Author: Layne Rodney

Today I decided to have a field trip. I remember back to my school days and I always enjoyed the occasional field trip.  So today off to the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx.

I did the trip car free.  I walked from my house to the Stamford Train Station.  Three miles exactly.  A round trip ticket to Fordham in the Bronx is $12.00.  The train trip took 50 minutes to the Fordham Station.

There is a stop for Botanical Gardens.  However, the Stamford trains only stop at Fordham.  I walked along the main road for 215 minutes and was at the Garden.

The flowers and trees are not at peak spring showing, but there is still plenty to see.

They planted 150,000 daffodils on this hill years ago and it is still a beautiful site.  They are also showing the artwork of Kusama: Cosmic Nature.  Well worth the visit.

Now so other highlights.  The Bronx Zoo is only another ten-minute walk from the Botanical Center.  On my walk back to the Fordham Station I walked down Arthur Avenue to Little Italy.  If you haven’t been you should go the food and ambience is very nice.

Tomorrow back to the roads of Stamford.  I will be taking more field trips.  The Stamford Train Station is a great starting point to go to for walks further away.  One of these days I am going to take the train to New London and the ferry to Fishers Island

Sounds of Stamford

When I walk around Stamford, I am always hearing the sounds of Stamford.  They vary from quiet in North Stamford to the sirens that are constantly throughout Stamford.

One of my favorite sounds is that of water.  Listening to the gentile lapping of the waves at Cove Island and to the cascading of the water of off Interlaken Road is always a joy to hear.

Some of the sounds are loud.  The sirens are, noisy cars are and motorcycles can be very bad.  The motorcycles always seem to crack their throttle when they pass by me.

Now I have bought a decibel meter.  I plan on taking it with me on my walks and will let you know how loud Stamford is

I have noticed with my winter walks that the D-DAT crowd has been active this winter.  D-DAT stands for Drive, drink and toss.  Yes, there are cans and bottles all over Stamford.  It is amazing what you can gather from all these cans and bottles.  Budweiser beer at one time advertised their beer as the King of Beers.  Bud is the most tossed beer of the D-dat crowd.  Fireball whiskey and vodka are the two most favored hard drinks.  Surprisingly, water bottles are in the favored group.

Now on to Vodka Alley. There is a road I traverse all the time just north of the Merritt Parkway. Friday March 12^th, I walked it and in a 150-foot section I picked up 52 Vodka bottles ranging in size from the 1 ounce to the standard bottle size.  Thus, I am calling it Vodka Alley.  I will be checking the spot out weekly to see how fast the Vodka bottles reappear.  Hopefully, the growth will be slow.

As I walk and wander all over Stamford I will be able to offer names to many unique places in Stamford.

Walkability is the measure of how friendly an area is to walk especially in urban planning.  The last twelve month I have walked over 3,500 Miles in Stamford and the surrounding towns.  While all of Stamford is walkable there are many notable walks.

One is Strawberry Hill Avenue and Newfield.  The walk starts at the intersection of Grove and Prospect.  There are three stores at the intersection, John’s Pizza, Duncan Donuts and a convenience store.  A nice selection of stores to stock up for the walk.

Another nice part of the walk are sidewalks all the way to Sterling Farms Golf Course.  Many of the roads I walk do not have sidewalks.   Not having sidewalks is not a problem, you just have to pay greater attention to the traffic.

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There is a lot to see on the walk.  It is interesting to see Apartments at the beginning of the walk turn into housing soon after starting the walk.  There is also an historical marker on the walk talking about U.S. Grant.

I like to look at the different styles of houses in Stamford and this walk has many.  Did you know if a house has a chimney in the middle of the roof it shows that the house is old?  There are quite a few houses like that on the route.  There is also a Victorian looking house on the route.

I also like that there are rest stops along the way.  Tully Medical center has bathrooms and Sterling Farms has bathrooms.

When I walked the Avenues this week it took me one hour to walk to Sterling Farms and it was three miles to the Golf course.  There is a restaurant at Sterling Farms, The Stillery. It is open to the public and is quite nice.

Another good point about walking this route is there is a bus route that goes from downtown to Davenport School.  If three miles is enough walking you can take bus 333 back.

Enough for today.  Enjoy good walking