Westcott Beach State Park, Sackets Harbor, New York
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: …. For acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair. . . ~ Proverbs 1:3
Everything is always neatly put away when they’re done using it.
That’s called “Holy Board”.
My grandma’s brother made one for our family many, many, many years ago!
You toss painted 4″ washers into the holes, much like corn hole.
Each hole is worth different points – 1, 3 or 5.
“I’m not taking one of your short hikes that turn out to be three hours long. I’ll turn around and go back.” “That’s fine.”
Where have you heard that before?? You must think I’m really dense to fall for that line time after time after time. Sigh . . . . One day, I’ll be able to quash my sense of adventure and my intense desire to not miss out. But until that day comes . . . .
But that explanation comes later.
First we had to get ready to hit the laundromat that’s 25 minutes away. And since it’s Saturday, I wanted to go early in case they were busy. So we stripped the bed, collected towels, sorted the mountain of dirty clothes (two weeks’ worth!), loaded the Jeep up and . . .
Blaine lost the key. We spent ½ hour searching ev-erywhere. It had to be some-where! He used it to unlock the doors to load it up! We don’t have that much area to search for cryin’ out loud! After 30 minutes, he cried uncle and we used the back-up key and set out. All I can say is, better him than me. 😊
The laundromat was nice and not busy at all, and when I went back out to the Jeep to get more detergent for some clothes that didn’t get quite clean enough to suit me, the key turned up when our hiking boots almost fell out the back! Guess we didn’t look everywhere, did we??? Thank You, Lord!
Once the laundry was done and neatly folded, it was off to WalMart for some groceries. We didn’t need much, so it didn’t take too awfully long, which is a good thing because we still had a 20-minute drive and we were hungry. Leftover pizza did the trick, but it was twice as much as we should’ve eaten. Ugh!
Next I did some food prep, and then, finally, I could sit and do some blog work! I’m only 7 days behind (she said sarcastically), and by ‘behind’ I mean no picture editing and no writing is done. Good grief! How does that happen??
But I didn’t sit long before Blaine decided he wanted to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon and go in search of the observation area. That’s what hooked me. The hope of seeing Lake Ontario from above on a cloudless day.
Looking at a map they had posted, Blaine planned our route on connecting trails that should’ve been about 3 miles round-trip total. After walking the road just a bit to get to the first trail, we weren’t far in before it became obvious that no one hikes in here. It was completely overgrown!
So we hit the road the entire way to the observation area. And I’m trying really hard not to “sling mud” (which is what our devotional the other day called a bad attitude). The observation area also turned out to be pretty overgrown with very limited views, despite the information board that showed otherwise. Sigh . . .
There’s a campground loop up here, and also another trail which Blaine suggested we try because it too, was supposed to offer views of Lake Ontario, and it was only another .42 mile loop, and it was mowed nice and wide. So since we’re always afraid we might miss something off the beaten path, we took off.
There were plenty of things I could’ve complained about on this “short hike” – like the fact that it took 2 ½ hours (okay, so it wasn’t three . . .), we hiked uphill both ways, it was hot and often without a cooling breeze, my fairly new tennis shoes sank into mucky water up to the bottom of my ankle soaking my shoes and my new socks (and feet), there were spider webs, and a few mosquitos, and by the time we got home my fingers were so swollen I couldn’t make a fist, and my boo boo was starting to pain me. And I was missing out on blog time.
I could’ve complained about all these things, but I didn’t. I refused to sling mud around and instead focused on the wild daisies and other pretty wildflowers along the way and sang praises in my head – except when my Girl Scout roots kicked in and the ‘bear’ song popped in. 😊
Hey. Don’t knock it. It’s a great hiking song. It has the perfect rhythm and tempo for walking.
Back home, I sprayed a bunch of Shout on my socks and set my shoes to drying. We’ll see how they turn out.
And my wonderful husband offered to wash the mountain of dishes all by himself so I could relieve some stress and get some blogging done. (Personally, I think he was feeling a twinge of guilt for having me out for so long, but don’t tell him I told you that . . . 😊)