Snow on 61

As far as I’m concerned, snow’s highest and best (and possibly only legitimate) use is as a subject for photography on blue highways.

With that in mind, as soon as the highway department got the main roads cleared this weekend, Ron and I grabbed the camera, hopped in the car and headed north on Highway 61 for a Sunday drive.

For my money, this little shrine overlooking the Blues Highway and the floodplain next to it is the coolest thing on 61 south of St. Louis, with the possible exception of that cool arch at the Arkansas-Missouri state line. I saw it for the first time when I was driving south on the Blues Highway from Ste. Genevieve to Cape to interview for my current job, and I fell in love with it immediately. It reminds me of Our Lady of the Highways on Route 66 near Raymond, Ill., although this grotto is a bit more elaborate than the one on 66.

Stuff like this kinda makes me wish I were Catholic. I’m not a huge fan of public displays of theology, but there’s just something reassuring about a roadside shrine.

Emily

PSA: Tracks have rules.

As we approach the new year, with its time-honored tradition of buying gym memberships and abandoning them three weeks later, I’d like to address a point of etiquette too many people ignore:

Track lane usage.

If you join a gym with an indoor track, please take a minute to find out the rules for using that track — and then follow them.

Most gyms ask track users to run clockwise one day and counter-clockwise the next. To avoid head-on collisions, find out the day’s direction before you step onto the track.

Blind curves are an unfortunate reality of most indoor tracks. The shorter the track, the more blind curves per mile — so for safety reasons, gyms with multilane tracks usually designate separate lanes for runners and walkers.

When you run in the walking lane, you risk crashing into an unseen walker as you round a curve. This risk is particularly high at the hospital-owned gym I use, where many walkers are rehabbing from injuries and have limited mobility. They can’t get out of the way if a wrong-lane runner suddenly comes barreling around a curve.

You also risk confusing walkers, who may end up in the running lane in an effort to stay out of your way. This endangers both the walker and any runners who might be cruising along in the correct lane, unaware that a slow-moving obstacle is just around the curve. There is a big difference between a 10:00 mile (my top sustainable speed) and a 20:00 mile, and if I come around the corner at 6 mph to find someone dawdling along at half that speed, I have little time to react.

This is annoying at best — I’ve just been forced to alter my pace for no good reason — and dangerous at worst, as it forces me to risk injury by stopping on a dime or changing directions abruptly to avoid a painful collision.

This scenario is even more dangerous on outdoor trails shared by cyclists and pedestrians, as the speeds are faster, and bikes tend to be harder and have more pointy edges than people. Trust me: You don’t want to be involved in the aftermath of running in the bike lane, or vice versa.

For safety’s sake, stay in your lane.

Please pass this information along to anyone who might be thinking of joining a gym after the holidays. A little forethought can prevent a lot of pain.

Emily