SHERWOOD MERRYWALKERS
happy birthday mike!!!!

In DFW Airport before meeting up with Starr, we headed over to Dicky's for good ole Texas BBQ.   Delicious!  Tomorrow we might hit Paula Deen's or her brother's place, Bubba's.  At the Texas airport we ran into Ellen from the Tulip Trekkers who was headed for the walks too.  Everyone is just settling in and looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.  The weather tomorrow: in the 50s and sunny! Have you ever heard of a moon pie?

It was dry out at the Refuge this week.  Not much in the way of wildlife, but there are still thousands of geese out there and then we did see a heron fly right in front of us.  After we met up with Carolyn Evenson at the coffee shop, where she was able to show Pam and I her pictures of Savannah and Charleston.  One of the nicest perks of walking is that there is someone who has done walks in the area that you are going and they can always clue you into some information that you didn't already have.
But we are ready.  My bag is packed and Vicky is picking me up at 5:30 a.m.  I keep hearing about Paula Deen's restaurant and they are predicting a thundershower on Saturday and I haven't seen a good thunderstorm since I left the Midwest.  In fact I talked to one of my friends today in Chicago and they said it was pretty nice out today, about 25, but there was 4 feet of snow!  Good grief.
There will be a Snails walk this Monday and coffee after, so please come.  Saturday the weekend walking group and the Albany walkers will be doing our 3 cities 3 Parks walk out of REI in Bridgeport.  So I hope some of you can make it and if you have a camera, take a few pictures and e-mail them to me so we can get them out on the web.
On to Savannah and Charleston!

Wow, did we have a Merrywalker turnout today.  Cheryl, Mary, Leslie, Kathy, Starr, Diane, Hannie and Karen Burgess (who is joining us now!) It was fun meeting and walking with Arlene's sister, Judy, as she took us through Reed College and Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.  I had to take a picture of that Japanese cherry tree, because in May, that is one of the most beautiful trees there.  Everyone was dressed for rain, and again, the sun came out by lunch, and we never did have any rain.  After we all headed over to Otto's for sausages.  
Well the Merrywalkers plus 1 will be heading out Wednesday to Savannah for the Baker's Dozen.  Mary Ann, Starr, Pam and Vicky from McMinnville will be heading over to do the walks in Savannah and Charleston.  As we leave, we have to wish our best to Bekki, who is heading out with the Elder Hostels to New Zealand, and then Kathy heading down to California. 
Have a great Sunday and see you at the Refuge on Monday.

Again it's fun to head out and see how everyone is doing.  We met up with Anila and Nare today and heard about their accident in India.  After they were there for 10 days, they drove out to the dessert and the car flipped.  Nare is not moving well and has limited mobility. He hurt is back and will be seeking out some therapy soon. In the last picture you can see Karen checking out Anila's arm.  Anila was also injured in the accident.  She broke her arm and had to have surgery and a plate was inserted.  She will be also getting an MRI soon to see if there is more damage to her shoulder.  So both are experiencing limited mobility, but they are grateful nothing happened to their legs and they can still get out there and walk.  You can tell that neither of them lost their wonderful smiles!
The Merrywalkers were out there in full force today.  We had Cheryl, Kathy Enders, Nare and Anila, and a new member, Diane, a fellow piasano from back East. Then we actually met up with a natural born Italian, Antonella.  Joe and I had to have a picture taken with the new "Italian group".  It was great and did we talk recipes.   We were way behind the pack, but I definitely want to meet up with them to get the low down on good tiramisu.  All of the pictures are on the picture page.  See you Saturday at Otto's!

Russ, Lou Ann, Bill, Kathy and myself met out at the Refuge and then we headed back where we met up with everyone else who didn't walk at the coffee shop.  It was fun to see how everyone's  holidays went and where everyone will be heading soon.  Barb is leaving on Monday on a cruise, and I'm sure everyone knows about our trip to Savannah and Lou Ann and Bill.  We leave on Wednesday and it turns out that Kathy will be leaving for California the same day and so will Bekki.  Bekki is taking an Elder Hostel tour to New Zealand.  Isn't retirement grand!

We ended 2009 with a Wednesday walk in Tannesborn and New Year's Eve in Portland.  On Friday we began 2010 in Vancouver.  Starr and I managed to do all three of the walks, with Mary Ann coming to the Wednesday walk and Carol Reed and Vicky Wilbanks doing the walk in Vancouver, where we did meet up with Starr, who walked 15K that day!  I think it was the first time Starr met Vicky, since the three of us will be leaving for Savannah's Banker's Dozen.  Mary Ann and Pam McMahon will be joining us and we are all getting pretty excited.  We've been able to talk with a lot of the volkswalkers who have done the Baker's Dozen in the past, and everyone has had nothing but good things to say about it, so it should be a great adventure.
Tannesborn was a new walk for the Cedarmilers, and take it from us, it was very nice.  New Year's Eve I met up with Starr at the checkpoint and she kindly decided to repeat the last 5k again, so I could get the 10k done with company.  I love that walk, and the weather turned out great.  It was fairly warm and only a bit of rain at the end.  New Year's Day it was wet.  If you made it to the walk really early, you had beautiful weather.  It was pretty wet when we did it, but another good walk.  We saw some beautiful topiaries, which you will have to check out in the pictures.  One of the nicest things about these walks is we all gather for food after the walks.  Even at Tannesborn, Mary Ann, Joe and I opted for the 5k and we still met up with everyone for lunch.  So if you can't do a 10k, please join us for the 5k and lunch.  Lunch was really fun on New Year's, where we saw so many people we hadn't seen in a long time.  We shared bread with the gals from Albany.  
I'm curious as to who we will meet up with at the airport on the 13th.  It turns out Kathy is going to California while Bekki is leaving for New Zealand.  
Happy New Year!