Bad Knees Travel,

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. Face in on Hil

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 parking lot 2

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 65.