It seemed the weather gods were testing the Piedmont Recreation Department's Wednesday walkers last week. It had rained Tuesday night and the forecast was for occasional showers on Wednesday morning. At 10:15 a.m., 15 minutes before they were scheduled to begin their walk, the rain came down in buckets. Ten of them with umbrellas were not deterred.
The group was pleased to welcome first-time walker Peter Persoff, who had read about Walking on Wednesdays in the Recreation Department's Activity Guide. For perhaps the first time, there were no K-9 best friends, leading one walker to speculate that only mad dogs and Wednesday walkers go out in the mid-morning rain.
Noemi Alvarado explained that spring officially would start at 2:58 p.m. that day, so it was the group's last winter walk. By 10:30, the rain had stopped, making the walk a pleasant experience.
In discussing options for routes to walk, the group considered revisiting Dracena Park to see the site where four huge eucalyptus trees had been removed a couple of weeks before. The group had been fascinated by tree cutters high in the trees' branch- es working away in heavy rain.
The second destination was Manor Drive, a street the group had not previously walked. The third was a home on Fairview Avenue that had been featured on the front page of the Post the week before. The house had won an award from the City as the year's Excellent Seamless Upper Level house project. Fairview Avenue was on the group's way back to the Exedra, the starting point, so seeing the award winning house was an easy bonus to the day's walk.
The walkers headed off for Dracena Park on Bonita Avenue, down Blair Avenue to Dracena Avenue and the upper part of Dracena Park. The change since the walkers' visit two weeks before was apparent. The large trees were gone, landscaping had been done, and the area was more open and attractive. The group continued down Park Way to a hairpin turn where the street seamlessly becomes Monticello Avenue. Turning left on Arroyo, they walked down two blocks to
Manor Drive, walking its two-block length to Blair Avenue where they took a short jog over to Jerome Avenue.
Crossing Oakland Avenue they were nearly at the front door of the home on Fairview Avenue.
where they stopped tor a group photo. The walkers made their way back to Magnolia Avenue and up the hill to the Exedra, a 2-mile 90-minute morning walk with only a few sprinkles of rain.
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