When Main St. feels a bit car-crowded, and there's nowhere to park in front of your shopping or dining destination, it's easy to grumble about the lack of available parking downtown. Not to mention the road closures and construction sites that only constrict the flow further.
Perhaps we subconsciously expect to always park right in front of our downtown destinations, so when we have to walk a block, we think there's something wrong with the whole system. Contrast that to the Walmart experience, where we might walk a considerable distance for a few everyday items without thinking twice.
I got this idea from Bryson Baker of Baker and Gambill's EM, so I thought I'd conduct a quick experiment. I visited the Walmart on Perkins on a Thursday evening at 6:40 p.m. I had no trouble finding a nice slanted spot near the Home & Pharmacy entrance. Using a step-counting app on my phone, I tracked my steps from my car to the back of the store where the milk was kept and then back again—no other detours. I had (an embarrassingly low) 1,338 steps counted that day when I started. When I returned I had 1,897, making the basic Walmart milk run come in at 559 steps.
The next evening was Friday, July 19, and Krazy Daze was in full swing. I drove down Main St. to see the 100-day project reception at Modella Art Gallery around 6 p.m. There were no spots available by the gallery, so I found parking in front of BancFirst. I turned my tracker on and walked to the gallery. I won't tell you my starting step count to save my blushes, but I will say it only took 153 steps.
Downtown parking isn't as inconvenient as we think if we think about it differently. But the real takeaway is clear: someone just needs to invent a way to write while walking so I can get my steps up!
It's our contagious pioneer energy – to serve, run, build, volunteer, and sacrifice — that gives me confidence. Stillwater pioneers have never stopped.
