FitBit, Sorry

I am starting to appreciate what people have been saying for a while: when the weather is bad (too hot, too humid, raining, snowing, or any other weather condition) it's no fun to go for a walk.
I thought they are wimps, thinking to myself that it doesn't matter what the weather is like. It can't be that bad, but then again I live in Southern California, and it's a bit different and special, and I had forgotten that.  Now on my travels, I realize that there are different circumstances in every part of the world.
Just traveling to Philadelphia, it rains, is hot and extremely humid, and I don't feel like walking. On top of that, it seems most areas I travel to are flat so I don't get floors on hills and would have to walk up stairs.

So I promise from now on I won't be so hard on people in other parts of the world about not walking daily, and when you turn on your FitBit, I will admire you for doing a great job keeping fit.

On a different note, our itinerary for the moment looks like this, and remember we never know when we actually get on a airplane.

We arrive around the 15th in Stuttgart, and leave there on the 20th to France.
From there we will travel to Freiburg on the 27th and leave there for California around the 8th or when ever they kick us out of Germany.

24 hours

Well, we finally made it to Philadelphia; it only took 24 hours flying standby. We had no idea summer travel would be so difficult.  The airports were so crowded, especially with large groups of kids going on vacations or tours. The day prior to 4th of July may have had something to do with it. We were resigned to having to wait another day to leave for the east coast, and then suddenly, out of the blue, Patricia heard our names being called very unexpectedly, so we scrambled to get our stuff together and got on the plane in the nick of time before it left for Detroit.
We got there at about 9:30 pm east coast time and were hustling to get our next flight at 10:10 pm only to find out that it was delayed by at least 2 hours in Oklahoma.
The up side was that I got time to do more walking, so I walked from one end of the terminal to the other (1/2 mile) several times.

Walking the Detroit Terminal at midnight

We left Detroit at 12:45 am and arrived in Newark sometime after 2 am and proceeded to rent a car and make our way to Philadelphia. That could be another long story and I will not bore you with it. Suffice it to say, it took us another 3 hours (got lost getting onto the 95 South Turnpike) to get to Cynthia & Winnie's house.  It's so good to be here and catch up with Winnie.  Such a good friend.

Soon after arriving, we went to sleep for 5 hours. I know we are wimps, but there you have it.

Patricia & Cynthia chatting after our nap.

The rest of the day was spent doing little projects for Winnie and lots of catching up.
Early bedtime tonight.

Things change

After all the cafuful last night looking for a connection to Denver, in the end we decided to drop that destination and fly strait to Philadelphia to visit our friends Winnie and Cynthia.

We left the hotel after I had a two hour walk around the carpark and got to the Reno Airport early, so we made good time through security; then the wait started.

We did make it to San Francisco and a few hours later to Los Angeles; we stayed over night at the Sheraton near the airport, as we are planing to be back there at 4 AM.

At least we did not sleep at the airport

Then we had to call Guido and Annette and disappoint them that we are not coming to Loveland for a visit.  Things do change hourly on this trip. I can always be assured of some excitement traveling with Patricia. (Patricia's comment: this has nothing to do with me; it's the airlines' fault.)

Day four: we are back at LAX waiting again. It's really not too bad. I walk on the main walkway a quarter mile round-trip several times to make my steps for the day.

Patricia is doing all the work planning the trip as we are going along. Right now it looks like we are standby on a flight to Salt Lake City and then on to Philadelphia, if all goes well arriving at 11:30 tonight.

Airport live on standby

This really works

On my Birthday, Patricia gave me a Fitbit.  It's a pedometer+ that I put on your belt, or anywhere else, and it counts my steps, the distance I walk, the calories I burn and the floors I climb. I am down from 180 pounds to 154 in just shy of three months.

Fitbit works very well for me.  I like spreadsheets, and I especially like to see what I have done instantly and over a period of time. The only problem is, and there always is a one, Fitbit rewards you with badges when you achieve the goal you/they set for you, and then they ratchet up the goal.

Generally I am not very goal oriented, but if it is put in front of me, and it seems believable, I have no choice but to go for it.  And this conflicts with my basic 'don't do too much' attitude.

I do have to admit that it works very well for me, and the only consolation is that it must work for a lot of people, or they would not have come up with it or be in business.

Here's a screen shot of my site; you can go to this link for a look at my profile.

Then there is today, September 11, 2012 . I did the next goal (Badge) of 400 floors, each floor measured per 10ft.  I awoke at 12:30am thinking it was 3:30, so I got up and discovered only half way through my first walk what time it really was; but I decided to go for it, and that meant walking 20 miles, half of them uphill.
It's been a lifetime since my marathon, and I feel it now.
After a bit over 6 hours I had only burned 1900 calories, though it felt more like 5000.
First thing when I got back home at 7am, I had a cold bath and a two hour sleep, and now I feel I could do it again, well not really.
The next and last badge is 600 floors, so I decided do another 200 today, and then never again, for now.

At the end of today, I did it.