A Vacation from Reality...Part Three

After a fun day and night in B-town, we headed to McCormick's Creek State Park, which is just a bit west of Bloomington. It was another beautiful day, though a bit hotter and nearing the 90s (actually, I think it reached the 90s during the day) We stopped first to get a picnic lunch at the grocery store and headed out. The plan: eat a quite bite and then go hiking for the day. I've been to this park several times before, with my parents a few times in high school, so I vaguely knew what I was doing. (Key word: vaguely)

I, in my great wisdom, decided we were going to do the rugged trail first, but before I get to the story...just a bit of background....

I grew up in northern Alabama, and my family went camping a lot in throughout my childhood. We had one of those pop-up campers, and we'd camp in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. We saw some really cool parks and experienced nature at its finest. And my parents would take us hiking. It was usually a lot of fun, but when you're a kid who is 6 or 7, you get tired easily. My father was notorious for picking one trail and then seeing where it connects to another trail, taking us to that trail, and then we'd end up hiking for hours. And I mean hours. And the trail would always end with this huge flight of steps back up a mountain to the end. Granted, I was a kid, and kids do have energy. BUT, I was a kid with asthma. So hiking for three hours usually resulted in tears. We'd always make it back to camp, and there would be a Kool Aid juice box waiting for me, which I swear was the best thing I had ever tasted in the whole world after that long of a hike. So I have a bit of hiking experience, so I thought "if I could do it then, I can do it now, right?"

So we took the rugged trail. It started off well, until we got down into the creek. T quickly realized, "Hey there's no trail here! Just water and rocks. You want me to cross this?"
Here is T looking just a little bit hesitant.

But I was confident. Just call me Captain Nature.

So we started the hike through the creek. First step, let's jump across these rocks and get across the creek. T did it, but I stood there frozen for a few minutes. He turns around, realizes, "Hey, she's not with me..." I just look up at him and say "I's scared..." (Yes, when confronted with a terrifying situation, I revert to the language capabilities of a four year old.

Don't judge...) I made it, but man, it was not easy. (See! It doesn't look so easy!) Now this next picture, I'm not sure what this rock thing is, but it looked cool, so I took a picture of it....

The thing I didn't remember was that when I was young, falling down wasn't that big of a deal. I did it all the time. I fell of my bike and just got back up and rode again. But when you're older, falling hurts. And it continues to hurt for several days. So there was my hesitation.

But as we got a little further, our confidence built. And honestly (and this may sound incredibly cheesy) but it was definitely what you would call a trust-building exercise. I was there for him, and he was there for me. There were a few times where we both slipped, but the other was there to catch him when he fell (or she fell). And we made it, but yes, it did end with a huge flight of stairs. However, I didn't cry this time.

So we decided to do a second trail just for kicks. This one was labeled moderate, and it went through a quarry, which was really pretty. It seemed pretty easy, until we got about halfway through and started hiking uphill. Uphill for about a half a mile. Um, yeah, girl with the asthma? Not liking it so much. I'm not going to confirm or deny whether I snapped at T, but those of you who know me well, know that I get just a wee bit cranky when tired. But we made it through this trail, too. We were sweating like pigs, but it felt good to accomplish two trails in one afternoon.

So we hauled ourselves to the car and headed out. It was a great end to a wonderful weekend. It was sad to return to reality, but, it had to happen sometime, right? But we decided we're definitely doing this more often. Sometimes it is just great to get away with the one you love and have a little fun.
Next one tank getaway - mid-June and a little jaunt to French Lick, Indiana!