Wildflower Trail

On Thursday, we had to run into Huntsville to get a bracket replaced on Chandler's braces that had popped off.  Matt needed a ride home that afternoon as his carpool person had to leave early, so Chan and I had several hours between the ortho appt and Matt's off-work time.  After doing the only logical time-filler by having lunch at Taziki's and maxing out both our library cards, we went looking around for something else to do.  It was supposed to rain, the weather on the radio was nearly frantic with the horrific storms coming our way, but the sky was actually clearing by mid-afternoon, so we went to the Wildflower Trail off Cleermont. 

This is usually a gorgeous place this time of year, but the flowers had bloomed and gone and the creek was very low.  Still, we enjoyed ourselves for an hour or so just strolling along and poking around in the creek.

This stuff sure is healthy and robust this year! 
Poison Oak.

Trumpet Vine

Stonecrop

Vina minor or periwinkle.

Notice anything new?  A tooth!  She did not need the bracket to hook rubber bands to replaced, he went ahead and put on a regular bracket.  She's NEARLY done!!

Richard Martin Trail Part 1

Today we met Gina in Athens and walked the southern 6 miles of the trails to trails Richard Martin trail.  It was a GREAT walk, the day was perfect and the trail was darn-near flat.

 We parked at the roughly half-way point after leaving her car at the southern terminus.  The plan was to walk to her car, they were going to leave and we were going to walk back to our car.  Well...yesterday at some point I must have banged me knee, or stretched it?  The joint was not hurting, it was the side of my knee, almost like a sting or a bruise.  I was awake several times during the night with a heating pad or cooling it off to keep it from hurting and it still kept me awake. 

After 6 miles, the kids were toast and when Matt asked Zep if he needed to carry her a while, she laid down and put her feet in the air.  The kids did skate for over 2 hours just yesterday.  I was concerned that while my  knee was not hurting, if I did 12 miles (we planned for 8 but the trail was not split the way I had thought) that the knee would start hurting and I would be stuck walking on it anyway, possibly messing up plans for more hikes in the very near future while it mended.  We all agreed 6 miles was a really good amount and so we rode back to the van and ended up getting a couple more geocaches and stopped for lunch and scored some .29 chocolate eggs, which probably negated any caloric burn.  hahaha.

On the way home, we topped the tank off at $3.39, I think it will be the last time until after September that we pay less than $3.50 a gallon or very close to that.  : (  They keep saying the hike has not affected the sales, that people are still going as usual.  They are not polling the right people.  Yeah, Matt still goes to work every day, he sort of HAS to.  But we have already cut back on driving Nettlevan and hitting $3.50 a gallon makes her $60 to fill up.  You better bet that will change our habits , that's $15 more than it was 2 months ago.

Anyway, great walk and a great trail, it will be double good when we have bikes.  We keep heading out to hike to get exercise, but when we came in tonight, we figured up that if we made a trail around the property, it will REALLY burn some calories AND would give us a 3 mile trail to walk without having to drive anywhere. 

in the crabapple tree

Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve

If you have been thinking to yourself "Gee, EVERY picture Esther has taken in the last year has had a smudge in it", you are right!  But, no longer.  Tomorrow, New Camera arrives on the UPS truck.  Eep!