Shinn the Writer

I had felt sluggish all day. I woke up a little before 7:00 and didn’t feel like trying to get to sleep again, so I went out to breakfast and returned to fall asleep on my couch. This never works well, and I got up about 11:00 feeling groggy. At 2:30 I left for my piano lesson only to find it had been cancelled. Determined to do something productive (and exercise the grogginess out of me) I decided to do my eighth walk. I guessed that a light sweatshirt would be about right, and it was a good call. A comfortable breeze made for another comfortable outing.

You’d think I’d be familiar with the Kensington Library parking lot, but I parked at the north end before realizing that the south end would be closer to both the start and end of my walk, so I moved the hundred yards or so. This turned out to be a bit unfortunate at the end.

For now I crossed Arlington, entering the south end of Rincon Rd. behind the Community Church, and headed a surprisingly uphill north. I followed Rincon to its other end, also at Arlington Ave. then turned back downhill, turning right on Kerr Ave. On Kerr I saw something totally unexpected, a new house under construction. I thought Kensington had long since been built out. Kerr then bends left, becoming Edwin Dr., a seriously downhill stretch of walk, enough to hurt my knees as they braced each step. Many roads in Kensington do so.

I reached the end of Edwin at Highgate Rd., a fairly long stretch to the left, but just a few yards to the right where it merges with Franciscan Way and they both become Contra Costa Rd. as it flows into El Cerrito. The map showed this all clearly. I made the 160-degree turn and headed south on Franciscan Way a few yards before turning right on Anson Way, which quickly bent left into a north-south road. At its south end, Anson ran into Eureka Ave. I turned right and in a few yards reached another crossing into El Cerrito. I turned around to do the somewhat longer stretch of Eureka, which ended at Franciscan Way.

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I had to first turn left, heading uphill to the corner of Anson, then came back downhill. I saw a house that for some unknown reason made me think that if I were house hunting, it would be a contender. But I wasn’t, so I pressed on. I soon felt that I should see Reed Place on my left. The sign was very hard to find, but it was there, and I turned left. Like many short cul-de-sacs in Kensington, it’s sometimes hard to tell where the street ends and where a driveway begins. The map showed a straight road, a bit longer than this, but when I followed a short bend to the right, I found three more houses! To be sure I got all of it, I went to its end. Returning toward Franciscan Way, I saw another mail truck and thought I’d ask if the bend was still Reed Pl. or if I’d walked a driveway. Before I could say anything, the letter carrier asked me how my walks were coming along. She was the same one I’d met three days earlier on Kensington Rd.! She informed me that indeed what I had walked was part of Reed Place.