Spring Grove Park
Ben enjoyed walking in Spring Grove Park. His preference, though, was The River Bend Forest Preserve because it was more isolated and there was always the chance of seeing deer and wildflowers. At Spring Grove all of the paths are paved with asphalt instead of gravel so he didn’t get rocks in his walking shoes, and it was also about five minutes closer to the office so he could take a longer walk.
The drive to Spring Grove Park was about seven or eight minutes depending on the traffic lights, just enough time for Ben to eat his lunch in the car. His typical lunch was a wrap, usually ham, cheese, and truffle mayonnaise. Amy tried to spice things up at times, or change it from a wrap to a sandwich, but Ben could eat the same thing every day of the week and not care. It was an idiosyncrasy that Amy didn’t understand when she would ask, “Did you want turkey or ham on your wrap today?” “I don’t care,” Ben would reply. “How about some lettuce?” Amy would ask, frustrated in Ben’s lack of decision making. “Sure, if you want to put it on there,” Ben would comment, indifferent to Amy’s attempts to vary Ben’s lunch.
Amy would shake her head each time, never understanding how Ben could eat the same thing every day.
As Ben pulled out of the office parking lot, he already had his lunch bag open and the wrap was is in his hand. His only worry while eating was that some mayonnaise might spill out of the wrap and onto his shirt. With the wrap shoved down his throat by the time his car arrived at the first traffic light, it was time to negotiate the container of small carrots in his lunch bag. Amy grew tired of suggesting to Ben that he should add celery or other vegetables, but Ben liked the small carrots because he didn’t have to cut things up if he was putting his lunch together. He would pour the carrots out of the bag and into the weathered, plastic container he had used for years.
Arriving at the parking lot of Spring Grove, Ben pulled into the same spot that he tried to park in every day. He opened the car door to reveal a perfect, summer day, and he changed from his nicer, work shoes into his walking shoes. Ben popped in his headphones, selected his exercise playlist which hadn’t changed in five years, set his tracking watch, and headed to the walking path.
Ben had his lunch walk timed like a Swiss clock. Seven minutes to the park from the office, seven minutes back, a couple of minutes to change his shoes, and he had calculated that, on most days, there were about forty minutes to walk. For his pace, that was just enough time for two trips around the park.
Ben was happy that Spring Grove Park wasn’t a typical, neighborhood park, the kind that might have a playground, maybe a baseball diamond, and some open land. Spring Grove was, on the other hand, a sports complex dropped into some nice areas of nature. There were five baseball fields tucked in one corner of the park, and Ben was still surprised that the park had batting cages. “I should try those some day,” he would think nearly every time he walked past them, “If only I had some extra time.” He also thought how foolish he would probably look to the kids as he whiffed nearly every try.
In addition to the ball fields, the park had an abundant number of soccer fields, football fields, tennis courts, and a water park. Near the concession stand in the middle of the park was a miniature golf course that Ben wished he had time to play as he would think back to when he was a pre-teen and his youth was filled with miniature golf.
Today, though, like most every day, was about the walk for Ben.
The trip along the walking path, which circled the park, was about a mile long. Ben was able to complete the two trips around the park at a decent pace that didn’t make him sweaty when he returned to work.
While heading to the walking path, he checked the American flag that was flowing in the breeze by one of the baseball diamonds. The flag showed that the breeze was from the south, so Ben started his journey toward the south end of the park knowing that he would have a breeze in his face at the end of the walk.
“I shouldn’t be too hot when I’m done,” Ben thought.