Area Extras

The sounds of Moon Walk

Posted by: Meg Thilmony

Saturday, April 5, 2008 8:26 AM

Moon Walk started yesterday, and I managed more than 12,000 steps.

OK, so that was a little unusual - I took a special walk in the morning and then headed to campus for an investigative reporting conference.

(By the way, several News-Gazette reporters spent the day with a small group of investigative reporting superstars, like Ron Nixon of The New York Times, Doug Pardue, the investigative reporting editor at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., and Laura Frank of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver. We learned tons of ideas for bringing you better investigative/ watchdog journalism stories.)

And then I topped it all off by a late-night shopping trip, so I did a lot of walking. And the whole way, I heard a steady click-a-click-a-click coming from the general direction of my hip. That's right, I can hear my pedometer.

The pitch is similar to the sound of keys clinking steadily in your pocket. When it was quiet, I heard it every time I took a step. Which is what it's supposed to do - count each step I take.

But the sound isn't really that annoying - it's the sound of trying to beat Peoria in a challenge to collectively walk enough steps to get us around the moon twice. I lived in Peoria for three years, and comparing the general health of both cities, I think Champaign-Urbana has the edge.

And so I'm going to continue walking - probably a lot. I'm headed back to campus today for another investigative session and then again tomorrow morning. After that, I'll be at WCIA's Home and Garden Show tomorrow afternoon.

I'm looking forward to talking to people who read (and don't read) our paper. So if you see me, stop by and say hi.

Until then ... I'll keep (moon)walking. And clicking.

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