Good Thing I Picked the Pacer App First

 There are two major companies who offer the virtual walking challenges that I've been doing this past Summer:  Pacer Virtual Adventure Challenges, and Conqueror Events.  Both turned up in my Facebook ads regularly, and I chose to try Pacer mostly by chance.  Both had walks I was interested in trying out.

After a few months wandering virtually via the Pacer app, I decided it was time to give Conqueror a try.  Well, boy howdy, I am so glad that Pacer got the initial nod, because if I'd started out with the Conqueror app, I would have stopped and never started up again!  It's awful.  Slow to open on my phone, lousy interface, clunky streetview function, only updated my mileage once a day.  While the medals were the same price, they charged for shipping, which Pacer doesn't do, so it cost more, and then I found out that the longer walks were more expensive, while Pacer's are all priced the same.

So bah humbug to that!  I'm glad I tested Conqueror on a shorter walk of 41 miles through some flower growing areas in the Netherlands.  I finished it yesterday and am going back to Pacer tomorrow for a virtual jaunt around Venice.  Yay!

Speaking of walking, here is a view of the river on one of last week's faux Netherlands strolls:

As usual, the Hounds strolled along too:

I don't see Great Blue Herons here very often, so this was a bonus treat:

For art practice last week, both pictures turned out well, much to my surprise, because the first one, at least, was not that much to my liking -- this is an Icelandic turf house, and it had way more green than I'm usually happy about.  But I managed to do a passable job, if I do say so myself:

The second picture was a cut-off photo of some old suitcases.  I used both ink and watercolor for this one, and am quite pleased with the way the locks and straps and the wheel turned out.  Getting the colors, details, and highlights right was a very fun challenge.

Finally, we have the weekly Good Omens needlepoint project update, here at the end of the TENTH week of stitching.  I've now completed 25,500 stitches.  Only 8,840 left!  Whew!

That's all for this report.  Have a lovely week, and stay safe out there!