Unexpected exercise

My wife and I are suffering from a workout we got while visiting San Antonio over the weekend.

We didn’t really plan for a great deal of physical activity – it just sorta worked out that way.

And now we are sore.

So sore.

Especially the sore, sore muscles in our sore, sore legs.

Here’s what happened:

My wife and our oldest child were able to join me at the 128^th Texas Press Association Convention in San Antonio.

Friday evening, we decided to go to a restaurant to get a bite to eat.

We agreed on a restaurant and found it on the map.

A distance of .7 miles isn’t really that far to walk, we decided.

And truth be told, it wouldn’t have been, if we hadn’t lost our way, like we always do.

We decided to walk along the Riverwalk from the hotel to the restaurant. I drew a very good and detailed map, but when we got downstairs to the Riverwalk, there was one minor issue.

Which way is south?

Left or right?

We didn’t have a compass, although that would have been very useful. (Seems like they could build those into cell phones these days, couldn’t they?)

If it hadn’t been so overcast, I probably could have figured it out based on the direction of the setting sun, but there were appropriately dark and foreboding gray skies overhead – no help there.

So, we were faced with two choices: Return to the hotel for a more detailed map, or just take a guess.

Heck, there was a 50-50 chance of being right, wasn’t there?

My wife noticed that more people seemed to be walking from the left, so obviously, that must be the way toward the part of the Riverwalk littered with restaurants, hotels, shops, etc.

And so we went left.

The City of San Antonio kindly places maps along the edge of the Riverwalk every so often and we stopped to examine each one we passed in an effort to confirm we were going the right direction.

Unfortunately, these maps didn’t show things such as north, south, east or west, and the street we were headed for was also not on the map, so these maps were pretty much… useless for us.

We kept going, though.

I think it was about a half a mile later when it finally dawned on me that we were going the wrong way as we got farther and farther from civilization.

We turned back.

So, what should have been a .7 mile trip ended up being a 1.7 mile trip, but we were happy to find our destination. Of course, round trip, at least the way we did it, was 2.4 miles – a pretty good hike, especially with a four-year-old with us.

We slept good that night, but little did we know that there was more exercise waiting for us the next morning.

There was a 30-minute break between the last convention training session and the start of the Farewell Brunch, which we thought would be ample time for us to check out of our room and get our bags down to the car.

The three of us grabbed our luggage and our daughter pressed the "down" button on the elevator, which is something she really, really loves to do.

Here’s an important note:

Our room was on the 19^th floor of a 20-floor hotel.

We waited, and after about five minutes the elevator doors opened.

Full. Completely jam-packed full.

Not even room for a mouse.

"That’s okay," we told them. "We’ll catch the next one."

Five minutes later and the second elevator arrived.

Full.

Patience is a virtue, I told myself and smiled.

Five minutes later and the third elevator arrived.

Full.

"Patience is one thing," I thought. "But this is getting ridiculous."

I started looking for stairs. I did not want to miss the farewell brunch!

My wife reminded me that we were on the 19^th floor and with all we were carrying, the stairs would be a little… difficult.

"Okay," I thought. "Certainly this fourth elevator will have enough room on it for the three of us."

The fourth elevator arrived about 20 minutes after my daughter had pushed the button for the first time.

You guessed it.

Full.

I let out a very deep and heavy sigh.

"Alright, let’s take the stairs."

I heard a gasp that came from the crowd in the fourth elevator just before its doors closed and we turned and started walking toward the stairwell.

It took a very, very long time for the three of us and all our stuff to reach the lobby of the hotel, and even then after reaching the lobby, we still had to hike more than 200 yards to where our car was parked. After stowing our gear, we set out for the farewell brunch which was in a ballroom about 300 yards from where our car was parked.

And now you know why our legs are sore.

So sore.

More sore than they have ever been.

My dad said we should have just thrown our suitcases down from a window.

That might have helped some, but I’m sure we’d still be feeling the aches and pains that go along with having bodies that are in "less than optimal" physical condition.

We’ve been planning to get the family on a better exercise regimen when the new park opens up, which is happening this weekend.

I think that’s probably a good idea, cause you never know what kinds of surprises life may throw at you.