Road Trip Review - 2014 Edition - Month 1

Here we are, Julie and I, on the road again...trekking across the country to parts unknown.

The Facts:

• First Pit Stop of the journey is Crowley State Park, Arkansas - 1399 km
• Next stop and final destination is Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas - 325 km
• Total of 1724 km
• 5.70 km a day, 40.95 km a week and 172.40 km a month
• We have 10 months to complete the journey, from January 1 - October 31
• Our daily, everyday walking counts, but only up to half of our required distance - 2.85 km
• Each 30 minutes of non-walking/running exercise counts as 0.50 km, up to 3.20 km of our total

The Road So Far:

Month 1 - January

-total walked: 197.53 km

-total eligible: 174.22 km

  ( + 1.82 over)

Oh yeah baby!  I did it!  I finished on the plus side of the goal this month.  This is awesome for so many reasons.  

Reason # 1 - I'm not behind

Reason # 2 - I caught up on the km I was behind on in the beginning, I didn't think

                  that would happen until March.

Reason # 3 - Out of 31 days this month, I was above my daily km for 18 of them

Reason # 4 - I used the treadmill 6 days a week for the last 3 weeks

I'm not going to lie OR be modest.....I'M AWESOME!  Like, super radical dude!  Coming into the new year, I knew Julie and I would be doing some sort of walking challenge again that would require us to walk roughly the same km as the last challenge.  I also knew I didn't want to be behind again.  But the thing is this, until I actually had the concrete numbers in my hand and the blog written, I didn't consider the challenge official and that lead to my deficit in the beginning.  By January 9th, I was already 22.60 km behind!!!  After that point, the only day I was short on km was Tuesdays.

Everyday I do at least 45 minutes on the treadmill.  Usually it's after the kids go to bed at 8, but if I can sneak it in earlier or over the course of the day, I do.  I'm lucky enough to have a treadmill in my basement and Netflix to watch.  It makes the time go by a bit faster although I do find the first 30 minutes take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to go by, but once it's passed, next thing I know I've been on for an hour.

As part of the challenge this time, Julie made me promise to do maps of my journey.  See, I am such a knob that she took pity on my and sent me STEP BY STEP photo instructions...but guess what!!  They worked!

So, after the first leg of this journey, here are the photos of where I am:

It doesn't look as impressive from this view, let's get a little closer

As you can see, I have stopped off at Mountsberg Conservation Area, located in Campbellville, ON.

They have some cool stuff like raptors and owls, bison and goats....I totally want to go here...for reals!

Julie was also kind enough to send me a paper version of our map to hang on the wall AND a picture of our final destination.  

Because I am a closet nerd, I made myself some cute little push pin markers from the show that inspired this walk...Supernatural.  If you have watched the show, you know they drive an awesome black Impala, so naturally that had to be the main marker.  Just riding in the car with "my boys"

So there you have it, my journey so far for this month.  I will continue to do just as well for next month.

Julie's on a little real life road trip right now, but promised me she would get her blog up when she got back, so when she does, show her a little love won't ya please?