After doing a 1 mile exercise walk with Leslie Sansone's DVD in the morning, we decided to take the dogs up to Liberty for a walk in the afternoon. It was chilly, but OH so crisp and refreshing! The plan was to drive to the end of the 1.6m road to the dam and park there and mosey around. But, the gate at the entrance was locked , so we couldn't. We had to park at the bottom. Steve suggested we just walk part way up. It's a nice walk, but mostly uphill and a fairly steep grade at that. Well, I was feeling pretty good, and a bit full of myself. So I said, LET'S GO THE WHOLE WAY!!
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| An uphill climb. |
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| Steve, Daisy and Puddles taking a break near the creek. |
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| Daisy exploring, and thankfully NOT falling into the water! |
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| The dogs look like they are contemplating a swim, but decided against it! |
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| The little waterfall. |
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| Hard to see me, right? What with all my camo on! |
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| Daisy sniffing around while Puddles digs. |
It was great! The cold front hadn't moved in yet, and we walked in sunshine, clouds, and 2 pretty good snow showers!
We saw at least a dozen pairs of Bluebirds, and lots of Juncos with them. We saw 2 Mockingbirds, 4 Bluejays, about a dozen Crows, 3 Black Vultures, 2 Red Bellied Woodpeckers, several pairs of Cardinals, 3 White Throated Sparrows, a Pileated Woodpecker, and heard, but didn't see 2 House Wrens singing to each other. We also saw a Red Tail Hawk, but the picture didn't turn out so great. My camera doesn't have much of a zoom. And he was flying fast!
A lot more can be seen in the winter when the leaves are off of the trees, and the undergrowth has died. We saw some interesting trees!
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| Big roots and moss. |
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| Big old Oak tree. |
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| This one had stripes! And a cool twisty vine next to it. |
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| This one has stripes too, and it looks like a face near the bottom! |
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| Dead tree with big hole, probably woodpecker nesting spot! |
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| I think this one looks like it wearing "camo" bark! |
The best part of the walk was when we got up to the dam parking lot. We saw a flock of at least 20 Cedar Waxwings descend on to a Cedar tree, and devour the berries! They flew off, came back, flew off, and then came back and settled on top of a pine tree! Again, my zoom on the camera isn't very good, but if you click the picture to enlarge it, and look closely, you'll see them! Steve LOVES Cedar Waxwings, but has only seen two in person, so this was pretty exciting!
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| Close up of the blue Cedar berries they were feasting on. |
It was a great walk, but it started getting a bit breezy so we were looking forward to getting home to some hot chocolate, dinner, a hot shower for my sore muscles, and a relaxing evening....but it had to wait....
When we got in the Nissan, it wouldn't start. Dead as a doornail. UGH! Steve was trying different buttons to see if anything was alive, and quickly realized he had left the headlights on. The Nissan, strangely enough, has no warning "ding" when you leave the lights on after the key is removed. I have made this mistake many times, but always at work, so whoever comes in after me would let me know I left them on. After a couple of weeks, I FINALLY started to remember on my own! But Steve rarely uses the Nissan, and he didn't know this little quirk. By the time we got back to the car, the lights had been on for over 2 hours.
As we sat there trying to figure out what to do, all hell broke loose as the cold front arrived. Wind like crazy, snow coming down very heavily. Steve had his cell phone, but I didn't have mine with me...the one with everyones phone numbers in it...DUH. Steve was just about to walk back to the house to get the other car. We had encountered another couple and their dogs in the parking lot heading out on their walk as we were leaving, and I was sure the sudden turn in weather would bring them right back to the parking lot and we could ask for a jump start. So we waited a few minutes, and sure enough, they came back! It is only about a half hour walk back to the house, through the fields and woods, and partly on the road, but it was so cold and wet and windy that I really didn't want him to have to hoof it.
Jumper cables in place, they tried to jump start the car. No dice. The lights and everything else came on, but the car just wouldn't start, and there was terrible clicking and tapping coming from the fuse box under the dashboard, and in the engine compartment. I was a mess. I started to cry. All I could think was that there was some terrible problem with the car that we'd never be able to afford to fix. Or even be able to have the car towed anywhere. I felt so crushed.
The other couple wished us luck and drove off. As Steve started to bundle up to make the trek home, suddenly, the couple drove back in! They asked if they could give Steve a ride home, and then asked if he had a gun! Can't blame them, in this day and age. Steve was back in a few minutes with the Saturn and decided that the corrosion on the terminal may have kept it from charging enough to start it. He was sure if he cleaned it off and hooked the cable up a little differently, and let it charge for a while, it would start. I was not so sure, preparing myself for disaster. But it DID work! And we got it home, and this morning, it started up again like a champ!
I can only say one more time...THANK YOU LORD!
