A walk in the woods

Today my brother and I went to Ramsey Lake State Park.

I was not walking from last April to September and he has had two toes removed since October, so we were not the most likely candidates for this trip.

But . . . we were uniquely suited for each other.

Both of us wanted to go. Both of us love being out in the woods, summer, spring, winter or fall; and both of us like to eat torpedo sandwiches.

I packed up napkins, tablecloth, and plates, then stopped in Decatur on my way down to pick him up and got the sandwiches.

We ate, ambled around looking at the lake, the trees and the enormous hornet nest bigger than a bushel basket, then got in the car and drove through the country.

It was a step back in time when the roads were all dirt and gravel and one lane. The trees hung over the roads and the mud from recent floods left debris all over them. There were shaggy horses, log cabins, old farm houses and even a few haunted ones! We stopped to visit friends whose horse is expecting a new colt any day now, visited our family's grave sites in the cemetery and then I took him home.

It was a long day. I was gone eight and a half hours, but they were the best hours I've spent in a quite a while.