Category Archives: Los Gatos Creek Trail

Happy Birthday Springfield Al!

A quick note to say “Happy Birthday, Albert!” to our very good friend, Springfield Al.

Looking at the calendar, I can see it’s been about 25 years since we first met Al as a neighbor at our former residence. And though he / we waved to one another from across the street, we didn’t really get to know one another until ’91 or ’92, when we started bicycling a fair amount and a year or two later, learning to rollerblade.

Through some set of discussions & negotiations, Al and I each got a set of blades and took to the sidewalks to enjoy what was then the latest physical fitness craze. Turns out that sidewalks are uneven, cracked and have lots of tree-crap that has fallen on them so, basically what we’re talking about is as close to death-trap as a 40+ beginning blader wants to get.

Ah, I know, we’ll each carry a house broom in front of us for balance… like a hockey stick. Yeah, that’s the ticket… and that kinda worked, but not really. Oh, how about going to a local school basketball court where there’s smooth asphalt and wide open spaces? Yep, that did it. Before long, we were rolling and scootching all around the courts and, heck, we even got rid of the broom (after we’d swept the pebbles off the courts, that is.) From there we, ahem, (pardon the pun) graduated to racing around the school corridors on the shoe-slicked concrete – woo hoo!

Until that one corner that was snot-slick, that is. Ok, maybe we’ll avoid that corner in the future.

And from there we moved to the Los Gatos Creek Trail / Parcourse and cruised in to Los Gatos… a 16 mile lap. Seems we did that 2 or 3 times a week, then adding bicycling for variety and, voila… we were having lots of fun.

And we’ve had hundreds… no, thousands, of hours of fun since then. And like only long-time friends can do, we’ve helped each other get through our share of sadness as we’ve lost members of our families, friends, jobs and relationships. Life, huh?

These days we make it point to get our daily bike ride in as part of our morning-coffee ritual. Rain or shine, hot or freezing (as it is this morning), Springfield Al and I are out and about… Al calls it the “Amble through Campbell”.

So, Happy Birthday, Albert(!), I’m about to amble down for your birthday breakfast at Stacks 🙂

hal, joanne, The TwoBigCats, penny & pepper-do-you-want-her