A Walk & an Adventure

I grew up on the same road my children will-  in a town with no sidewalks or street lights or city blocks.  When my mom would take my sisters and I up and down the road for a walk, she made each trip an adventure.  I can only hope I can do the same for my children.

The walk is exactly one mile to reach the end of the road.  This was the first time I took my babies from our house all the way down to reach the end- where driveway meets road, road meets soil, soil meets sand, and sand meets water.  I made sure to point out to them all the exciting things we saw along the way...and I wanted to share them with you too.

I love the way our neighbor's grass turns a purple hue when its about to go to seed...

And the way the road is dappled in light coming through the trees that are turning fall colors.  

We stopped for a few minutes to visit what my mom called the "Gnome Tree." When my sisters and I were little, she told us that there were a family of gnomes that lived in this little hole at the bottom, and we would take left over bits of bread or cookies to deliver to them on our walks.  It always confirmed her story was true when we would return the next day to find our food had been nibbled away by the gnomes!  Molly and Josiah don't quite understand the magic of the gnome tree yet.  I can't wait to make cookies with them one day and take one of our delicious baked goods to our forest friends.  They have been so neglected over the past two decades.  :o)    

Finally we reached Pop Pop and Gramby's house...  

And the red dogwood guarding as sentinel greeted us. The large stump of a tree that lingers there is the remnant of a gigantic oak that was planted by my great-grandfather, Alonzo, the day my grandfather, Clement Giberson, was born in 1905.  The tree died the very year my grandfather died in 1987.   

The dogwood planted itself there soon thereafter.  

A little further past my parent's house is my uncle's (and now my cousin's) campground.  After they built it in the early sixties, they went for a walk around the grounds and decided to and name it after the first bird they saw, a red-winged black bird.  

Then the road turns to a sandy path...  

with beautiful trees to enjoy along the way....  

The woods can look rather ominous as we follow the path...  

And suddenly sunlight ahead...  

The trees thin and the woods becomes the bay.  

We startle an osprey who is perched on a dead tree.  He's hard to see here... but he's right above the fragmites on the left.  

Do you see him?

We say hello to a muskrat who built his home in the marsh.  

and wave to the tall cedar trees that I remember being about knee-high when I was young.  Now they are tall enough sway in the wind and wave back to us.  

I push my littles onto the lookout tower that my Uncle Clem built.  I will have to get a better picture of this sign.  It is hilarious to me and further confirms the eccentricity of my family. 

Then I climb the tower to enjoy the beautiful view...  

The best of which is directly below me...  

And then I climb back down again... 

to where they are patiently waiting.  

And we travel along to dirt road to the very end.... the dock.  

When I was little, we would bring bread down and feed the fish.  Mostly, we would watch our bread float way with the tide, but it was still exciting.  

Maybe they will think that is fun someday too.  

We turned around and waved to the tower...

and the trees

and headed for the dark woods again.  

When the woods clear, we see another lovely Giberson addition to our land erected by my uncle. 

Yeah... I have no words.  I guess he didn't want to be outdone by his little brother, my father, who built this in his backyard...    

Fianally we head back down the road to go home...  

We made it!

Well....most of us, anyway.  

I can't imagine living anywhere else.