Unplanned Longer Walk

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 9, 2023

Another very busy day today so here is the quick summary.

The morning planned walk was to be shorter because of the humid hot weather expected when the weather report was checked while the OFM was getting his shoes on the correct feet. Then the water bottle was loaded into his pants leg pocket and away we went. The planned route was a very shady one next to the golf course out to the road looping the golf course start and then come back for a walk of about 1.25 miles in the heat.

We got going on it but the weather was nice. A bit warm but not nearly hot. The humidity was not bad and a GREAT Breeze was moving the air nicely. So we just kept on going because everything was just fine. Folks on the trail kept mentioning after the Howdies that it was such a nice day for a change.

When we got to the pump house we knew we were closer to home to continue on instead of back tracking . But the OFM was feeling good so we stepped on along but we did slow the pace a little to be careful with the longer distance we were about to accomplish.

We swapped over to the gravel trail along the river at the pump house and basically followed the trail we walked yesterday back to the Castle. It turned out to be 3.4 miles total.

We were now on the trail that the blown down tree turned us around yesterday. When we got to that spot the OFM was doing fine balance wise and the tree had settled a couple of inches since yesterday so the OFM straddled the log and stepped on over it today with no trouble at all. That was a welcome event.

As the OFM was getting ready to move out it occurred to him that we needed a picture of the innards of that tree to see why it was blown down. So we put the camera on full flash and held the camera out and snapped this picture of the inside of the stump.

As you can see the tree was not in good shape internally. So it is not a surprise that with over half its innards gone it was weakened a lot when the strong wind hit this location.

Onward we went along the waterfront trail enjoying the scenery on this nice morning. After a bit we came to one of the two resting spots with nice benches and the OFM wanted a minute or so to rest. While he was sitting there he got a nice picture to be the blog header for a while until another nice picture comes along.

We hope to have it ready and installed by tomorrow some time.

As we turned from this trail toward the campground and the Castle we crossed near a big row of large crepe myrtle with white blossoms. The odd thing to the OFM was the plants were shedding their blossoms so soon and the red ones were not shedding yet. Oh Well we will have seed pods pretty soon we think.

After we finished the walk it was snack time for the OFM. Walmart grocery normally has small clear boxes of mixed fruits for sale and a couple of days ago we grabbed one box for after walk snacks. This was day three on the box of fruit and we finished it off because it was so good after that great walk.

Now we need to get another one. Yummity Yum.

No big adventures happened for the rest of the day but a visit with a friend at Burger King for almost two hours. Then we each headed our own way to take care of the rat killing we had to get done this afternoon. Yep my nap was so nice the OFM slept through it. Now the OFM should have enough energy for trying to have tooooo much fun again tomorrow.