This morning began with a walk to and from the Hyde Creek Rec Centre where Taylor had her dance class. After class, Taylor, her brother, mother and grandma took the bus to downtown PoCo to watch the May Day parade and hang out at the rides.

My escape plan included a ride to Coquit­lam Centre from Taylor’s Dad (whose own escape plan involved a trip to the dump). I found a wash and wear shirt for Italy, then headed over to my other favorite food joint in PoCo — C-Lover fish and chips. A halibut chowder and halibut burger forti­fied me for the return trip.

After yesterday’s transit marathon, I decided to forego the bus and walk. Besides, I need to begin my walking train­ing for Italy sometime. I switched on my Pedome­ter app and set out. I was reluc­tant to head down the congested bumper to-bumper Lougheed Highway, so decided to try out the back roads.

I knew the only imped­i­ment would be cross­ing the Coquit­lam River, but remem­ber a foot bridge from one on the two walks upriver I made in the twenty-three years we lived here. With an unfail­ing sense of direc­tion I set out eastward. At the end of the cul-de-sac a sloping path led into the bush.

I rounded the corner and saw ashore bridge over a much-smaller tickle of water than I remem­bered, but crossed it and continue onward.

In the next block I encoun­tered a yard filled with sculp­tures. ‘Am I in Italy?’ I wondered, but after looking closer, realized I was gazing at (what I hope will be) a far less invit­ing set of statu­ary than I expect to see in Rome. Still, folks here also must feel the urge to beauti­ful their surround­ings.
A few blocks further along I came to another dead-end, but, once more, a path led off through the trees albeit in the wrong direction.

About 500 meters down the path, I heard the sound of rushing water, and crossed a blue pedes­trian over a much larger expanse of water.

Safely across the river, I walked through a motocross track, past a ball-diamond full of shout­ing teams and specta­tors, a retired float from the morning’s parade and soon after reached my desti­na­tion, 5446 steps from where I began. I had managed to avoid all the congested lanes of traffic, the buses, and experi­ence a little taste of the natural world on a warm spring day.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Port Coquit­lam