Area walks – Page 5 – Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers

Mar – April 2016 Upcoming Events

Bellevue Walk Prewalk–Saturday, March 26 at 9 a.m., Thanksgiving Lutheran Church, 36^th& Hwy 370, Bellevue. Please arrive 15 minutes early to register. Restrooms will be available at the start. See below for trail descriptions. $1.50 for fun walkers and $3.00 for credit walkers. Exact change is appreciated.

Trailblazers Spring Event-Saturday, April 2, Thanksgiving Lutheran Church, 36^th & Hwy 370. Start times 9-12, finish by 3. There will be a 6 K (Hilly, picturesque trail) a 5 K (out and back, fairly flat trail) and a 10 K trail that follows a hike bike trail. Come see the pretty spring flowers!

Monthly Meeting-Monday, April 4 at 7 p.m. Our monthly meeting will be at Morning Star Lutheran Church. Our program will be Marilyn Asher speaking about Prison Ministry.

Magician showing a trick. Notice that his hands are so fast you can't even see them? — Magician showing a trick. Notice that his hands are so fast you can’t even see them?

Highlights from our March meeting magician program!

Group Walk– Nebraska City YRE-Date to be announced. The apple blossoms should be blooming. A great walk through a historic downtown, through Arbor Lodge State Historical Park and past the Lied Conference Center.

Feb – Mar Upcoming Events

Westroads Group Walk – Saturday, February 20th. Meet near the children’s play area between Penney’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods at 7:45 a.m. so we can start walking at 8 a.m. We will have the walkbox there for registration. 5k and 10k options available. Credit walkers pay $3; Fun walkers pay $1.50. Exact change is appreciated!

Soup Walk Workers’ Walk – Saturday, February 27th at 1 p.m. St. Vincent de Paul Church, 14330 Eagle Run Drive in the gathering space of the church (inside, but we have to be quiet). Restrooms will be available. 5k and 10k options available. Arrive about 15 minutes early so walkers can start at 1 p.m. Fun walkers pay $1.50. Exact change is appreciated!

Soup Walk – Saturday, March 5 at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 14330 Eagle Run Drive, Omaha, NE – use school entrance with “St. Vincent de Paul” above the door. Start times 9 a.m. -12 a.m., finish by 3 p.m. 5k and 10k options available. Bring two cans of soup; one for the Food Bank and one to share. Make sure to save some time for soup and conversation after the walk. There will be some fun prizes at the raffle. Raffle tickets are still a bargain at $.50 or 3 for $1.

Lincoln St. Patrick’s Day Workers’ Walk – Sunday, March 6th at 1 p.m. See directions below.

Monthly Meeting – Monday, March 7th at 7 p.m. Our monthly meeting will be at Morning Star Lutheran Church. We will have a musician (Walter Graham) showing us his tricks before a short business meeting and snacks.

Lincoln St. Patrick’s Day Walk – Saturday, March 12th, start 9 a.m.-11a.m., be off the trail by 1 p.m. New location! Fallbrook YMCA, 700 Penrose Drive, Lincoln, NE. From I-80 East & West: take EXIT 401(US 34), west on US 34 to Fallbrook Blvd North, it will change name to Tallgrass Parkway after a “roundabout”, continue on Tallgrass to Penrose; right on Penrose to YMCA on left. From south: take I-180 north from downtown to where it becomes US34, & follow above directions

Des Moines St. Patrick’s Day Walk – Saturday, March 19th, start 9 a.m. -11 a.m., finish by 1:30 p.m. Start Point is at the VFW, 4029 Urbandale Ave, Des Moines, IA 50310. The route is on city sidewalks and recreational trails, From 1-35/I-80: take exit 131 (Merle Hay Rd), go south to Urbandale Ave, then left (east) to start point.

February – Save the Dates!

From Club President Sandy Spaulding:

Monthly Meeting – Monday, February 1 at 7 p.m. Our monthly meeting will be at Morningstar Lutheran Church. We will have a speaker discussing Air Quality. Come to hear what can keep us breathing better. With the weather forecast, remember that the meeting will be cancelled if school is cancelled.

Shelby Soup Cook Off – Saturday, February 6 from 5-7 p.m, Cardinal Lofts (old school gym) at 304 Western Ave, Shelby, IA. Cost last year was $6 per person for all the soup you can eat. Very yummy and a lot of fun. They also hold a raffle and our group has won a lot of prizes in the past few years. We like to support this event as it provides funds for the Stone Arch Trail which we use for our Shelby year round event. We will carpool to this event so let me know if you would like to ride or drive.

Des Moines Skywalk – Saturday, February 13, start times 8-12, finish by 3. Start point is in the Kaleidoscope at The Hub Food Court (third floor), 555 Walnut, Des Moines, IA. There are two trails available, one entirely in the skywalk and another outdoors. Pets are not allowed in the skywalk system. If there is interest, we may carpool to this event. Butch and I will not be able to attend, but let me know if you want to carpool or drive and I will pass the information along.

Westroads Group Walk – Saturday, February 20. Meet near the children’s play area between J C Penney and Dick’s Sporting Goods at 7:45 so we can start walking at 8 a.m. We will have the walkbox there for registration.

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!

In the next few days, the Points of Contact (POCs) for our Year Round Events will be changing out the stamps and papers in their respective Walk Boxes. If you are an early-year walker and encounter a problem at any of our walk boxes, please drop us a note and we’ll resolve the problem.

President Sandy wants to make sure that everyone has the following 2 pieces of information. You may have received this information by email, but if not, drop us a note and we’ll get you added to our email list.

Just a reminder about our upcoming events:

ANNUAL DINNER

WHEN: Saturday January 23, 2016

WHERE: Valentino’s 108th & O St, Omaha

TIME: Social Time 5:30 PM to 6:00 PM – Start eating about 6:00 PM – Annual Meeting start about7:00 PM

COST: Members $10.00 – Non Members $13.59. Payment should be sent to the club address (NWFT PO Box 8147, Omaha, NE 68108) to be received by January 16, 2016

Come and meet the club officers for 2016 and find out walkers choice for Walker of the Year for 2015.

CAR POOL TO DES MOINES FOR NEW YEAR’S DAY MALL WALK

WHEN: Friday, January 1, 2016 at 7:15 a.m.

WHERE: Meet at Mall of the Bluffs, old JC Penney parking lot. Take exit 5 (Madison Avenue) from I-80 in Council Bluffs, turn left to second traffic light, turn right between HyVee and Bucky’s, go to first cross street. Park in lot on right after the cross street. If this area is not clear, park on the left as close to this parking area as possible.

TIME: Meet at 7:15, leave promptly at 7:30. Plans are to return around 3 p.m.

This walk is inside the mall. An optional outside walk route is available. Check out the post- holiday sales and group lunch in the food court. Let me know if you would like to ride or drive to this event. This event may be cancelled if the roads are icy.

If you have anything you would like to donate for the Soup walk raffle, you can bring it to the annual dinner or to the February meeting.

See you soon.

Sandy

New faces, new places!

Welcome to our 2016 Club Officers, shown in the picture here at our December club meeting. These are the smiling faces you’ll see at our meetings, events and walks. Be sure to say “Hi!” to Tricia, Larry, Sandy and Butch when you see them. Thank you to our 2015 club president, Mel, and we’re looking forward to his return to walking when he’s feeling better.

At the December club meeting, we closed out our voting for our 2015 Walker of the Year. And the winner is . . . to be announced at our Annual Meeting, to be held this year at Valentino’s, 5022 S 108th St, Omaha, NE 68137. Cost for members is only $10; non-members pay $13.59. Neither price includes a tip, so bring a couple of bucks for those hard-working servers. The date is Saturday, January 23rd. Social time starts at 5:30, dinner at 6, and the short business meeting at 7 p.m.

We are lining up carpools for the January and February events in Des Moines, a mall walk and a skywalk, respectively, so it will be good walking weather (inside). A group walk of the Westroads Mall Walk (a year-round) is set for Saturday, February 20th at 8 a.m. Our first “traditional” event of the year is scheduled for March 5th in NW Omaha, our April event in Bellevue, and our May event at Prairie Queen Recreation area, west of Werner Park in Papillion. Come join us for some new places to walk in 2016!

What to do if there isn’t a walk scheduled? Walk, of course!

We don’t have regular walks scheduled this next weekend, so why not take advantage of one of our year round walks? Also, two workers’ walks are coming up (remember to show up early to take care of all the paperwork and that restrooms may not be available):

1) Sat. 10/24 at 9 a.m. for the Pie Walk at Morning Star Lutheran Church, 331 S. 85th Ave, Omaha , NE 68114. Date of the actual walk is November 7th starting at 9 a.m.

2) Sun. 10/25 at 3 p.m. for the Lincoln Volkssport Club’s Wyuka Cemetery Walk. The Lincoln club reports that they are very short on volunteers for the walk on Halloween. Email us and we’ll get the word to our neighbor club! The actual event is scheduled for October 31st, starting at the Wyuka Cemetery Stables, 3600 ‘O’ Street, Lincoln, NE, registration from 8:45 to 10:15 a.m., off the trail by 12:15 p.m. due to a limited rental agreement. And yes, the Huskers play at 11 a.m. but in West Lafayette, Indiana, so traffic won’t be a problem!

July and August Activities

A capacity crowd of 20 showed up at Ted and Wally’s in Omaha’s Old Market on Monday, July 13th. Participants report that it was a “tasteful” experience.

Club members Butch and Sandy Spaulding organized a spontaneous group walk of the Bennington Lakes Year Round walk on Saturday, July 18th. A total of 7 folks enjoyed the gardens at the Start Point, and beat most of the day’s heat by walking early in the day. Want a walking partner for any of our year rounds? Send us an email at netrailblazers@gmail.com and we’ll put the word out!

Our next scheduled club activity is a group walk of the Ashland Year Round on Saturday, August 15th at 8:30 a.m. Save some time in your schedule to have lunch at Cheri O’s and/or a visit to the SAC Museum nearby! The organizer for this event is club president Mel Bohn, who can be reached by personal email or by the club email at netrailblazers@gmail.com.

Our regular season of Traditional or Regular Events begins in September. If you didn’t get flyers for our first 4 walks of the season, let us know! More information to be posted in September.