On Saturday, May 14, 2016, Stephanie and I decided to forego the Highland Games to get some long distance walking, instead. We’ve spent time in Buena Vista before, which you can read about here. We parked, again, at the BB&T at Five Points and started our march. This time, we picked the eastern side of the street and walked, as we did the last time, north to Reynolda Rd. However, we didn’t stop and turn around this time. Instead, we crossed the somewhat-treacherous Reynolda and onto the ritzy East Kent Road. 
Immediately, the lack of any sidewalks gives off the vibe that interlopers such as ourselves may not be welcome to walk freely among the elite residences along the road. Now, I am not saying that the residents of this area are actually like that. I am only saying the vibe is as such. There are beautiful homes there, to be sure. We continued down into and then up from the valley that is home to the eight or so homes that call the short segment, well, home.
From that we walked to Arbor Road. Kent all the way to Arbor is a canopied stretch of trees and shade. On Arbor it’s like you’re emerging out of the shadows (you are) and immediately into the friendly, warm arms of Helios, himself. Then, you realize that there are no trees and Helios’ cordiality is more like a friend that starts to grate on your nerves that you just don’t want to talk to for a while. However, we were out on a beautiful and mild day so while the sun was beaming down, it wasn’t harsh and was, truly, enveloping. We stopped along the way and sat on a bench that was out in the open, on the sidewalk, and chatted a bit. Our legs were screaming for a break and we acquiesced. We then continued northeast on Arbor which at Pilgrim Ct. turns into 25th Street. We continued until we came to 24th and decided that we should turn back. At this point, we were already over the 7500 step mark. Instead of going back down Kent when we arrived, we continued southwest on Arbor back 
to and across Reynolda.
Across Reynolda, Arbor makes a southern turn heading due south. We walked this same stretch of road in our last trip to Buena Vista. We thought about making a detour around to one of the other streets in the neighborhood, but the reality of it was, we were already a few hours in and we hadn’t had any water or bathroom breaks. Walking downtown gives a few places that we can stop into along the way to fix that problem, but you can’t just stop and ask a resident if we can use their restrooms or if they can spot us a glass of water. Perhaps 30-40 years ago, but not today. So, because we knew that Arbor ran all the way back to Country Club Rd., and therefore directly back to a spoke of Five Points where we parked the car.
So, let’s sum up that walk. From Country Club Road and North Stratford Road to East Kent Road to Arbor Road to 25th Street back to Arbor all the way back to Country Club is 4.8 miles. Combined with other walking, such as walking around Walmart to get a few items and the car dealership lot while getting my car inspected, combined with incidental walking and the fact that we were out after midnight from the night before; all-in-all I walked a total of 14910 steps and 7.37 miles. I also burned 1092 calories. That’s my second best step total since I started tracking my progress using my phone.
It was worth celebrating and we did so by having lots of water and a frothy beer from Hoots Roller Bar & Beer Company. It was a very productive and active day. We’ll be back with another walking adventure, soon. I’m also working on a few news items about the blog and the ideas I have for it. Thank you for reading!!
Get to steppin’!
The Man Who Walked the Town 