On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7
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02-14-2005 St. Valentine's Day Hike
Monday, February 14, I awoke to an eerie fog hanging over the lake and seeping in among the pine trees around our trailer. I wish my brain hadn't been in a fog; I would have taken my camera out and tried to get some 'fog' picture for the first time. Instead I sat like a zombie with my hands around my cup of java trying to mentally prepare myself for packing up and leaving in a few hours. But one of the great things about being retired is that nothing is set in concrete. We don't really have to follow any schedule. So Bob got up and we chatted for a while and then he said "You know, I don't really feel like moving today." This is exactly what I said on Sunday. So we regrouped, made a new plan and decided to stay for another day.
After breakfast we donned our hiking shoes and walked to the office to pay for another night. Then we crossed Hwy 190 to the Walnut Ridge Unit of the State Park on the north side of the road. We had to dodge the road construction along the way and got gassed out by a tar truck. It was a farther hike down State Road 48 to the other trail than we thought but by this time we were committed. We finally found the trail head which led to a bridge over the lake. We rested on a picnic table at one of the sites. Fire ants promptly marched up Bob's hiking shoe so we quickly move on. No rest for the wicked!
The bridge led to a trail that circled an island.
There was a nice view of the lake out at the very point. We took the trail through the woods on the way back, instead of the park road we took on the way in. There was a very 'looong' bridge and a poorly marked circular trail that had quite a bit of water we had to fjord. We were thinking this whole hike would be about three miles but it is turning out to be a bit more of a jaunt than we thought. Back at the Nature Center at the entrance to Walnut Ridge I found a restroom that was open. And Bob found a Coke machine so we perked up. As we walked back along the 190 road construction we fell in step with one of the Texas State Highway workers. He was very friendly and said they tried to complete 3 miles per day of resurfacing but they had only done one mile today. We said we were surprised to see them working on Saturday. He said they didn't get to work several days last week due to the weather so they worked Saturday to make up for it.
Back in the south part of the park we took the trail through the woods; a shortcut back to our campsite. We were more than ready to be back. I was surprised that we walked for 2 hours and 45 minutes and went about 6 and 1/2 miles. I told Bob I didn't think you were supposed to torture your sweetheart on Valentine's Day. He said ditto! Instead of Martin Dies, Jr. State Park, we renamed it "Bob and Rita Dies State Park! We had a quick snack to recharge our engines and then took showers. We headed into Jasper and had lunch at Elijah's Cafe; grilled catfish. Afterwards we stopped in CVS Pharmacy for a few toiletries and a paper. I bought us strawberry-filled chocolate hearts from Russell-Stover’s as a Valentine's treat.
Back home we checked the air pressure in anticipation of actually pulling out of here tomorrow. We read the paper, enjoyed our Valentine hearts and then went outside to catch a glimpse of a gorgeous orange sunset.
It's 7:51 p.m. and 60.7 degrees. The high today was 77 and the sky was a deep blue.