Good Advice from a Walking Veteran

My friend Katherine and I had coffee this morning over at Starbuck's (crammed with moms and little kids), to discuss my upcoming hike. She'd done the Hadrian's Wall hike, had a very pleasant experience, and had good advice about how I should prepare my tired, old body for the rigors of a 17-day walk. Best advice: get prepared for uphill climbing, 'cause there will be a lot of it. The easiest thing for us city types would be to climb up the escalators at Metro stops. Pretty convenient, because they are usually broken or stuck. The Tenleytown metro, my usual stop, and the DuPont Circle metro stop have nice long inclines -- the kind that tourists have to stop for and take pictures. (Ah, tourists).

Second piece of advice: stretch, stretch, stretch. Not just the usual Achilles heel, thighs, but also the foot muscles. Nothing worse than twisting your foot. So, I'll go on the Web and look for the appropriate exercises.

We had a good talk, and I was sort of reassured that, yes, I might be able to do this afterall.

Summer is bursting upon us in Washington, so I'm going to watch when I go out for extended training walks. Very early in the morning, or (as is the case today), late in the afternoon. Right after this blog entry, I'll go out for perhaps 10 miles, and half way through find a place for dinner. Dress codes being what they are these days, no one will care if I'm sweaty and somewhat disheveled. Perhaps I should bring a bowtie just in case. Dress codes being what they are today, no one will really care if I show up sweaty and somewhat disheveled. But pehaps to be on the safe side, I might take along a bow tie.

The Fun Never Stops . . .

This blog accompanies my website, CongressionalBadBoys.com, and we follow the misadventures of that one-tenth of one percent of the Members of Congress who manage to break the law, end up in jail, are kicked out of office, or simply so embarrassed by their stupid or unethical actions, that they slither off, resign or decide not to run again for office.

So many politicians, so little time. . . . This blog only covers members of Congress, or former members. So we have people like William Jefferson, former governor Rod Blagojevich (former MC), but not Eliot Spitzer (who did not serve in Congress).

My website isn't liberal, it ain't conservative. Everyone who gets in trouble has a fair crack at making the BadBoys roster. We don't cover plain stupidity, or some legislator saying dumb things -- it has to fall into the category of unethical, or potentially unethical, behavior, or worse.