Phil Ladden . com

From the beginning, I thought of the crossing of the valley as an east to west walk. I suppose this was a result of the talks with Steve Garufi we always discussed the walk in those directions. Of course, he had crossed it from west to east on his bike ride across America. Ironically, it took him almost 4 days as his bike ended up getting stolen while here!

It was decided the best area to begin was Fountain Hills as this provided some of the best?scenery. From there areas were discussed as those we thought would be interesting to see. Scottsdale, Tempe, Downtown, Phoenix North Mountain Preserve, the Arizona Canal, Westgate, finally ending somewhere on the valley’s west side.

We decided to drive potential routes. Using Google maps, I started getting an idea of suggested routes and distances. We picked a Saturday and met at the Dutch Bros coffee stand on Scottsdale and McDowell Roads. Dave drove and we headed over to Fountain Hills. Finding the starting point was the easiest decision of determining the route. We chose the corner of Shea and North Palisades where there was a nice fountain and welcome to the suburb. It was also a high point on what seemed like an end point for the east valley.

I should note another one of the first arguments occurred here when I told Dave to park along side of Shea so we could get a picture of ourselves. There was clearly a pull-out for people to stop and enjoy the fountain. Both Dave and Chrystyna were adamant that we not park the truck there. It was a sign of numerous future debates, most sharing the commonality of me being right, they incorrect.

Anyway, we ended up spending the entire day in the truck exploring the route options. It was time well spent as probably most significant was the realization the taking of Grand Avenue all the way north and west was not the most appealing way to finish the journey.

From our drive, we roughed out the following thoughts of what our valley walk would look like:

Day 1 – Fountain Hills to Old Town Scottsdale

Day 2 – Old Town Scottsdale to Downtown Phoenix

Day 3 – Downtown Phoenix to Westgate

Day 4 – Westgate to Luke Air Force Base

Here’s the picture from this day taken at the Fountain Hills starting point:

Next: Day One

In every conversation with Steve Garufi after he suggested walking the Phoenix Valley, he would remind me that I should really do it. With every discussion, I became more excited that this would be fun. I had no doubt that I would have any problems walking across a flat valley, even if it was for 50-60 miles. My thoughts were I had hiked 25+ miles in a day in mountains covering elevation gains of over 8,000 feet.

I was at work when I shared with some co-workers that I was thinking about walking across the valley. Almost to a person, the response was “Huh?”  “What!?” “Why are you doing that?” ” What was it you were smoking when you had that thought?”

Chrystyna Golloher kind of stopped, cocked her head a little and with a smile said, “That sounds so cool!” And within 5 minutes of talking about the ideas I was having, she said, “Can anyone go?” It was the first time I had thought about taking the hike/walk with others.

A short time later, Dave Drago poked his head out of his cube and saw us talking. He could see the enthusiasm we were showing about this idea. I told him that I was planning to hike across the valley, to which he replied something like, “You mean the whole valley?” Dave, like Chystyna, had grown up here. He had ever considered doing such an apparently crazy thing nor had he known any other local (or loco) who had walked it.

I asked if he would be interested and his immediate response was “Yeah!”

There must have been some fate behind this, as I do not think there was ANY other person I shared this idea with that responded with such acceptance and like enthusiasm (except maybe Carly, who joined us on Day 4, helped with transportation, and graciously provided Night 3 accommodations for us).

As it turned out, Chrystyna and Dave were the perfect people to spend 4 days with walking through this vast metro area. Between the conversational banter that included jokes, philosophizing, DEBATE, and sharing personal stories, the walk was that much more enjoyable.

So the stage was set. Chrystyna, Dave, and myself started planning the 2009 Valley Walk. That was the spring of 2009.

Day 1, approximately 6 miles into the 15 mile day

We ultimately agreed on the weekend of December 11-14, a Friday through Monday. One of the first debates was that of what we were going to do after each day. Originally, we had talked about staying in resorts along the way. And Chrystyna, with her party planning skills, enthusiastically thought that we would have a big bash in Downtown Phoenix. Live music, food, frivolity, fun!

In my procrastination, that did not get off the ground. And as Day 2 wrapped up, that party would have been missing its primary planners as partying was the last thing we were feeling like doing.

Ultimately, Dave and I decided two days prior to the start of the walk, it would be best to save our money and return home each night. That turned out to be a good decision. What wasn’t a good decision was making it without including our third partner in the discussion. (I’ll let her fill in the details in on that.)

In the months leading up to the walk, we did a lot more talking about it and looked forward to “seeing” Phoenix one step at a time.

Next up: The Route

Four days. Approximately 55 miles. From east to west. Two good friends. At least 16 (fun) disagreements. Multiple blisters.

Last December I, and two friends, Chrystyna Golloher and Dave Drago, walked across the Phoenix valley. We began on Friday, December 11th, and ended on Monday, December 14th. We did it for a number of reasons; most of those personal. Many thought it was crazy. Most really couldn’t understand.

The idea came about in kind of a humorous way. I was talking to friend Steve Garufi, and he was thinking about things he would do differently if he were to do another bike ride across America again. (Check out his adventure here, Bike Across America.) I mentioned how cool it would be to do that but how improbable it was for me now that I was 50 and in the worst shape of my life.

Steve, always the encourager, said he understood and after a short pause proposed that I should do something like walk across the valley. Walk across the valley?! I was slightly insulted. I wanted to hear something more like, “C’mon, Phil, you could do it with a little training.”

Instead, I get what sounded more reasonable for an old guy – a walk. That did not appeal to me. The Phoenix Valley is flat. What would be so challenging to that?

As the following days passed, thoughts about this suggestion started to take form with me. First, a walk would be good exercise. It would be a great opportunity to think. A walk would provide a one-of-a-kind perspective of Phoenix.

Finally, I realized that in the many years of living in Colorado, every area had one particular mountain peak you had to climb or some other sort of relative, significant geographic challenge. In Colorado Springs, that mountain was Pikes Peak, a 14 thousand plus peak and longest base to summit hike in the state. There was a satisfaction in summiting a peak like that.

The Phoenix valley really doesn’t have mountains. But there are the camelbacks. Camelback Mountain is probably the closest thing to a geographic challenge in the area. I had hiked it. It is a challenging hike, but does not have the significance or feeling like what I would consider a significant area geographic challenge. Everyone climbs on the camelbacks.

And with that, it hit me. What is the most prominent challenge in the Phoenix area relative to its geography? The valley itself! The U.S. Census Bureau reports the valley at 475 square miles. And to this date, I’ve not met anyone who has walked it. So it came to be my challenge. I would walk the valley. If nothing else, for the exercise and to say I did it, at 51.

((Additionally: Almost everyone has assumed this is something that was done for charity OR that should be done with a charity in mine. Chrystyna, Dave, and I talked at length about this. We came to agree that this was about personal goals and reasons. That seems to be an anomaly today as everything seems to be tied to charity. Fact is, all three of us are active and donate to charities of our choice. Tying the Valley Walk to a cause other than what it was about seemed pretentious. Not all personal achievement should or needs to be tied to charities directly. I don’t think it loses meaning nor makes it selfish. It’s okay to just do it.))

Now, as to how Dave and Chrystyna got involved, that is the next part of the story.

Phoenix Valley from Space. (photo courtesy of NASA Landsat)

I have perfected the recipe for popping the perfect bag of popcorn. Seriously.

Call me crazy. Go ahead and laugh uncontrollably. The proof will be in the results you get from the following instructions for popping a Jolly Time bag a microwavable popcorn perfectly, every time.

Materials and ingredients as follows:

ONE bag of Jolly Time microwave popcorn. (I usually buy it at work in the vending machine for 75 cents. Any amount more is a rip-off.) Make sure it has the Good Housekeeping seal of approval on it. That covers your rights for “replacement or refund if defective” — although who you would contact is not clear. To be honest, I have never had a bad bag of Jolly Time! (Unless you I count the one I BURNED up and filled the workplace with that smell of burnt corn.)

ONE microwave oven. I use the one at work. It is a Panasonic which I believe is a commercial model as there is no model reference on the thing.

ONE Napkin

Cooking Instructions: This is where the secrets are found. The setting for popcorn on this particular Panasonic microwave is selection number 8, which when started provides 2.5 minutes of zap time. Before placing the bag proper side up, knead the kernels so that they loosen up. Shake the bag up a few times before laying it out flat in the microwave.

Begin cooking. Listen as the popping of the kernels slow to where the popping frequency reaches about 2-3 seconds between pops.

Now here is the most important part. Stop the microwave by stopping the remaining time left. This is usually 10-15 seconds of what remains of the original 150 seconds of time we started with. (This could also vary depending on the power of the machine you are using.) DO NOT open the bag. Let it simmer in the microwave for an additional minute. Remove bag and again, do not open it for another 2 minutes. I believe this helps create a larger number of half-popped kernels! The best kind. They have the best crunch and flavor. The popped corn is also perfectly cooked.

There you have it. A perfect Jolly Time bag of popcorn.

So I challenge you to try it. Share your results in my comment section. If there is enough collaboration on this, I will publish our results.

All kidding aside, these steps result in the best bags of microwave popcorn! And I recommend the popcorn I’ve been eating since the 60s, Jolly Time!

(It was almost a year ago on my last visit to Colorado that I took the opportunity to “hike” Pikes Peak again, sort of. I descended the 14,110 foot mountain as ascending it was out of the question. I thought it time to put my adventure up here as my visit this year is approaching in about a week.)

July 28, 2009 I got up early to take a hike I had done numerous times as a teenager, only this time, at 50, I would only be going one way … descending Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs’ most famous landmark and America’s mountain. Katherine Lee Bates was inspired on her trip up the Peak to write America the Beautiful. I knew that I was in no shape to hike up it, but I had no idea I really wasn’t in shape to hike DOWN it either!

Pikes Peak is a 13.5 mile hike, one way, and the longest base to summit 14ner of the 56 peaks in Colorado that exceed 14 thousand feet. I had hiked it up and down in a day numerous times 30+ years ago. I knew that the hike down is tough on the body. But I thought I could do this.

It was a great day. I have some video I will put together and post later. Here are the pictures from this day.

Here is a picture of a snow-capped Pikes Peak from Pikes Peak Avenue, downtown Colorado Springs. I took this March 14, 2004.

Entering Manitou Springs that morning. 6:35 A.M.

The Cog Railway depot. Hoping at this point to get on as I had to go standby.

Didn’t take too long before we were above timberline, approximately 11,000 feet.

Arrival Summit Pikes Peak, 14,110 feet. It was just after 9 A.M. Cold. Upper thirties and with the wind chill it had to be in the twenties. My teeth started chattering! Hadn’t experienced that since moving from Colorado over 2 years prior.

The photo op. In the backpack was 4 bottles of Smart water, warm-up pants (which I threw on shortly after this), power bars, blueberries, rain gear.

The trail head.

Clouds forming. Just starting.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

The paths to success are so often painful ones. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon nor were most of the friends I have. I was talking with a co-worker today and admitted that I had been feeling kind of cynical lately, even depressed a bit. They surprised me when they admitted feeling similar. The exchange was short but genuine.

I can only suppose that we all have some rough times where we wonder why things aren’t working out as we thought they would or turning out exactly as we planned, or taking far longer than we anticipated. Am I the only one that has days like this? Add to this add the realization that there are far less days ahead for those of us on the other side of our fifth decade that those days we have passed. Kind of a downer.

It makes reading a list of stories about people that never gave up that much more amazing. Emory.edu has a list of accounts of people that rose above their obstacles, doubts, and failures. It makes me wonder how they did it. How they kept going when they had no reason or encouragement to continue.

Here’s a sample:

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. Not a big deal. But he lost every election for public office until becoming Prime Minister at age 62.

Macy failed seven times before his store in NYC caught on.

Emily Dickinson had only seven poems published while she lived.

Bell telephone was struggling and went to Western Union for help. Bell offered all their rights to them. Western Union rejected it calling the telephone nothing more than an electrical toy.

Hank Aaron went 0 for 5 in his first time at bat with the Milwakee Braves.

From 1974 to 1993, Tom Landry, Check Knoll, Bill Walsh, and Jimmy Johnson won 11 of the 19 Super Bowls. These coaches, all of whom are considered as good as the game as seen, also each recorded the worst records of first season head coaches in league history. O-fers. They did not win a game in those first years.

Johnny Unitas’s first NFL pass was … an interception. Worse, it was returned for a touchdown. Joe Montana’s first big league pass … an interception. In Troy Aikman’s first season, every touchdown pass was countered with two interceptions. Aikman’s first season didn’t include a single victory.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper because his boss thought he lacked imagination. He experienced more than one bankruptcy before Disneyland.

Every cartoon Charles Schultz submitted for his high school was rejected. Ironically, Walt Disney chose not to hire him either.

Sidney Poitier was told after his first audition that he was wasting people’s time and that dishwashing might be more appropriate job for him.

Gertrude Stein submitted poems for almost 20 years before on was accepted.

Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life, to his sister. He kept painting during his life and painted over 800 more.

Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected by 27 publishers.

We’ve all heard the stunning late in life success of?Colonel Sanders and Abraham Lincoln. So many others.

How did they push through the feelings of failure, fear, depression?

What will we accomplish if we stay true to dreams and goals?

Certainly, one’s best days can be ahead, despite the present circumstances that suggest otherwise.

Disclaimer: The following is not for everyone.

I have seen enough of the product or service disclaimers we, as bloggers, seem to feel the need to disclose if we write a recommendation and include an affiliate link. It goes something like this, “I’ve just found the best online service with Awesome Service A. Let me tell you about it! (Please note the following is an affiliate link. If you prefer, here is the direct link … blah, blah, blah.)

Don’t misunderstand, I am not referencing those industries required by law that you disclaim, such as real estate.

You see, if I am reading your blog, following your tweets on Twitter, listening to your conversations, I am doing so because you have my respect. Your reputation or word is valued. Give me a recommendation, and I am not offended that you might receive something in return for that. In business, it is often seen as gratitude. That might be a gift card, tickets to a movie, or cash.

I’ve known of those that paid referral fees. In the restaurant business, an owner commonly comps meals or drinks in gratitude of business sent their way.

Here’s the point. In relationships where your word is your bond, there is integrity. In my world, if I recommend something, I have actually used it myself and liked it. That is why it has my word behind it. I will not nor have not recommended things for the sole purpose of receiving a cash fee. That has always been against my ethics. So when place a link to a book, a vitamin company, an online host, or a service, I do so because I believe in it. I have had a great experience. I feel it is worth it.

Therein lies the difference. Too many today make recommendations for the money, not the personal value. That is why if it even remotely suggested you are not speaking of personal experience, you have no chance of establishing credibility with me. Those marketers pay a high price. They will never get my business again. Worse, I will probably tell others about them.

In the early days of online information, I remember suggesting or promoting anything to be sold on a blog was considered wrong. I never thought that. I thought that was a snobbish attitude. If you have put in the time, the use, and the research, your opinion is valued. And there are situations I would gladly pay for that, particularly if it saves me in time.

Our market has commonly been buyer beware. Or as is. That is another reason why your recommendations are valuable to me.

Let’s face it. I am responsible for my buying decisions. Unless required by law in your industry, you do not owe me a disclaimer nor anyone else. You owe me your integrity. Disclaimers do not make you better, more honest, or superior. Your character does.

Disclaimers are apologies. There’s no reason to apologize. It is not a bad thing if a company offers to offer you a payment for your referral. Especially if the referral is a result of your experience, which often comes as a result of hard work.

Does a disclaimer upset you? I find them pretentious.