After a wonderful visit to Saint Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, I decided to do a walk in Atherton. It was roughly a five-mile route which followed the border of Atherton's "Lindenwood" district.
The square route, which begins about a half-mile from the Atherton Cal-Train Depot, starts at the intersection of Middlefield and Marsh. One proceeds Southeast down Middlefield, turning right, after about a mile, onto ringwood.
The mile-long segement of Ringwood from Middlefield to Bay, is marked by a bunch of short streets intersecting Ringwood. These streets all contain the warm invitation, "Not A Through Street." Amazingly, this is repeated without variation on every block, just to make 100% sure that no one would accidentally meet with the inconvenience of having to turn around needlessly. This was very thoughtful of them.
Wanting to be extra careful, and out of concern for stray drivers who might go off course a few blocks, the gentle planners of the fair district of Lindenwood designed the next mile-long segment, where we take a right turn from Ringwood onto Bay, in such a way that one basically confronts a mile-long wall.
Wanting to walk the whole four-mile-square section of Lindenwood, I decided not to take the mile-line wall as a personal affront, although one could imagine less poised folks doing so. Turning right again at the intersection of Bay and Marsh, I headed back to my point of origin, Middlefield and Marsh. And along this next mile-long stretch, impressively, I encountered another mile-long wall. I must confess, after encountering two-straight miles of walls, perhaps, for a moment, I entertained, only fleetingly, the absurd notion that the Athertonians, should they emerge from their compounds, might not rush forward to embrace me. But then I realized that this was my own insecurity and that I ought not take such things personally.
By the way, I went back home to look at my Thomas Brothers map, only to find that on those streets along Ringwood, where the signs repeatedly implied that there were no outlets, it turned out that indeed there were several outlets. Since no honorble person would seek to mislead others in this way, I had to conclude that this was a very consistent accidental oversight on the part of the Atherton planning committees.
The square route, which begins about a half-mile from the Atherton Cal-Train Depot, starts at the intersection of Middlefield and Marsh. One proceeds Southeast down Middlefield, turning right, after about a mile, onto ringwood.
The mile-long segement of Ringwood from Middlefield to Bay, is marked by a bunch of short streets intersecting Ringwood. These streets all contain the warm invitation, "Not A Through Street." Amazingly, this is repeated without variation on every block, just to make 100% sure that no one would accidentally meet with the inconvenience of having to turn around needlessly. This was very thoughtful of them.
Wanting to be extra careful, and out of concern for stray drivers who might go off course a few blocks, the gentle planners of the fair district of Lindenwood designed the next mile-long segment, where we take a right turn from Ringwood onto Bay, in such a way that one basically confronts a mile-long wall.
Wanting to walk the whole four-mile-square section of Lindenwood, I decided not to take the mile-line wall as a personal affront, although one could imagine less poised folks doing so. Turning right again at the intersection of Bay and Marsh, I headed back to my point of origin, Middlefield and Marsh. And along this next mile-long stretch, impressively, I encountered another mile-long wall. I must confess, after encountering two-straight miles of walls, perhaps, for a moment, I entertained, only fleetingly, the absurd notion that the Athertonians, should they emerge from their compounds, might not rush forward to embrace me. But then I realized that this was my own insecurity and that I ought not take such things personally.
By the way, I went back home to look at my Thomas Brothers map, only to find that on those streets along Ringwood, where the signs repeatedly implied that there were no outlets, it turned out that indeed there were several outlets. Since no honorble person would seek to mislead others in this way, I had to conclude that this was a very consistent accidental oversight on the part of the Atherton planning committees.
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