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It was longer than I'd cared to go; these days my legs are only conditioned for seven miles or so.
The errand itself was five miles. Having a particular dislike for going back the way I came on these trivial outings, I decided to take a scenic route which wood have added an extra mile and a half. I didn't bring a map, so when I was faced with the path unexpectedly turning out of my way, I turned aside into the suburban labyrinth.
The reason the suburbs are labyrinthine here is not just how the streets bend and twist and lead into cul de sacs, but because they're also surrounded on three sides by seven or eight foot walls. There are usually breaks in these walls for pedestrian traffic, but without a map there's no way to know exactly where they are. To make matters worse, the sky was totally overcast and slightly drizzling, so as the roads bent, I couldn't navigate by the sun. There are no numbered streets in the burbs, either; you only know you're at the corner of bumquack terrace and I've-already-been-here-three-times lane.
I eventually remembered I'd brought a compass and started using that, and like Link systematically bombing eberry wall looking for a secret passage, I went up and down cul de sacs looking for a gap in the wall. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have just scaled the damn thing. Also, looking at a map after, I did come within a couple hundred yards of a passage, but it was west and I was working my way east, lol.
Exasperated, I ran another mile or two out of my way to a passage I knew about, by which point the drizzle had turned into a thunderstorm and was raining sideways. But by then I was on a main road and a straight shot back home.
Nice get, btw.