Reed Bingham State Park, Adel, Georgia
If you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth – you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’ ~ Romans 2:19-24
Today wasn’t planned. Well, not exactly anyway. Shocking since Blaine always has some type of plan going on in his head, even before he gets out of bed in the morning, and usually before he goes to bed – – a week earlier!
We began today on our bikes around 10:30am. Almost all the many trails here are multi-use trails, which means you can walk or bike on them.
But I’m not so sure the one we chose today should be labeled a bike trail! Or at the very least, they should warn you it’s more suited for mountain bikes and young people.
Oh, it started out nice enough – a quite paved two-lane road, to a hard-packed sand trail, to a boardwalk (the people on the boardwalk seemed a little surprised to see us 😊), but then those things ended and we found ourselves on a dirt trail that was more exposed roots than dirt! Just as the dirt part began, we passed a smiling, walking couple going the opposite direction who said, “You’re in for a bumpy ride!”
Little did we know!
But we persevered! And we made it! And there was only one section that I had any real problem with. It was downhill and I had to ride my brakes and take my feet off the pedals to stabilize. No more falls!
It wasn’t until we arrived at the end that we encountered a “Trail Closed” sign! Ooops!
Sure, we saw the orange barrels and torn yellow tape, even took a picture, but that in itself presented no reason for us to stop. 😊
It was a gorgeous day with no wind, so after our hour ride, Blaine wanted to rush back home, eat some lunch and take off on the river. So we did!
And it was fun! And it was a beautiful 2-hour paddle upstream on the slow-moving Little River.
The first half was critter free (with the notable exception of a few Moorhens at the beginning), even prompting comments that there weren’t even any turtles.
Until . . .
Oh my!!!!
Hold on. I need to back up a bit.
We weren’t far along in our journey when we passed another couple who were in rented, heavy plastic canoes. She commented that they’d planned on going to the end of the river and back, but they saw an alligator and turned around. Once we were well out of earshot, I confess, we made fun of them. Couple of scaredy cats!
But once we laid eyes on the monster we were certain must be the one they’d mentioned, we apologized for being bullies in our hearts, as we made fun of them.
That humongous alligator even made us nervous, and as you know, we’ve paddled or walked or biked by a lot of them! Not only was he in a strategic location at a bend, but even as we gave him a very wide berth, he lifted his head, turned and looked at us, even rising a bit on his front legs! We paddled by quickly while still maintaining calmness – on the outside anyway, but he watched our every move. We were so happy to be around that bend! But then we turned around so we could look for land marks so we’d know when we were approaching! Don’t know what it was about that one that put fear into us, but he surely did!
Oh! And after we passed that giant gator? We started seeing turtles everywhere! Wonder if he ate all the ones in his self-appointed territory?
We couldn’t take pictures because they slipped off into the safety of the water
before we got anywhere near them.
The rest of the trip was much more uneventful, although we spotted a medium-sized gator on another shore. For whatever reason, he wasn’t nearly as menacing.
Four hours later, we were back home. Just in time for dinner! We picked up Pizza Hut in town and stopped at a quiet Community Park to eat it. Then a trip to WalMart to end the day.