Today was the first day this winter I was able to go an entire walk without wearing a “winter” coat! I wore just a “wicking” long-sleeved shirt and a fleece jacket, and for most of the walk, I didn’t even need the jacket zipped up! I wore a hat just to keep sun out of my eyes, and wore my lightweight winter boots. I actually needed decent boots for some stretches of uncleared sidewalks. Today’s temps were about 35, accounting for wind chills. The walk today was about 4.5 miles and took about 80 minutes. I was a bit “leisurely” today focusing on exploration, meditation, and taking time out to take photographs, rather than simply walking for speed. That’s what my “mall walks” are for (git ‘er done as fast as possible)!

Selfie in the glass doors at Victorious Life Church.

My “goal” today was to take my walk south of Cross Street, which is an East-West street in Ypsilanti. There are very few “side” streets that can take you south of Cross in the area of Prospect and Cross, though I did see that there was one – Garland Street. So I thought I’d go looking for this street! Just to make one thing clear (and this is something that others make fun of me for from time to time) – I do not have a “smart phone.” I have a “flip phone” I use for calls, texts, waking my sorry ass up in the morning – and a tablet, which I use in Wi-Fi enabled zones (I don’t tend to carry it around with me on walks). I have my “reasons” for  not wanting a smart phone (but those reasons are not important right now)!  So I really was out exploring the streets of Ypsilanti today without Google maps.

I didn’t find Garland Street on the first try, but knew it connected to Miles street. Miles extends out from Cross spoke-like in a southeast direction  between Cross and Michigan Avenue, which makes it – along with Prospect and Cross Streets – part of a “five points” intersection. So I headed south on Miles a bit, passing the houses of a couple of folks I know. Gary, who works in landscaping/building – and Dave, whom is a retired college professor. Both of whom are neighbors of my friend Brad, who works in the Kellogg Eye Center.

Eventually, I found Garland Street – from the “other” end!

The intersection Miles and Garland in Ypsilanti, MI.

Garland is a winding little street that only runs between Cross and Miles, does not really connect to any other “major” streets. It’s a scenic little street – I especially liked some of the tall pine trees I saw, and a house that had a bunch of solar panels on it! Of course I didn’t take pictures of any of these things…maybe on a future walk!

I spotted a squirrel high up on a telephone pole today, and the little bugger made it clear he didn’t want me to take his picture. I was undeterred…

Yup. This was the best shot I could get!

Here are some other shots from my walk:

Footsteps on a detention pond near where I live. Unsure what/whom made these tracks. I didn’t walk out there to investigate!

View of Holmes facing East – Sweet Road is on the left.

This last shot is of Prospect Park, at the corner of Prospect and Cross. A local historian names James Mann claims that there are bodies buried in this park (it used to be a cemetery site, and reportedly, not ALL of the bodies were moved to the “new” cemetery location).