio is nice but sometimes one prefers to look. And the app and walk use must be free or very low cost, even a tipping function would be fine.  Is there anything you would like to see in the app I choose? Here is the sketch for the first walk. I am putting it here for the people I am talking with about becoming contributors to their walking web sites. But I would also love to hear from you as to what you would like to see highlighted on the walk My first gentle walking tour is the Sonoma County West Regional Trail Walk: 5 mile, improved trail. Can be split into 2 separate trips. Forestville to Graton 3.3 miles. Graton to Mill Station...

This is a blog about travel for one time hippies, single women with grey hair, and older folk that refuse to stay in the box. I have always wanted to travel, just grab a backpack and bum around Europe. But I could never afford to.  Then with the joys of being a single parent with two kids, well let's just say there were other joys for me. Now I have reached a certain age, I have the means to do some travel, and the freedom to do so, but that backpack thing just doesn't work for me any more. But that does not mean that I am going to stop traveling. No way.  I am just going to invent new ways of doing it. I want to bring the richness of my experience to my travels while finding ways to cope with my limitations. Or even better to use my limitations to find adventures that I might have overlooked. My limitations.  I list these not to whine about what I can't do, but to invite you to stretch your expectations of what you can do with what your parameters dictate. I am 6...