Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook (Culver City Stairs) 6300 Hetzler Rd, Culver City, CA 90232
Ah alas, my long awaited $0 day trip is finally here. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have some reading to do: start here, then go here and here. But for a quick recap, I do this thing where I take $20 day trips with a bit of a catch. That’s a hard budget to stick to, I know, so the rule is if I stay under $20, I can add the balance to my next trip. However, if I go over, I have to subtract the overage from the following trip.
I was doing pretty good budget wise with these trips, that is until my last outing to Carlsbad where I went over budget, leaving me with $0 for my next trip (this trip), even cutting into the budget of the trip after that.
And so here we are.
Perhaps you can tell by how long it took me to take this trip that I didn’t really want to do it. No that’s not true, I wanted to do it for the challenge, but I was just apprehensive about it because I didn’t think it would be that fun. I mean this whole $0 day trip thing not only leaves me searching for something free to do, it also leaves me with no money to buy food. Who goes on a day trip and doesn’t get anything to eat? So even though I like the idea of a challenge, I didn’t like what this challenge would beget.
Nevertheless, I thought, I owe it to myself to at least attempt it.
So on Monday, September 27, I decided that Tuesday would be the day I would do it. I even laid my clothes out the night before, however that was followed by a series of unfortunate events (shout out to Lemony Snicket) that made Tuesday a no go. For starters, I went to bed late, at around 12:30p.m. but didn’t actually fall asleep until maybe around four. I set the clock for 6:30a.m. but didn’t want to get up. I finally got up around 10a.m. only to discover I had no clean sports bra. Sure I had those bralette type things that I usually where when I work out to Team Body Project at home, or go for a walk around the neighborhood or in the park. But climbing stairs? There’s only one sports bra I have that can handle that task. I need the girls to stay put.
And so, it got pushed back to Wednesday, today!
I washed my sports bra, I already had my clothes in place. Now it was just a matter of going to sleep, getting up, and getting there…getting out the house. And what do you know, I did as much.
Even in the days leading up to today, I just kept telling myself I could do it, while at the same time giving myself permission to quit if it got too hard.
As I came around the bend from Obama Blvd ( I love saying that) to Jefferson Blvd, there it was. I saw it: this big ass hill. I’d read about it on the internet doing my research, I’d even seen videos of it on YouTube, still I wasn’t prepared for how high this thing was.
My first thought was oh, hell no. Yet somehow I managed to keep driving and found a parking spot.
There’s an incline you have to go up before you ever reach the stairs, and I was out of breath just going up that.
Then I reached it, the bottom of the stairs, and there before me lay choices: I could go up the stairs, or I could take one of the paths on either side, no stairs. I reminded myself I could quit at any time and took the stairs.
These steps were not homogenous by any means: some or larger than others, some are wider than others, some are higher than others, presenting an extra challenge. Still, I got off to a good start. I went up the first 15, 20 pretty easily, then I was out of breath. I stopped at the landings, sometimes I even stopped on the steps. But aided by a playlist featuring Jonathan McReynolds, Ne-Yo and Beyonce, I made it to the top.
All 235 pounds of me, pounded 282 steps (I don’t know where I got 715 steps from in a previous post). I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited, out of breath, but excited. Today was a much nicer day to do this than yesterday was anyway, even with the smoggy view.
I think I made it up there in about 20 or 25 minutes. I’m not for sure. I should have timed myself, I wasn’t thinking. Coming back down was much easier, though still challenging. It actually felt a bit more dangerous because of the uneven steps.
All in all I enjoyed it. It was much more fun than I thought it would be. That’s probably because I finished it. It feels good to set a goal and finish something.
I’m definitely going to go back. I think if I would have stretched beforehand it would have been even easier…well, less strain on my muscles.
Whew, so that’s done. I’ll have to look up how much money I’ll have for my next trip and get back to you. But for now, that’s it.
Where will I be off to next?
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