Walking Walrus - Walking Alexandria Virginia

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Walking with the Walrus

10 KM VOLKSMARCH - ALEXANDRIA VA
DECEMBER 6, 1997

by Kevin Shaw

Ric Nauen posted parts of my post you see below (Shown in quotes) on the walk Robin and I did on Saturday. Sorry to make this so short and not all my own original writing, but I am swamped and it is already 1:30 Monday morning. This walk is a really outstanding walk that brings in volksmarchers from many states. I believe the count was about 600 on Saturday, not sure how many on Sunday, probably less, but they probably got 1000+ for the two days.
Ric describes "On Saturday and Sunday the Washington DC Area Volksmarch Club presented their 15th Annual Christmas Walk, starting at the Holiday Inn, 2460 Eisenhower Avenue." Robin and I had no real problems finding the start point, I have been to this walk for the past three years. Registration was easy and quick, especially with veteran Ken Wilson helping us out, in addition to many other Washington DC Area Volksmarch Club volunteers to help in all jobs at the start point and on the trail. We got off to a very late start, just a few minutes before 1 am, so we missed the Regional Director's holiday party as described below, unfortunately.
Ric continued "The 10K trail wound through Old Town Alexandria past many shops decorated for the holidays and displaying seasonal wares. On Saturday at 10 AM, Alexandria's annual Scottish Christmas Parade celebrates the city's heritage with pipe bands and other musical ensembles mixed amongst marching clans, dog owners, Santa Claus, and just about anyone else who signs up." Robin and I checked out restaurants on the way into the downtown area, vowing to hit one of them on the way back, even if it meant taking a slight jog. Since we got started so late (just before 1 pm) we missed the parade this year. But we saw many Scottish people in their neat costumes while walking, some with bagpipes or other instruments. It was a cold but clear, sunny day. The trail followed many cobblestone streets in the historic downtown area, so you had to watch where you were going, but that added to the charm. The well-written directions and map were easy to follow, but then again except for the beginning of the walk, this route was basically the same as in previous years. As others mentioned to me on the walk and afterwards, the route was much improved at the beginning and end, taking all of us by some upscale condominium development and improved street patterns, as opposed to previous years, when we had to go through a somewhat smelly tunnel and past some rather unsightly undeveloped areas. You really couldn't avoid this in the past, but Alexandria has finally moved ahead on its development of the western part of the downtown area, and it was great to take advantage of the improved opportunities on the trail this year.
Three checkpoints were visited on the trail, 1 and 3 were at Little German World on King Street , which is also the start point for the Alexandria Year Round. We were so late in coming back that Checkpoint 3 was already torn down by the time we walked past it, but we expected that. Checkpoint 2 was in "She's Unique", a store on the second floor of a typical downtown colonial townhouse storefront. It was nice to come in out of the cold for a few minutes and warm up.
On the way back, Robin and I decided on the King Pepper Restaurant, which caused us a slight detour off the trail. But we knew we were going to miss the Holiday Open House, so we had to catch a bite to eat since it was just about 3 pm. There are so many restaurants to choose from on the route,
I like to go for the unusual and different, and there are plenty of those to chose from in a variety of ethnic origin and style. I had some lovely Cuban black bean soup and Robin had her first "Monster Burger".
Ric continued "This should get you back to Finish in time to stop in at the Holiday Open House put on by the Director and clubs of the American Volkssport Association's Atlantic Region from noon to 3:00, a good place to find out more about what's going on with volkssporting (if you haven't already figured it out.)" Even though we didn't make it back till after 4 and therefore missed the Open House this year, club members were still socializing in Room 617 of the Holiday Inn, since they had kicked everyone out of the meeting room right at 4 pm where the start/finish point was operating during the event. So we did catch up on a few things going on in the volksmarch community after getting our books stamped and picking up some brochures. Diane Evans, AVA VP and former Regional Director, Nelson Cahill, Fred Lopez, Nancy Stenger, Steve Arnett and many others chatted with us for a few minutes while we warmed up and rested. It was truly a memorable and different Alexandria walk this year; we will return again next year, better organized and earlier I vow! (I got such a late start due to overdoing it a bit at the first of our office Holiday Parties the night before!) Thanks to the Washington DC Area Volksmarch Club for a job well done on this memorably outstanding event.