The world reveals itself to those who walk - Werner Herzog
The other day I decided to walk to my neighborhood coffee shop.
There’s only one problem: my neighborhood in Plano has a Walk Score of 5 out of 100.
Though it is safe and pleasant to walk in my neighborhood, we are too far away from any business for them to be considered “walkable.” Every business except the grocery store requires crossing at least one extremely busy road so the idea of walking somewhere to run an errand or to grab a coffee is basically out of the question.
Which is precisely why I wanted to try it.
There are many things I wanted to do before we moved out of Plano and Texas. Some, like taking the family to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX were fun ideas that we’d wanted to do for a long time.
Others, like testing out the walkability of Plano, were relatively recent, and stupid ideas that I couldn’t get out of my head. But that’s how I am, when I get an idea in my head, I have to try and achieve it, no matter how pointless or stupid it seems.
I’ve started rucking as my workout routine. Rucking is essentially just filling a backpack with some weight and going for a long walk or hike and then using the backpack to do some workout routines along the way. I am far too early in the process to tell you that it’s changed my life, but I will say, it is my favorite type of working out and I can feel it improving my conditioning and strength every time I do it.
As I started to add miles to my rucks, I thought about how far those miles could take me in the city. My normal rucks were 3.5 miles and my local coffee shop was technically only 1.5 miles away. Seemed like a piece of cake.
Except, well, this is Plano. That’s not 1.5 miles of sidewalk leading straight to the coffee shop. It’s 1.5 miles of road, including several construction zones and a bridge over highway 75. That route is not ideal.
Fortunately, I live in East Plano, right next to a large nature preserve with trails that extend out from the preserve itself and connect to other green spaces in the city. I realized there was a trail that seemed to go from my neighborhood and would dump me off on the road right where the near Highway 75. I figured I’d take the trail, then cross the busy road and just hoof it across the bridge over 75 hoping no one hit me.
I was meeting a friend at the shop at 10:30 AM so I allotted an hour to make the trek, but I figured it’d only take me 30 minutes.
It was about 25 degrees and sunny outside, so with a winter coat over a sweater, a beanie, and some ski gloves on, I threw on my backpack and headed out the door. It’s always been a dream of mine to walk out my door and head to work on foot.
Walking has made me better in every way. I’m getting in better shape and I’m more balanced and happier as a person. And, surprisingly, it’s made me significantly better at my job.
When I walk my mind clears out. It flushes out distractions. I put my phone in my backpack and don’t look at it. I very intentionally don’t listen to any podcasts or music when I go for my long walks. I also got an analog watch so I don’t look at my phone to know the time.
All of the different things I’m keeping up with slowly begin to align and make sense with each step. Sometimes I set out to think about a specific thing, such as an article I’m going to write for work. Instead of sitting at a computer riddled with distractions and notifications I can actually concentrate on the task at hand. When I get back to my computer I write the entire thing in less than an hour. I also do this when I need to run through comedy sets from start to finish, such as my 45-minute headlining set I did a few weeks ago. Do you know how hard it is to find 45 uninterrupted minutes in your day as a father of two? It’s impossible, unless I can do it while I’m both working and working out. A long walk counts for all of those things.
Other times I don’t set out with anything specifically on my mind. I just let my mind wander. Inevitably, these times lead to creative or personal breakthroughs that I would never have achieved if I was just plugging away through my day at the computer.
The walk to the coffee shop was going great. My brisk pace made the cold disappear, I was seeing parts of Plano, which I’d driven past for four years, in a completely new way, and I was in a flow state of creativity that I hadn’t achieved in a long time.
During this walk I wrote at least four jokes that ended up in my headlining set. This is an example. It’s an idea that’s been floating around in my head for years, but it wasn’t until I was in the middle of a walk that something led me down that mental path to find that punchline.
As I rounded the corner that was to lead me to the road I thought I was about to enter the most treacherous part of my journey. Then I realized something: this trail didn’t lead to the road, it led *under* the road. There was a ravine and then a steep embankment to go from the trail to the road. I reluctantly pulled up my phone and looked at the map. The trail continued under the bridge and then turned north, the opposite way I wanted to go. It wound up for a bit and then headed under Highway 75 before heading back south where I needed to go. All told, it was going to add another mile and a half to my walk. My choices were to either do that or climb this steep embankment only to be spit out onto a busy street.
I headed under the bridge. Up to this point I had not seen a soul on this trail. It was freezing cold, in the middle of a work day, and not a popular part of the trail. If I wasn’t a large, young male I would have been pretty uncomfortable walking under this creepy bridge. But, as I am a large, young male I confidently headed under it.
Just as I did a small, older lady came jogging under the bridge at the same time. Suddenly I was the one who was the potential threat. It’s sort of impossible to say “Hey don’t you worry about me, I’m not waiting by this bridge to attack anyone, I’m super safe.” without making it seem like you’re even more of a threat.
As I continued on the trail I rounded a corner and came upon an old, crumbling barn. Mind you, this is right next to one of the busiest highways in the one of the busiest cities in America. But somehow, tucked away on this trail that few ever use, is a green space with a large abandoned barn.
I distinctly remember coming up with an Earth Day-related punchline to a joke while walking past this barn and saying out loud, “wow, that’s good.” You can be as cocky as you want while you’re walking alone.
When I finally got under Highway 75 I was still a half mile from my destination. By now my feet were starting to hurt and I was getting hot. Suddenly this walk wasn’t as fun as I had imagined. To complete the trip I had to walk across a four lane road with no protection and then cut through a gigantic empty parking lot.
By the time I arrived at the coffee shop I was shedding layers, my legs were twitching, and I was out of breath. I can assure I was the only one in that coffee shop on a 25 degree day that was sweating. The walk ended up taking about an hour and totaled four miles.
My friend that I met at the shop was stunned that I walked there. Not because it showed that I was in great shape, he’s in far better shape than me, but because I was stupid enough to try and walk somewhere in this unwalkable city.
When he left he offered me a ride back, but I declined. Even though the journey was much longer than I had anticipated, I needed to complete the task or I’d always feel like I failed. After getting a bunch of good work done, I packed back up and headed home. The walk back wasn’t bad at all. I knew the path and I knew how long it would take. Though I got some more good thinking in, it was definitely less than I got in when the path was novel on the way there. Something about engaging all of my senses as I chart a new path allows me to unlock parts of my brain that sit on autopilot when I know where I’m going.
All told it was an eight mile trek in sub-freezing temperatures just to scratch an itch I had. It sort of sums up how I operate. I get obsessed with stuff. I can’t stop thinking about accomplishing a certain thing and I don’t feel satisfied unless I do it, even if it’s stupid.
This mindset has driven me to accomplish things that most others haven’t. Some, like walking eight miles to go to a coffee shop, or creating a short film documentary about my indoor soccer team and hosting a real/fake movie premier at the Texas Theatre, are not things that many people dream of doing.
Others, like starting my own business or headlining a comedy show, are things people do talk about doing but never achieve.
Over the years many have heard me complain about living in Dallas-Fort Worth. Many dismissed it as idle talk or discontentment. Some even asked my wife if my negativity was a concern to her. But she didn’t see it as negativity or idle complaints. One, because she felt the same way, and two, because she knew that I was working on doing something about it.
I won’t lie and claim that I never do it, but I really work hard not complain. However, there’s a distinct difference between complaining and pointing out issues. Complaining is talking about a problem with no intention of fixing the problem or improving your situation. Pointing out issues is identifying areas that need improvement, or, in the case of something like weather, population growth, cost of living, traffic, etc, identifying things that you’d like to get away from in order to be improve your situation.
So sure, I talk a lot of talk, but I also walk the walk.
Even if that walk turns out to be many more miles than I anticipated.
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Speaking my language man, I bug everybody talking about how I hate DFW specifically because of how unwalkable it is. I moved to the Bishop Arts area about a year ago so that I could be in one of the only walkable parts of town. I am also leaving DFW somewhat soon so there are a number of things here that are inspirational for me.