Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K - Chapter 10

It’s another beautiful day outside, the sky is just starting to get a few clouds in it. AJ is sitting at the dining room table on her laptop while Cooper and Carson are in the living room watching Scooby Doo. She says to the boys, “You guys want to go to a park and ride your bikes?”

“Yeah!!” they reply, Carson turns off the TV, and they get their shoes on.

AJ puts her shoes on and they go in the garage, put their bikes in the back of the truck under the tonneau cover and get in her truck.

They get about halfway to the park, the clouds open up and rain starts coming down in buckets. She turns her windshield wipers on high. Previously AJ would have just turned the truck around and gone home. However, this time she says to the boys, “Bummer it’s raining, guess we will go to the mall instead of the park.

Carson responds, “Awe man!”

AJ turns at the next intersection to go in the direction of the mall instead of the park. Cooper had fallen asleep in the truck and wakes up, looking out the window and sees the mall. “What are we doing here?” asks Cooper.

“With it raining we have to walk in the mall,” replies AJ. She finds a parking space and says to the boys, “All right boys, let’s get out on one side of the truck, take my hands and let’s run inside.”

They get out of their seats, AJ opens the door, and they jump out, take her hands, and they all run inside with the rain pouring down and splashing in the puddles along the way.

They make it under the overhang and go in through the glass and wood doors that have antler door handles. The boys let go of her hands and run over to the huge towering stone fireplace with a roaring fire. AJ is close behind them, reaches out and takes both of their hands.

“Come on boys, let’s get going inside. If you boys are good walking in the mall we will come back and go on the pontoon boats and 4-wheelers,” she says to them.

The boys cooperate and walk with her through the turnstile entrance, saying hello to the elderly gentleman greeter. Walking straight ahead they go to the 23,000 gallon fish tank and make faces at the fish swimming around the tank.

“Let’s get moving boys,” she says to them and tugs on their hands. Going around the corner they come across the NASCAR display and Cooper has to stop and look at everything. AJ lightly tugs on Cooper’s hand, and they continue to the large wood and glass doors that go out into the mall.

Going to the right and staying to the right the boys continue to hold AJ’s hands. Cooper has to slow down in front of all the shoe stores.

They stop at the pretzel store and she tells them, “We can stop another time.” Both boys make disappointed faces, but continue walking. They walk down all the entrance hallways. Passing by the ice cream stand they all take a deep sniff of the freshly baked waffle cones.

AJ and the boys continue to the right.

“This store has basketball shoes and jerseys,” comments Cooper.

“And this one too,” he continues as they go by another store.

The one corridor has very few people in it and the boys start skipping. As they turn the corner out of the corridor they switch back to walking and Carson pulls AJ and Cooper along towards the white Dodge Ram 1500 that is sitting in the middle of the hallway.

Cooper then pulls them towards the arcade place with all the bright flashing lights and video game sounds. “Ok guys, let’s slow down a bit. We have to watch where we are going. Also, we are not going into the arcade today.”

A short distance from the arcade is Legoland Discovery Center and the boys love looking at all the different Lego building sets. It’s a slow walk through the store area.

“Can we go inside?” the boys ask.

“Not today, but we will be back,” replies AJ. She tugs on their hands, and they follow her out of the store and continuing on to the right.

Rounding the bend there is a strong smell of popcorn in the air as they walk closer to the movie theater. The sign with 14 different movies comes into view. They walk close to the theater, see all the boxes of candy and take in the freshly popped popcorn smell. No Scooby Doo movies at this time, just new movies. The boys are frown in disappointment.

Continuing along the right side of the mall they come to the alligator in the front of Rain Forest Cafe. Cooper walks close by the mouth and the alligator opens his mouth and roars, Cooper jumps back a few inches and Carson laughs. “Come on boys, let’s continue on,” AJ says to them.

Following along to the right they come to the SeaLife Aquarium. The boys are excited to see the small aquarium in the front area.

Carson says, “We want to go in.”

“Boys, we will come back here another day. Today we are just walking inside the mall,” replies AJ. After a few moments of looking at the fish in the aquarium AJ tugs on the boys’ hands, and they go with her down the hallway of the mall looking in the windows of the stores.

The carousel is on their left as they reach the food court area, and they can hear the Calliope music. AJ takes the boys over to the carousel, buys them tickets, and they get in line. The carousel is going around counter clockwise and slowly comes to a stop. The children and adults get off the carousel and the attendant opens the gate for everyone to enter.

Carson goes to the black horse while Cooper goes to a white horse. AJ sits in the chariot that is being pulled by a dolphin. The other children and adults are going to their choices of where to sit. The attendant closes the gate, walks around the carousel taking the tickets from all the passengers and starts the carousel going. It goes around for 2 minutes with the horses going up and down, the teacup spinning around in circles and the dolphins going back and forth. The carousel slowly comes to a stop, the attendant opens the gate and everyone gets off.

Cooper says, “That was fun!”

“Yeah!” Carson agrees.

“Alright, let’s continue on,” replies AJ.

As they walk back into the hallway the smell of fresh popped popcorn is filling the air. “Boys, how would you like some popcorn?” AJ asks them.

“Yeah!” they both reply.

“Ok, we will get some and take it home with us to watch Scooby Doo. Remember on our way out we are going to get on the boats and four-wheelers,” AJ informs them.

Carson picks out a bag of rainbow fruit flavored popcorn. Cooper chooses the caramel corn and AJ picks out the kettle corn.

Across from the popcorn stand is the store where they came in. Going back into the store they go through the turnstile. They walk up on the wood plank bridge that crosses over the duck pond with the waterwheel that is turning as the water cascades down into the pond where there are also bright orange Koi fish.

Carson leads the way to the left where they walk through the fishing department and get to the pontoon boats that are on display. He walks up the stairs to get onto the pontoon. Carson sits down in the captain’s chair, Cooper sits at the back on the lounger and AJ takes pictures of the boys. There are three different styles of pontoon boats and the boys have to go on all three of them.

Across from the pontoons are the four-wheelers, Carson jumps down from the pontoon boat and gets up on a bright red four-wheeler. Cooper runs over and gets into a bright lime green Wildcat XX ATV. “I want this one!” he says.

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that Cooper!” AJ says to him as she reads the price tag and sees it is over $20,000. “You better start saving your pennies,” she jokingly tells him.

Carson comes over and gets in the passenger seat. “I like it too!” he says.

“You guys are killing me,” she laughs. “Ok boys, time to get going home.” They climb out of the Wildcat XX and take her hands.

They get to the doors to go outside, the sun is shining and the clouds have dispersed. “Alright! This is awesome. When we get home you guys can play outside.” AJ tells the boys.

“Yeah!” they reply and walk, holding AJ’s hands, to the truck.

Arriving home AJ pulls the truck in the garage and everyone gets out of the truck. Carson grabs his bike and Cooper gets his basketball. The boys are playing and smiling in the warmth and sunshine. AJ takes the bags of popcorn inside, sets them on the kitchen table, grabs her tablet and sits down on the front porch to watch the boys and read her e-book.

Continue Reading - Chapter 11