GREXWALK BULLETIN -- Starting time reset to ** 10:00 am ** beginning
October 18. Start gathering at 9:45.
(10:00 am was originally the start time of the walk, but it has drifted
later about two minutes every year. To prevent the after-walk lunch
from turning into a after-walk dinner, the regular walkers have agreed
to move the start time earlier by a half hour. We hope this will set
lunchtime around 12:30 pm.)
OK, now here is the usual text to introduce the Grex walks to
newcomers.
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If you are near Ann Arbor, join us for a Grex Walk!
Every Saturday morning, between 9:50-10:00 am, a bunch of Grexers gather
for a 75-90 minute walk, followed by lunch at a local eatery.
Newcomers are most eagerly welcome; this is an opportunity to meet
and socialize with other Grex folks and get some exercise in the
bargain. Not all the walkers are Grex users: we have regular
attendance from friends, children and pets, and sometimes complete
strangers join us from our Event listing in the Observer.
Fall is the season for some of the most beautiful Grexwalks, as
the leaves change color and the weather gets crisp. Towards the
end of the season we might even have to dress for a bit of snow.
After the October 18 walk, we will travel to Dexter for lunch and
a visit to the Dexter Cider Mill; this is usually the most popular
Grexwalk event of the year.
Feel free to come to the walk but not lunch, or the lunch but not
to the walk. Everything's very informal.
Currently we pick a different place for lunch each week. Watch this
item and make suggestions if you have a favorite place that we could
visit. With few exceptions, any restaurant that receives a nomination
and a second will be put on the list for a future debriefing.
The upcoming lunch schedule can be seen with the !lunch command,
or on the web at
http://www.cyberspace.org/~krj/lunch.txt
On most Saturdays -- all except FIRST SATURDAYS -- the walk
starts in Gallup Park, and we gather by the parking lot near the
entrance on Fuller Road. Directions for how to find us are in
response #1 ( resp:1 ) of this item.
On the FIRST SATURDAY of each month, the walk is held at
Bird Hills Park.
Those dates will be: Saturday, November 1
Saturday, December 6
Directions for how to find us in Bird Hills Park are in
response #2 ( resp:2 ) of this item.
68 responses total.
Gallup Park directions, for most Saturdays:
Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth Saturdays:
We meet in the parking lot just off Fuller Road, opposite Huron High
School, just west of Huron Parkway. In Mapquest, enter the address
3000 Fuller Road, Ann Arbor, MI
Here's a closeup map of the Gallup Park entrance area:
\ -----
\ F \ | HHS | | H |
| \ u \ ----- | u |
| | \ l \ | r |
| | \ l \ | o |
Furstenburg \ e \ | n |
Park __ \ r \ | |
/..\ | \ \ | P |
/.....\ | | \ | k |
/......| / \ \ | w |\
\...../ | | | y | \
|.....| | | | |\ \
\....| | | /--\ | | \
|....| | *| |..| | | \
|....| | | |..| | |
|....| | | |..| | |
|....| \ / /...\| |
-------/.....\--|-|-/.....\---
....Huron River.| |...........
----------------|-|-----------
Gallup Park
Grexers meet in the parking lot near where the "*" is.
Please NOTE: we meet by the FIRST parking lot, before the bridge over
the river. If you need to drive over the bridge to find a parking
space, you'll have to backtrack to meet us.
(Gallup Park Grexwalk directions originally by Mark Conger (aruba))
For FIRST SATURDAYS, at Bird Hills Park,
Mapquest will get you close to our meeting place if you type in this address:
1900 Newport Rd, Ann Arbor, MI
Here's an ASCII text description of how to meet us in Bird Hills Park:
(credit: Jan Wolter)
Jackson Dexter \\\/ NORTH =>
Road Road \X\
| / /\\\ Maple Road
---|----/-----------/--\\\----------------
| / / \\\
| / / \\\ M-14
| / Miller / \\\
|/ Road / \\\
| / \\\
| / school ||| Newport Road
| /---------------------,------------------
| 7th / ||| --' |
----|-------/ ||| Park Here |
| / ||| | Bird
Huron | / Miller ||| | Road
| | Road ||| |
Downtown | ___|||___________________|___
Ann --------------------'-. ||| Huron River Drive
Arbor Main \|||
|||
So you want Newport road, just where it crosses the M-14 highway.
Just a wee bit north of the bridge is a little dirt road that slopes
down to a little parking lot. The walk meets there. If you are
coming from the highway, note that there is no exit at Newport, just
at Main Street and at Maple and Miller. Getting from Main to Huron
River Drive is a bit tricky. Be alert. Amateurs may do better
approaching Newport Road from Miller Road. Occasionally the parking
lot gate is left locked. Park at the school and walk across the
bridge.
Historical Attendance Response: I don't know if anyone walked at Bird Hills on October 4. A group of non-walkers came to savor the nostalgia at Dominick's: mary, remmers, bookie, arabella, krj, aruba, Carol. Wow, I had forgotten how old-fashioned that place was.
Yesterday's walkers were valerie, janc, arlo, kendra, kaplan, mutsie, ross, chanur, Carol,aruba, and krokus, who caught up to us near the river. It was indeed a very slow walk, because it was a nice day and there were lots of rocks to climb on. We left poor Ken waiting at Kai Garden for an hour before we arrived (around 1:30). Thus the decision to reset the walk time to 10:00, in an effort to make it again possible for people to join us for lunch at a reasonable time, and to ensure that a little bit of Saturday daylight is still left after lunch. I don't think it's right to say "the regular walkers decided" to make the change; not all the regular walkers were there, and anyway I have a problem separating Grexers into the categories of "regular walkers" and "not regular walkers". Everyone should feel welcome to come on a Grexwalk, because everyone *is* welcome. But anyway... I forgot (despite Valerie's reminder) to ask for no MSG in my food at Kai Garden, and once again got a monster headache in the afternoon. I guess I learned my lesson this time, and have no doubthat it was the food that did it to me. I'm undecided on whether I want to go there again and remember to ask for no MSG; I feel more inclined at the moment just to skip it all together. But maybe I'll feel more adventurous when the time comes around again.
cool ascii map
yeah
Pretty good turnout for the lunch plus cider mill in Dexter today. In rough order of spotting we had remmers, mary, aruba, Carol, valerie, janc, arlo, kendra, scott, danr, Sylvia, krj. Perfect fall weather for a cider mill visit. I didn't walk, so somebody else will have to say who did.
Walkers who left at approximately 10:04 were janc, arlo, danr, Carol, and aruba. Valerie and kendra started later and walked backwards, so we met them on Geddes. We finished about 11:40.
I find it hard to maintain my balance walking backwards.
I find it hard to see where I'm going.
re #9 and 10 ... practice makes perfect. I'd recommend trying it on level ground first, then move to more difficult terrain, such as the arb.
Don't forget the glasses with the mirrors mounted on them.
That's cheating.
Just use the force, then?
Works for me. quit stop ".' bye
(if the walk time has been reset to 10am, the MOTD should reflect the change.)
(Done.)
This morning, Mutsie and I were the only walkers. We started at 10:04, arrived at the traditional resting spot at 10:37 (but did not stop), and got back in the car at 11:11. People I saw at Cottage Inn were chanur, Ross, valerie, janc, Arlo, Kendra, mary, remmers, polygon, and Sarah. Carol and aruba said they were going to head over to Cottage Inn too. Unfortunately, lunch started too early. I did not get to see Carol and aruba.
We arrived just as valerie and polygon were pulling out of the parking lot. So we had lunch by ourselves. :( Sorry for wimping out on the walk this morning. It was raining at 8:30, though I think it had stopped by 10.
No, there was light rain for the early part of the walk. We might have avoided the rain if we had started walking at 10:30! ;)
(heh. the rain scared me off this weekend, too. I'm getting too old to walk around wet for lengthy stretches.)
According to the motd, the after-walk lunch this week is at the Michigan State game. No thanks. :) (I assume that's a typo...)
Actually, if the lunch location is still up for grabs and the intent is to avoid football traffic, I'll put in a vote for La Fiesta Mexicana in Ypsilanti.
Not a typo, but a place-holder. I think the lunch czar has yet to pick a place. The game is out of town, so it shouldn't affect the lunch choices.
Yup, I messed up. Thanks for the suggestion, John, but I don't want to do an Ypsi-side place two weekends in a row, or on a Bird Hills Saturday. I'll come up with something here shortly. Duh.
Right, if there's no home game there's no overriding reason to do Ypsi.
save for the fact that ypsi is way cooler than a2
The "start the walk promptly at 10:00" plan was no good for me yesterday. I was up a lot in the middle of the night. The best sleep I got was from about 7:00 am to 9:30. Mutsie and I left the house around 10:25 and parked the car near the dam at about 10:50. We met up with Carol and aruba few minutes later and walked with them through the last leg of the usual route over to the Newport road parking lot. Then we walked the rest of the way around by ourselves. When we arrived back at the dam parking lot, someone asked if I had seen anyone who looked like a vandal. (I had not.) A window of his car had been smashed for no apparent reason. He said that as far as he could tell, nothing was stolen from the car. I am thankful that no damage was done to my car. I think I will stick with the Newport road parking lot from now on!!
Lunch attendance at Raja Rani was aruba, Carol, krj and scott. We got there just as the buffet opened, and all the Indian food was fresh and extra yummy.
Re #28: Ack! Hate to hear that. Carol and I arived at 10, and Carson arrived a few minutes later. He didn't have time to do the walk, but since no one else was there we hung out and talked to him for a while before starting. We left around 10:20. Some beautiful scenery in Bird Hills this week. It should be very different on December 6th. ;)
Kendra was running a fever, so we stayed home. Then Arlo had a halloween party to go to at 1pm, so that knocked out the possibility of a lunch as well. Glad it was a nice walk though.
(I'd fully intended to do the walk [I still have yet to make the Bird Hills trek], but I had guests for the UM-MSU game. I'm sure the colors would have been beautiful this time of year, although I'm hoping for snow in December.) :)
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A good thing too. If you'd come to Ann Arbor, it would have lowered the average IQ in both cities.
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Like I say, a good thing.
Hey! That was an utterly undeserved slam.....on Seattle!
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Well i'm looking forward to the grex lunch @ mongolian barbeque this saturday. It's been a while since i've gone to a lunch, and i'm happy that i'll be able to go start up again.
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Cool. I'm glad to hear that the Grex West Coast Annex is doing well. But who is kookoo girl?
my kid who i forced to watch cheech and chong's UP IN SMOKE last night, does this ANGER you? *haughty french expression on face*
Nah. Sounds age-appropriate to me.
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Cool...maybe we can revive pico-link...
only if kookoo says so
Apparently Banditos is closed until December, so an alternate venue for tomorrow's lunch should be identified.
Yup, thanks for the tip. Alternative location is declared to be Arbor Brewing on Washington, not far from Banditos.
I, as well as ea, orinoco, and snowth, am home for the holiday. All of us are pondering this weekend's walk, depending on things not to exclude the forecasted weather. but where would we be going? i vote for somewhere exceptionally cheap, as I have $200 to last me pretty much the entirety of December.
In that case dcat, if you'll be around between 15 and 21 December, I have an offer that might appeal...
man, once i was dusting a whore with one of those ones (white) and geez.
This weekend's Grex lunch is at New York Pizza Depot, which is about as cheap as we can get.
excellent. if i manage to be awake again in 5 hours, snowth and i'll be there.
arr Gallup 1040, got to the Resting Place 1110. Decided that since I hadn't seen anybody by that point, either nobody had come or they were far enough ahead that there was no way I was going to catch up to anybody, so I made for campus and had a chat with a former coworker at the UGLi. . .
dcat did eventually catch up with the lunch crowd, after stopping to make that response. Walking well ahead of dcat were: danr, Carol, kaplan, Mutsie, the new dog whose name I am forgetting, and out-of-town visitor scg. The crowd at NYPD, in approximate order of arrival: scg, Carol, kaplan, krj, mspiggy, valerie, janc, arlo, kendra, valerie's Mom, dcat, anderyn, bru and Griffin.
The new dog's name is Orville. Sorry I missed everyone!
(I have every intention of attending the walk this coming weekend. we're back to starting at 10am, right?)
That's right, and this week's walk is at Bird Hills.
I don't know if the cosmos can survive Carson actually arriving for a walk in Bird Hills. I'm betting something will come up. If you need to regroup, lunch is at the new Qdoba outlet near the Blockbuster on South Main, around noon, maybe a bit later.
Should the MOTD be altered to reflect that this is not item 39?
Done.
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You should do a Kubota Gardens walk sometime..
What's the starting point, tod?
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62: Oh, man! I'm in, but I think my teleporter's being flaky, so I might be a few years late.
mmmm...shari's has good pie.
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You have several choices: