Thank You Thursday

All winter I have been running on the treadmills in the PAC Annex (Pentagon Athelic Center) in Crystal City. Since the weather has turned nice, I have started running outside along the Mount Vernon Trail. It's a really nice, paved trail along the Potomac River. Running from the PAC Annex up to the 14th Street bridge is approximately 2 miles, so it makes for a nice 4 mile run going up there and back again.

Blunoz self-portrait on the Mt. Vernon Trail

Flashback. Scenic paths like this are one of the reasons I cited for wanting to leave Hawaii and move back to Virginia. I never could understand why there was so much trash (and resultant SMELL) along the bike path around Pearl Harbor.

Well, one reason became apparent to me as I was running on the Mt. Vernon Trail.

Segue into Thank You Thursday post...

I want to offer kudos and a special note of thanks to the National Park Service dude who was sweeping debris off the trail. It's been raining a lot in the evenings lately, and there were a few patches of the trail where muddy sand and gravel had been washed across the path. This guy in his National Park Service shirt with a little white pickup truck pulled over on the side of the trail was sweeping the stuff off and clearing the path.

As I was jogging by, I told him "thank you so much for doing that." He responded with a warm smile and held his fist out toward me, so I held my fist out and tapped knuckles with him as I ran by.

Random aside: What does one call the gesture where one guy holds out his fist, and another guy responds by holding his fist out and touching knuckles?

Chalk that up as another reason I was glad to move back to Virginia - people have manners here. It's the little things. People say "excuse me" and "thank you." On the trail, bikes will ring their bell to let you know they're going to pass you. I normally give them a quick wave to let them know I heard them and it's safe to pass, and several of the guys on bikes have said something like "thank you for the wave" as they pass by me.

So my second note of thanks on this Thank You Thursday post is to the bicyclists on the Mt. Vernon Trail who are courteous and share the path with the joggers.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to turn this into a Hawaii-bashing post. There are certainly lots of positive things about Hawaii. I'm just highlighting some of the positive aspects of living in Virginia instead of Hawaii and giving thanks for the good things I've seen on the Mt. Vernon Trail lately.