Reflections - A Limp on the Park

Barracks Beach Presque Isle

Dear Lori,

    I hope you’re well and enjoying life with your pets. Do you still have a pig? 

When Spence and I celebrated our anniversary at Presque Isle, the only four legged creatures we saw were chipmunks and dogs. We’d followed Walk #13 in Gene Ware’s A Walk on the Park up Barracks Beach. With no mile markers, I hadn’t a clue if we’d walked the directed 8/10 mile. The sky darkened. Winds whipped waves. A thunderstorm had been forecast. It was time to head back. I decided to follow the guidebook. Leaving the beach, we turned left for the 1/10 mile walk on Old Lake Road to meet Peninsula Drive and the Multi-Purpose Trail.

We walked for ages and ages along the road. I kept saying, “It’s probably around the next bend.” It wasn’t and I didn’t want to wade through the thirty yards of swampy woods.

Spence finally said, “Does it make sense to walk in the opposite direction of the car?” 

We turned around. Old Lake Road would have been delightful under other circumstances. The breeze blew puffy cottonwood seeds and carried the fragrance of black locust. But the pavement smacked my feet through the thin beach shoes and jarred my sore, swollen knees. I limped. Spence pointed at tiger swallowtail butterflies. Too weary to look, I trudged for another century until we reached the spot we’d joined the road—and yet another until we found the path across to the drive and trail. Only 8/10 mile to the car. I glanced at Erie Bay and read signs that nesting red-winged blackbirds could get aggressive. Many called chit chit but none threatened an old couple completing a two-hour walk, having thoroughly celebrated their 54th anniversary.

Love,

Janet

 

P.S.

If you want to see all nine postcards in the Three Celebration Postcard Journal, use this link:

https://sites.google.com/site/wellswoodpa/vacations/three-clebrations-spring-2022

 

Driftwood