Hello All! I have returned.

I decided to stop celebrating National Days at the beginning of this year, and have been on the lookout for something to take it’s place. I did enjoy having something to write about here, as well as a goal of something to accomplish each day.

Yesterday, I re watched the movie Julie & Julia. It reminded me how much I loved this blog and that I needed to get back to it. So here we are.

I will acknowledge this ONCE: This is officially the nerdiest thing I have ever done. This blog is taking an extreme turn toward the nerdy. While this may turn many of you off from the blog, I encourage you to stick around. If you’ve enjoyed any of my musings, those will still be here. There will also be pictures.

So, here we go.

As I’ve mentioned many times before on this blog, I love walking. I developed and cultivated my love for walking when I was walking 300+ miles on El Camino de Santiago de Compostela. It’s something I love most about New York City, and I understand more about why that is each time I go for a walk.

I also love Lord Of The Rings.

A few weeks ago I was watching Lord Of The Rings again, and got to thinking. They sure walked a lot. They sure saw a lot. They sure learned a lot of things.

A quick Google Search lead me to Nerd Fitness: A Hobbit’s Guide To Walking, and the Google Drive File Walking To Mordor Challenge.

And I decided to do it.

I enjoy walking. I’m healthy enough to do it. I live in one of the greatest walking cities in the world. I live across the street from one of the greatest parks in the world. And it sounds fun. So why not?!

So I bought a map of Middle Earth, hung it on my wall, put a little figurine of myself in Hobbiton, and started walking.

It’s been a few weeks now, and I’ve walked just over 60 miles. While I was originally shy about this thing I was doing, everyone I mentioned it to was pretty excited about it. I also got the question, “what are you going to do once you get there?”

GREAT QUESTION.

Here’s what I’ve decided. I am going to walk to Mordor (1700 miles), and back. Throughout this walking, I will also be saving money from not taking the train, and hopefully just from putting some money aside. Once I have completed this journey, I will make the journey to New Zealand and visit Middle Earth for real!

I’m looking forward to this! My favorite thing about walking is the camaraderie that comes with it and this will be more of a solo journey for me, but that probably won’t be a bad thing. And if any of my friends and family think they won’t end up walking around with me, they are very wrong. You’ll get sucked in. Just wait.

So, I invite you to join me on this journey. It’s going to take a while, but there will sure be a lot of things to see along the way!

Each post will have an update on my mileage and money saved towards my trip to Middle Earth (a la 2 Broke Girls), favorite photo during my walk, stories or thoughts from the walk, and where I am on Frodo and Sam’s path.

Also, if anyone else feels like taking up this challenge, let me know! We’ll keep each other posted of our progress!

Logistics:

• I am keeping track of mileage with my FitBit, which counts all of my steps all day. These steps will count towards my journey only on days when I actually leave my apartment.
• I do not anticipate daily updates, but I hope it will be at least 4 times a week.
• It is my hope that I will start running at some point, but it is still TBD if I will count miles walked or run on the treadmill. My gut reaction is that only outdoor runs should count, but we’ll see.