HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR OLDEST SON, CHRIS!! And while I’m at it, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR YOUNGER SON, KYLE, TOO!! I missed putting Kyle’s in the blog post for October 10th. I feel bad about that, but unfortunately, I think he’s kinda used to being overlooked in all the hubbub of the November birthdays. ☹
Anyway, I’m so proud of both our sons! Chris is third-generation electrician, and Kyle is physical therapy. Both have generous, giving, caring hearts and most importantly, both are following their own path to be the person God created them to be!
After little deliberation, we decided to just take off and walk for a while until we were half-tired. We’d be back in time for lunch. We were expecting only a couple of miles round-trip easy walking, so we took nothing with us except Blaine’s phone.
Our couple of miles ended up being 6.5! We walked all the way to the Kings Mountain Military Park and back!
No food, no water.
Remember the pond pictures from Blaine’s walk? At the other end, there’s a dam.
It was an easy walk through the woods and along a stream and we just kept going. By the time we started getting hungry and thirsty, we were about 2/3 of the way there, so then it became a destination goal. No turning back now!
Thank goodness the Visitor Center had a bottled water dispenser outside and animal crackers inside the building ! We were parched and our stomachs were growling! And that was lunch. Eaten on the trail on the way home. 😊
No more leaving home without water and at least a snack of some kind!
Unfortunately, easy trails allow for mind wandering, but on the way back, my mind insisted on repeating the “Animal Fair” song over and over and over and over and over (because of the animal crackers), despite my attempts to change the subject.
We went to the animal fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The old baboon, by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair
The monkey he got drunk
And sat on the elephant’s trunk
The elephant sneezed and fell to his knees
And that was the end of the monk
the monk, the monk, the monk,
We went to the animal fair
The birds and the beasts were there . . .
Well, you get the picture!
Looking up into beauty!
I did get a moment’s reprieve from the animals when Blaine (who was behind me) tossed a rock in front of me. It startled me because I honestly thought it was a squirrel that fell out of a tree! It hit the thick leaves and then rolled showing gray and some white before coming to a stop. Made us both laugh! 😊
Once we were approaching the finally leg of our journey, my song repeat button turned back on as the sun came out and we were climbing uphill. It changed to “Sunshine Mountain”.
Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain
Heavenly breezes blow
Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain
Faces all a glow
Turn, turn from sin and doubt
And look to God above
Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain
You and I
We had to walk through a parking lot to get back. In the center were several of these trees – American Holly. Now, I knew about holly bushes. I had two at our ‘sticks and bricks’ home. I had never heard of a tree though! This thing was large and chocked full of berries!
(The next day, we ran across an information sign on another trail telling us about them)
I didn’t know there were male and female trees, either!
And then we were home. We rested for a about an hour, changed clothes and went back to Italian Garden for pizza. Very good pizza and the best crust we’ve ever had! They make it from scratch. It’s light and airy, but also crispy on the edges and the bottom and the crust had a great flavor!
After dinner, Blaine went to a badly-needed barber shop. I stayed in the Jeep and read. It was a different experience for him as everyone else in there was quite a bit more tan than he was. After seeing what he got for his $15, we decided the barber was unaccustomed to cutting red hair. I will have to try to do some major touch-up. Not pretty. Good thing he wears a ball cap most of the time.
We were home by 4:30pm and had the rest of the day before us to fill. But we were tired and our bodies needed rest. We watched “My Fellow Americans” with Jack Lemmon and James Gardner and Dan Ackroyd, as presidents. Just don’t see Dan as a president, do you? He had a very small role as the current president. It had it’s funny moments.
Tomorrow we head a bit further south.