my first step in the parks in my first pair of shoes
steps in the parks somewhere in the middle
my last step in the parks in my last pair of shoes
—
with all of this stepping into the parks
i thought it was be easy and interesting
to look back and see just how far i had walked
using multiple sources
and multiple attempts
it turned into quite an impossible task
as each park was shaped differently
i had walked in no particular pattern
and converting the 2061.6 total acres into distance
proved to be a bit more complicated than i expected.
s0me of my early rough calculations
(having dinosaurs on the paper seemed fitting)
scenes of me asking the big questions
with no definitive answers
i went to my daughters
who tried to create an algorithm for me
but they again pointed out that i had no consistent shape of the acreage
nor did a have a consistent path of travel through them
—
i then went online to an international group
of physicists, mathmeticians, engineers, etc. to seek their answers
here is a sampling:
after walking 2,061.6 acres of parks, how far have I traveled in distance?
can’t convert an area into a distance… If you walked the entire area of the parks so as to pass within 20m of each point, this would be 250 miles at least.
While metric units are usually easier to work with, an acre represents an area of a chain (22yds or 20m) x a furlong (220 yds / 200m) which is 1/8 of a mile. If you were a medieval ploughman, an acre (from the Latin ager = field) would be a strip 22yds wide and 220yds long. But now it’s any shape at all with that area of 4840 sq yds or 1/640 of a square mile.
Best way to work out your distance will be with a gps app. Download the Viewranger app, get it to record your track, then it’ll tell you the exact distance. Other gps apps are available.
There is no way to tell. You tell us areas but not distances, nor do you give us times or velocity.
—
i have decided that according to my calculations
my final answer is that i traveled pretty far
during the time i spent covering the 2,061.6 acres
and interesting coincidence
the last park on the list
the last steps i took
were in a park at the top of the very street
where i first lived in ann arbor
in my rattletrap apartment with no money
when i moved here at age 40
having quit my job to go to grad school
and change the course of my life
this long journey with it’s twisty and immeasurable path
had somehow led me straight home.
—
‘only those who will risk going too far
can possibly find out how far one can go.’
– t.s. eliott
I have my glasses on.... 
