Running: A Fever

It's a beautiful day at Lake Fayetteville. I'm back at Lake Fayetteville for the first time in a while. I have been on the Spring Creek trails for a while. Half of that is still blocked off due to construction. It looks like the construction is coming to a close. It's very strange. The episode where I gave the YouTube viewers a look at the construction is very popular on YouTube. I believe that was a short video. Part of a longer video. But it was always just like a big hole in the ground. They built all kinds of things inside the hole. And then very recently, they have covered it over with dirt. So there's just a bunch of dirt on top of the hole. It doesn't look like they are going to build anything on top of that, but I don't know. They do have a small structure. I don't know what it's for. I guess it's access for some maintenance or control of whatever they have there. It's been interesting. Someone has said it's something related to water. Somebody asked somebody else about that. I don't know. We will see

If you're watching on YouTube, you can see just how beautiful the view is right from my cabin that I just walked out of. Nice people. When I woke up this morning, I wasn't planning to go hiking today. The story of that goes back a few days, when I got here, and even before I got here. It looked like the weather was going to be bad. I had only Tuesday and Wednesday morning to hike, and it was going to turn bad Wednesday night. Then, there was going to be rain on Thursday and Friday mornings. I usually like to go hiking in the morning. It's currently afternoon. I'm going to try to go out for an hour, and then come back for an hour. There's a nice little stream here. The first two days were as they said, overcast. And if you've seen or listened to the last two episodes, you know that I went on the Bench Trail.  Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/420  

Bench Road Trail today, again. Welcome to Running: A FEVER. Here we are, it's the last day of April 2025, and we're southbound on the Bench Road Trail from the parking area. I don't know what they call the parking area. But it's a parking area just south of the Bench Overlook, which is beautiful. I got some good shots of that yesterday and texted them out to a few people. So today we're going south. I suppose the Bench Road Trail, with its continuous trail, technically goes across the road there, because the only thing between the two points is a road. And this is actually on the other side of the road. Which makes sense, at some point the access road, which is highway 155, has to cross the Bench Road Trail if it's a continuous trail, and that's where it does. So we're on the other side of the road on the Bench Road Trail. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/419  

It's about 7:40 in the morning. Tuesday, I believe it is April 9th, 2025. It's a beautiful day here at Mt. Nebo State Park. I got in here yesterday between three and four as I usually do. They have a check-in time at four. So I've already encountered my first person on the trail. I didn't expect it to be as quiet as it usually is in the winter when I'm here. But they let me in as they usually do when the cabin has already been prepared which it usually has. Not so when I went to Mt. Magazine last time. I got in, settled down, just looked around. Didn't do any hiking yesterday. I was going to do an episode from the cabin. And last episode you heard about what that was going to be. It actually turned out that I did a long tour of the cabin. But I didn't record myself because I forgot my tripod. So I couldn't do that like I did with cabin 13 at Mt. Magazine last time. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/418  

I have just arrived at Mt. Nebo. This is my first day of my first trip to this state park in Arkansas for 2025, and possibly my last. I don't know if I'll be coming back this year. I will likely return at some point in the future. I thought this time, since I haven't done it before, I would give you a tour of what has been my favorite cabin to stay in here, because it is the most isolated. Now there is a cabin off to the left, or the north side of this cabin, but on the other side is just woods. This yard area is where, in the past, I have seen, because they usually come in the wintertime, lots of deer. As many as I think nine, maybe even twelve. I've seen a lot of deer at once. There you see the other cabin off on the north side. This late in the year, I'm not sure if I'll see any deer or not. It's the last week of April, the first week of May. The first time I came here, it was in a different cabin, in April, but I think it was earlier in the month. 2019 was my first visit to Mt. Nebo, six years ago. And I

Sometimes it seems like I just have to have dessert with every meal. I immediately want something sweet after I finish my main course. I wonder if it's habit, but it seems to happen even when I haven't done it in a while. It seems to be just a part of eating. Now, if I'm able to wait a little while, the craving usually passes. We've all heard that it takes a long time for the stomach to tell our brains that it is satisfied. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/416  

It's been a while since I last visited Devil's Den. This state park is probably one of the closest, if not the closest to where I live. I'm here with my friend Robert, who has lived here all his life, so I feel comfortable that he'll guide me through this okay. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/415  

Here we are at Davidsonville Historic State Park, near Pocahontas, Arkansas. I am here on my "daycation," which is like a vacation with day trips. And I decided to come all the way out to Davidsonville. It's a historic town, what used to be a town. It was donated back in 1957 by a man named Davis, and there was another person who owned part of the town, but Davis owned most of it. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/414  

On June 4, 2021, the FDA approved Wegovy for the treatment of chronic obesity and overweight individuals. Dr. John Sharretts, deputy director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said, "Today's approval offers adults with obesity or overweight a beneficial new treatment option to incorporate into a weight management program. FDA remains committed to facilitating the development and approval of additional safe and effective therapies for adults with obesity or overweight." Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/413 Photo by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-white-mesh-crop-top-and-pink-bra-7653700/

Have you heard the hype about plant-based diets? I'm not sure when the word vegetarian went out of style. But now it's plant-based, so I guess I'd better get used to it. There are a number of reasons people go to a plant-based diet. But I think what's on all our minds is the health benefits. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/412 Photo by Polina Tankilevitch: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-red-pepper-beside-pickles-3872406/  

Well, I recently got an email from my employer about a discount membership to AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons. It's actually just AARP now. About a third of their members are not actually retired. We get employee discounts on a lot of things, and I get these emails on a regular basis. By the way, I've also been getting AARP invitations in the mail for years, probably since I turned 50. Although there is no minimum age for membership, they are "Dedicated to people over 50." Well I was offered a 43% discount, along with a free trunk organizer and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Wow! Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/411 Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-couple-with-happy-faces-7224933/  

We have spent hundreds of episodes on exercise, healthy food and dieting, various medical issues, and longevity. These are parts of my goal: long, healthy, happy,and  active. But I'm not sure we've ever done an episode about the happy part. If we have, I'm sure I can count them on the fingers of one hand. But that's what we're doing this week. Read the full post: http://RunningAFEVER.com/410  

Well, this is my triumphant return to Hobbs State Park in Arkansas. It's an Arkansas state park. I've just been to the visitor's center, which has changed quite a bit, I think, since the last time I was there. The only thing I remember about the last time is that I made a YouTube video during my last visit. It was probably six or seven years ago. I don't know the episode number, but I'm guessing it's in the 100 to 150 range. So check that out if you like. The last time I was here, the only thing I remember about the visitor's center is them having skins of dead animals stretched out and you had to guess, there was a game of guessing which skin belonged to which animal. So that was interesting. But this time, there are quite a lot of big museum-style displays. With various animals and plants, and some implements of things from the past, like the railroad, and native Americans and farming, I guess you'd say. There's whatever the thing you strap oxen to to pull something.  Read the full post at http://RunningAFE

Well, gotta be careful here because this is the entrance, the trail head said Benefield Trails, which I assume they are talking about as the north and south loop of the trail. And it said Bear Hollow trail as well. I gotta watch for the signs. Speaking of which, it took me quite a while to find this place. I thought it should be about the same distance from the Greenfield trail as the Greenfield trail is from my cabin. It turns out it was, and I wound up going way down the mountain before I turned around. There are not many places to turn around, as you can imagine. And there's a sign going down toward the picnic area on the right side, which is what I was driving on, that tells you where it is. But the glare was so much at that point from the sun on my windshield (which I need to clean on the inside) that I couldn't see it. And then, coming back the other way, the same sign was all they had; it was on the left side. And I missed it the first time around. Anyway, there was an overlook. I just happened to slow

Now you can see we are on the Turkey Springs trail at Mt. Magazine State Park in Arkansas. .3 miles. Level of difficulty not specified. So we'll see how it goes. This is supposed to be an old wagon road, as described. It does look a little wider than the Greenfield trail we did yesterday. And folks, it is cold out here. You can't tell, we've got the sun shining there. It is cold. Now, down in Paris, which is the nearest town, still about 20 miles away or something, it is 51 degrees. Up here on Mt. Magazine -- 37 degrees today. Not the coldest weather I've been walking in, but it's pretty cold. I don't know what the wind chill is, but the real feel down in Paris is 40 degrees, so I know it's colder up here, certainly, because of the wind.   http://RunningAFEVER.com/407  

It is about 7:30 in the morning here on November 19, 2024. It's 51 degrees, really lovely. A clear day, you can see the sun over there in case you want to get blinded. And we're on the Greenfield trail at Mt. Magazine, which is very wet. I'm starting my second full day here. They wouldn't let me check in the first night until 4 pm. And by that time, the place was covered in fog. You could not see very much in front of you. It was kind of like the last time I was here. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/406  

There is a windstorm outside. I wasn't planning to go out today because rain was forecast. It rained last night. It was raining when I came in, and it rained a lot harder during the night. And this windstorm developed. It's very windy out there. I've got some video I'll show you of some trees and how they move in the wind. It's actually a lot worse than what it looks like. The wind was literally howling all night long. I got up this morning, and it was still going strong. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/405  

The world is fascinated with long life. Perhaps because we wonder what we would do, individually, if we had an abundance of time, the world's most valuable resource. It's fun to think about it. And so the world is fascinated by Jeanne Calment, the human with the longest documented lifespan, 122 years, 164 days. In Episode 170 I gave an overview of her life and some details about her healthy and unhealthy habits in a 30-minute show. Now I will provide a broader review of her life with more detail. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/404  

Jeanne Calment, if you don't already know, is the person who lived the longest according to documented evidence. She lived to be 122. Some of you may be intrigued by the title of this episode. Jeanne Calment died on  August 4, 1997. What is there to update? As it turns out, quite a lot. My first episode on Jeanne was published on July 26, 2019. I  recorded it on an early morning walk, as I often do for the show. So it wasn't completely about Jeanne, and it was 28 minutes long. Not long ago, I noticed that that episode was by far the most popular video on my YouTube channel, which you can find at http://YouTube.com/@RunningAFEVER Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/403  

And right now, I'm on my way to the gym. I'm on my way to the gym for the first time in a really long time. I can't even remember the last time I went to the gym. However, I have been paying them every month for that whole time. I guess I just kind of put that out of my mind. I had a debit card that had worn out and I was getting rejections at the stores. I had to get it replaced and instead of just changing the code, they changed the whole number, so everywhere I had that number saved I had to go resave it. And one of the places I had to change it was the athletic club where I work out. I waited until a payment was rejected and then changed it. But the payment was key because when I saw what the payment was, I'm like, shouldn't I be using this if I'm paying so much for it. So that kind of spurred me to go back to the gym. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/402 Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-dumbbell-lot-260352/