BOISE — Without the consistent crashing of pins one can get wind of the subtle sounds of the early morning hours at a bowling alley.
At Westy's Garden Lanes those acoustics include Martie Brennan. Five days a week Martie's morning routine includes walking at Westy's, from one wall to the other.
It's the kind of mindless movement Martie finds meditative.
"I don't know, you kind of clear your mind," Martie says.
But it sometimes fills with thoughts, and prayers, and numbers.
"I'm on nine," Martie says, logging her laps on her fingers. "When I get to five I start over again."
She's even kept count of her steps.
"Yes, in fact, that's one of the things you do," she says. "You count steps. And there are 80 steps from that door to that door."
It takes her a little more than a minute to cover the length of Westy's 40 lanes.
"About a football field, the length of a football field," says Jamie Flynn, the desk manager at Westy's. "She'll walk back and forth 40 times."
And sometimes she's joined on her journey.
"That's why the bowling alley is such a good place for me," Martie tells a little girl that is walking beside her.
"Because it's so flat?" the girl asks.
"Uh huh," Martie answers.
Martie's march began one February after her husband passed away. She was looking for a place to exercise that wasn't snow-covered. So she came here and hasn't stopped since.
"But I'm sure they didn't think I would be here for (this long)," Martie admits. "This is the seventh year."
"Since that time she's just been kind of becoming part of the (Westy's) family," Jamie says.
She's such a fixture here Martie merits a moniker.
"Oh yes, I'm known as the Westy's Walker," she says with a grin.
And when she's not walking, she's sitting with a book. About what you'd expect from someone who taught third-graders for 35 years and has loved libraries even longer.
"There's a certain smell, there's a certain tactile feel, turning the pages," Martie explains. "Book-books."
After a brief break, it's back to the walking the beat.
Now 83 years old and suffering from a shrinking spine because of her spinal stenosis, Martie has been persistent in her purpose, keeping the pace for about 90 minutes.
Another morning at the alley, another mile and a half for Martie.
Martie says libraries and bowling alleys are both great equalizers, where every level of society can feel welcome. And just how deep is her love of books? Martie has a room named after her at Boise's Bown Crossing branch library.