Monday, June 1, 2009

Sunday Strolling in PTC

Yesterday James and I drove over to Peachtree City (known in these parts as PTC) to go walking. You might ask why we drove to another city in another county just to take a walk. Yes, we live in a nice neighborhood with wide streets and little traffic. But, well, it's boring to look at the same houses that you drive by every day, and we have zero shade in our neighborhood.

When James first got transferred to his new division, he lived in an apartment in Peachtree City. PTC is a planned community, and it has over 90 miles of golf cart paths. Yes, you read that right. Not because they have that many golf courses. These are public golf cart paths all over the entire city, and most residents get around town by golf cart. At all shopping centers and restaurants, even the Wal-Mart, they have designated golf cart parking spots. (I wanted to include a picture of the golf cart path map on my post, but I couldn't figure out a way to put it on here, so I am just going to include the link for those of you who are curious.)

James walked the pathways quite often when he lived in PTC for those few months. He would tell me about it on the phone, and I couldn't envision it for myself. But it's exactly how you would picture it, golf carts all about town, folks doing their grocery shopping or going to the movies, out to eat, stopping at Starbucks, you name it. Moms with kids, people with their dogs, teenagers. Everyone has a golf cart, some decked out with their favorite sports team colors, others just as plain as any at the local golf course. Some drive by with the CD players rocking out!

Anyhow, these paths are also open to pedestrians and bicyclists. The pathways not only zigzag through town, they also go through neighborhoods, around the lakes, through parks, everywhere. Last night we parked near the city hall and walked on a pathway that went all the way around a large lake. We don't know the distance (I am going to start wearing a pedometer so I can add the miles to my ticker below), but we walked for well over an hour. The path was completely shady, and for the first half it ran along the lake's shoreline. Not to mention behind the backyards of some pretty cute little houses (and some not so little).

It was a nice walk, and we had great conversation along the way. We talked about the expected subjects of our health and exercise, and made a commitment to start walking over there on a regular, scheduled basis. We also talked about our lifestyle in general, and that we need to start focusing on quality instead of quantity when it comes to everything from our material possessions, to our time together, to how we spend or save our money.

When we bought our house in Newnan, we were on a tight time schedule, and we came to the town without having ever been here before- we literally picked it off a map and Wikipedia! This was before James moved, so we didn't know a thing about Peachtree City. But having lived there for a few months, James liked it, but we by that time had focused on housing in Newnan.

Peachtree City is a little more upscale than Newnan, but has a much tighter hometown feel. Possibly because it was a planned community, and the golf cart paths give everyone a connection to each other. I think we would have enjoyed living over there, and we looked longingly at the homes there on the lake as we walked by. James said no sense in second guessing ourselves and playing "what if"- we did fine by the choices we made, and I agree. But I think he and I both felt a small pang of regret for missing out on the opportunity to live in this community.

Nonetheless, we plan to continue walking over there, and my Weight Watchers center is actually in PTC so I plan to start walking by the lake on Friday mornings after my meetings. It's good to know that even though we don't live there, we are able to enjoy the amenities of the other residents. And, we didn't have to buy a half million dollar house to enjoy the lake views, we get to do it for free on our walks!!

I didn't carry my camera on the walk yesterday, but I will later this week. For this morning, please enjoy photos of my newest colors of lilies to bloom.

Have a great Monday everyone!!




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