A lovely little walk...

Today was another busy day.  I had my first puppy family here at 8am. They were really nice and they had a young son who made the most adorable puppy scrapbook I have ever seen. He printed off his puppy pictures from the website each week and had a little "watch me grow" puppy book.  He had the end of his book empty so he could fill it in with all the new pictures he would be taking of his very own puppy.  He asked me how I could say good-bye to my puppies and I said it was because anyone as sweet as he was and his family makes saying good-bye to puppies heartwarming and never heartbreaking.  I told him just seeing his big smiling face was the best start to my day.  We had more puppy families visit today and all of them were just awesome.  Thanks to all the families I met - I enjoyed having you here!!!  Sadly I had to leave before lunchtime so I didn't get to meet everyone as my younger daughter had a swim meet out of town.  Her meet ended up being at a city pool with absolutely NO SHADE whatsoever.  As in none.  No trees. No pavilion. No canopy. Nothing. Oh yes - and it was HOT!!  I could actually feel my skin cells incinerating and falling off as I was walking.  I was fairly sure I lost the first 5-6 layers of skin within 5 minutes. It was roasting hot! And parents of course do not have the luxury of actually getting IN the pool. Nope.  They get to bake and roast and burn while watching their children frolic in the nice cool water. So I did what any good kindhearted loving mommy would do......I left my daughter to fend for herself with her swim coach and swim friends. Yes that is right.  I deserted the pool area and drove out of the city to the nearest state park. The meet was 6 hours long - so I thought a small break would be a great idea. Once I got to the park I drove for about 45 minutes in search of a nature trail.  There were supposedly 14 miles of nature trails in the State Park and I was trying to find just one of them.  It was way more of a challenge than I anticipated.  I finally found a trail and parked my car.  I looked around and noticed......NO ONE.  The grass had grown over the parking lot and there was not a soul in sight. This gave me reason to pause and think about whether this was a good idea.  I mean I have been SO good and SO dedicated to getting my exercise in. If this had been a month ago I would of high tailed it out of there and would never ponder whether I should enter the deep woods all alone. Heck no!  I would have loved the excuse NOT to go. But dedication knows no limits so I decided I would just peek inside the woods and see how the trail looked. In case any of you do not like suspense or horror movies or nail biting anxiety filled tales...I will fast forward to the end of this story......I lived.  Now back to the let's enter the woods....So I started towards the woods and got half-way when I decided perhaps I should grab my water bottle and phone just in case.  And off I went.  Let me say that it was beyond beautiful.  Really.  The pine trees filled up the spaces so that the entire forest floor was blanketed in pine needles and it smelled wonderful. It was so pretty I decided to take the trail.  It was the pine ridge LOOP trail - so obviously it would get me back to my starting point so despite the fact I had no idea how long the trail was - I headed down the path.

As I got deeper into the woods I started thinking about the 100 or so Criminal Mind Episodes I have seen.  I also started thinking about all the horror movies I watched as a teenager.  I was thinking all of them began this way. I could hear the people in the movie theater yelling at me "WHY ARE YOU WALKING ALL ALONE IN THE WOODS!!!??!!! GO BACK GO BACK!"  I decided to try and NOT let my imagination get the best of me. Every bird that flew out of the trees, every squirrel that jumped ahead on the path was in my mind, a homicidal maniac waiting for his next victim. Yep, my pace hastened just a bit.  Then I started thinking about how much I hate snakes.  I mean I really really hate snakes.  If I so much as see a snake on TV, I will have nightmares that night.  What if a snake jumped out from the woods and BIT ME??!!!  I would die alone in the woods - just me and the snake!!!!!  So I started walking a little faster.  Then the path got really steep and there was a lovely ravine alongside of it.  This is when I tripped over a tree root which of course got me thinking...what if I BROKE MY ANKLE?!  And then fell down the ravine?? And then was bitten by a snake??  And THEN murdered by the homicidal maniac??!!  ACK!  Who in the heck decides to take a "nature walk" all alone in a State Park????  I had my phone grasped in my hands as tightly as I have ever held my phone. Ready to call 911 on my cell phone at the slightest movement. I checked my phone. Can you guess what comes next? Right...NO CELL SERVICE!  My only chance of surviving was to keep on walking.  So on I walked. On and On.  Then I thought - HEY THIS WILL MAKE AN AWESOME BLOG!!!!  So in thinking of my lovely devoted readers, I took some photos for you:

This is a lovely waterfall down the ravine...

The views of the lake were INCREDIBLE!

There were GIANT boulders on the path. 

They were really cool!

I walked the entire loop trail and I must admit, sprinted just a little bit when I saw my car.  I was SOOO happy I made it.  It was an incredibly beautiful walk, I just think next time, I want to share the beauty. I don't think I am meant for walking in the woods all alone.  I made it back to my daughters swim meet for the last 2 hours. I found a 1 foot square section of shade under the high diving board and literally hugged the high diving board ladder to try to prevent spontaneous combustion.  My daughter swam well and the end of the story is....I lived.