We had planned to go to the zoo today and ended up chickening out because of the ongoing rainy weather. The radar looked ominous south of us, but west and north were clear. So, Matt and I headed out to hike somewhere north and west. The kids opted to stay home, they don't enjoy exercise for the heck of it yet.
We ended up going to the Refuge to walk, thinking we might do the 4 mile loop at Arrowhead Landing, but after we parked and got going, we turned right instead of left to do the 7.5 mile loop that heads back toward the Decatur river bridge.
I am starting to think I need steel-bottomed shoes for this particular place, the large gravel shift just enough to make my feet hurt and my ankles feel like I have been ice skating.
I took many shots of the sun on the trail, thinking it would disappear within a few minutes.
2 hours later, I was WISHING it would disappear for a few minutes! I about baked and the weather said cloudy all day, there was no mention of blazing sun, I had no hat. Grrrr
It was really humid when the sun would get going with that full-on baking. I flipped worms off the road until that last mile when I was dragging myself along. It's been a while since I have walked more than my usual 3 miles on the treadmill. We did 6 miles on Friday and I was stiff most of yesterday, ended up doing a bunch of squats to loosen up, which hardly helped today!
I guess I can either step up my efforts and get my endurance back or I can fall out from exhaustion walking less than 10 miles on a flat road. Granted, the heat was a big factor, but I got back to the van feeling QUITE the wimp.
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| That gar was over 3 feet long. |
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| These guys were at it all day, they make a noise when they hit each other, almost like sword fight clashes but using dried seaweed as weapons. It was a brittle-sounding rub when their wings hit, I expected to see little flakes of them falling to the ground. |
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| We saw gar, carp and turtles in all the water, the turtles slipped under faster than we could get a photo of them, but the gar were pretty content to lounge up in the sun. |
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| A carp in the reflected grass in the canal. I loved the way it made the reflection ripple and bulge. |
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| These were few and far between-shady pockets along the road. |
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| Passion Flower |
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| No idea |
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| Sweet gum |
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| horse nettle |
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| blackberry |
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| I never could get the exposure to work out for this guy, but I liked the bokeh in the water behind him, so pardon the wonky feel of the lighting. |
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| turtle eggs, we hope hatched and not consumed. |
I could watch these guys for hours, the red-winged blackbirds riding the long stalks over the marsh.
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| Trumpet vine |
It was a great walk, I sure sweated out about a month's worth of crud, I just wish I had been able to protect my face. I have been using the sun damage serum and following all the directions and even Matt agreed my skin was looking better and BAM. One afternoon reset all of that and likely made it worse than before. I had sunscreen, but that barely lasts when you are literally dripping sweat.
You may notice I did not blog for yesterday. I have come to the realization that I don't actually DO something every day and if I try to blog for every day this summer, I am going to be typing a good bit about household chores and my big plans for lounging in the hammock, maybe talk some about what my hair is doing and how annoyed I am with it most of the time. I never HAVE had good hair.
