ateolf | Tales of Daring and Adventure

Yesterday Mary Beth and I had a big adventuresome day for my Friday vacation day. We got up pretty early (for a day I wasn't working) to get to Brother Juniper's. While we were waiting for our food, Nathan came by and said hi as he was leaving. We got to hear about Patti's Halloween costume: "a murderer!" It'd been forever since we'd been there, but the food was just as delicious as always! Then we set out for Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park! Our plan had been to rent the peddle boats out on the lake, but when we got there we found out that all those boats are broken and in need of repair so we weren't able (and I wasn't dressed for kayak or paddle board). There was this really cute barred owl in their cage area (also a couple other birds in the other two cages that were more hidden and we didn't see until we came by again later, one was a different kind of owl and I don't know what the other was, it was a small bird, or smaller than an owl anyway). We were like, what else can we do here? So we went and tried to check out the trails. We thought the one called Horse Trail was supposed to be good so we went to that (after missing the unmarked road and having to drive around the one-way loop twice). It turns out that "Horse Trail" is more than just a name! It's the trail meant for people to ride horses on (it's also open to pedestrians as well). We started on it anyway, to see it out. I "joked" to watch out for piles of horse crap, and then it didn't take long to encounter a big pile of horse crap and Mary Beth was not wearing shoes such that she wanted to continue down this trail! So then we went and found the Pioneer Springs Trail, it's billed as more of the beginner trail. We walked down that a ways. We got to a point where there was this other couple ahead of us and they asked if we knew how far it was to the namesake springs. We didn't know and they decided to turn around. Just a little bit farther we ran into what may or may not have been the springs. But it was a stream that wasn't very big, but way bigger than any we'd encountered on the trail previously. It had a longish bridge but the bridge was dilapidated and a whole section was broken off and tilting into the water (and the sections near that had wood that felt pretty soft and could soon follow suit). It had broken yellow tape hanging off the posts so it was probably supposed to be off-limits. We we went across and that was the fun adventuresome part of the day! (I mean, it was all fun but that was the part that was fun in an adventuresome sort of way, I've said "adventuresome" way more times than I've likely said in a post before! I'm guessing my previous record was zero!) A little bit after that we turned around too. Another obstacle on that journey was a tree trunk that was just big enough to where you could climb over (there were other trunks across the path but most of them had space to duck under or were smaller or had a new path going around). Then it was time for lunch (our Brother Juniper's leftovers) so we went to the General Store that's right by the Park and recommended and picked up some drinks. I liked it. They have lots of sodas. They also make burgers and stuff but our breakfast gave us a bit more for us to be able to take on new foods. Then we drove to the other end of the Park where there's the landing to the Mississippi River. The water level right now is CRAZY low. I mean, I've been noticing it in the city when we've been downtown for a few weeks. Here there's a boat ramp and it goes all the way down to what is now a wide sandy beach. It has to be at least ten feet vertically down from where it tends to be. So we walked around on what would normally be the bottom of the river, and where we would normally be completely submerged. It was pretty and scenic and a surreal. Anyway, then we went back home. We went over to Circuit Playhouse where they were having a costume/clothing sale but I think we got there kinda late into it and all the good stuff was gone. We walked over to Sweet Noshings and grabbed some (more) soda. In the evening I finished reading The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov. It was good, though probably one of my least favorites of what I've read from him. I feel there's a whole lot that's probably missing for one as I not being so familiar with all the ins-and-outs of mid-nineteenth century Russian literature (especially Chernyshevsky, of course, who I'd never heard of before). I mean, you get the gist of what it's all about, but it doesn't have the same impact as coming from a perspective of being steeped in it. There's also a bit of willfully precious self-aggrandizement. Later at night we watched a bunch of Murder She Wrote. Oh yeah, and we also hung out on the deck at night and Peanut visited us again. She went straight for my lap and this time I got to pet her neck! The good stuff! Though she left and came back a little later but this time when I tried to pet her she was more frisky and in a playful swipe-at-my-hands mood so I kept my distance! Slept in a good bit today. I guess we were tuckered out after yesterday's adventures!