I woke up Saturday morning very early due to the idiot with the big truck in the room next to me deciding to rev his engine for 15 minutes at 6AM. But that's ok, had to get going. After getting my legs working again after my 10 miles the day before I ate my breakfast and headed out. I had decided to go to Alma and walk on the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail. Now I have to say something here about how much I appreciate the Meijers. First of all, I am a mostly loyal customer and can't even imagine how much money I've spent there over the last at least 35 years. On top of that, we are so lucky that the Meijer family is so generous and have given so much to Michigan. In this case, Fred Meijer purchased the abandoned CSX railbed and thanks to him and additional donations and grants we have this beautiful railway to walk (or ride or whatever other non motorized way you'd want to move down it). His name is on several other rail trails in Michigan.
I digressed again. What I discovered when I got to Alma with all my well laid plans was that it was Highland Festival day. And the main streets were closed because there was a 10k being run. And I didn't have a map of the town so wasn't sure where the trail was. So I parked and did what I think is a very logical move: I headed to the bakery/coffee shop. I found out where to go and consumed my lovely scone and sat on the sidewalk thinking about how the United States is made up of thousands of small communities like Alma. This was their most exciting day of the year and everyone was pitching in to make it wonderful. People were already setting up their chairs on the sides of the street to watch the parade that was going to happen after the run. It was pretty heartwarming.
The start of the 10K run.
They had train rides.
And men in kilts making lots of noise.
The sky was trying to clear while I was on the trail. Finally there was some blue in the sky!
This stretch of trail was all oak trees. It was so beautiful it hurt. It made me think of that Louis Armstrong song, "What a Wonderful World". As you have probably figured out by now, I love trees.
I finally made it back to my car and looked up and saw this cool church. On my way out of town I went out State Street and there were beautiful houses and public buildings. It was a really nice town with wonderful, friendly people.
_________________________________________________________________
I needed to get down to Sleepy Hollow State Park to get Clinton County done. I headed down US 27 and got off an exit before I needed to and ended up going down Shepherdsville Road which was really hilly and scenic. There were Amish buggy caution signs but I didn't see any (buggies). Sleepy Hollow had grassy, waterlogged trails so I decided to walk the paved service roads and just wanted to get my 5 miles done so I could go home. Lake Ovid was nice and I could imagine how crowded this place must be in the middle of summer. It's only 20 miles north of Lansing.
I have 35% of the states done. It seems like it should be more. An old friend of mine from high school heard about what I'm doing and has offered to have me at her cottage up north for a weekend so I can get some counties done on the west side of state. My niece has a house up in the northeast part of the state and I "think" my sister and I are going up for a few days and get some of that area done. And then my wonderful hubby is taking his sailboat up in July and is going to dock it somewhere in the UP. We're hoping he can make it to Escanaba. And he will walk with me up there since I'm afraid of bears and now I've added feral pigs to my scare list and I'm not too fond of running into a beaver either. I read a sign the other day at the trail in Corunna that said that beavers can get as big as medium sized dogs. Holy cow!!!! I don't like squirrels much either especially the ones that look like little devil squirrels. And of course geese.
No comments:
Post a Comment