A walk, a harvest festival, and model trains.

Number one on my itinerary today was to get out of the house and parking lot.  My friend, Jack, who’s now in Deming,NM, emailed me today with a couple of suggestions of where I could take Emma (the gog) for an outing.  He even provided exact driving instructions.  So off we went this morning to find the very close by county park.  Turned out that the fee for non-residents was $8.  When I asked the gate attendant what the park had to offer, she was a little vague, so I opted not to pay that kind of a fee just to take Emma for a walk. 

Instead, I went a little further down the road to a parking lot for the Erie Lackawanna Rails to Trails path.

What a pleasant biking/running/walking path this is!

There were still a few things blooming along the way, and some of the leaves have begun to turn.

One of the nice things about this walk was that it was absolutely free.    One of the not so nice things about it is that it was obvious that many large dogs are also walked along this paved path, and their owners were negligent in cleaning up after them.  Free plastic bags are even provided on the trail for such purposes.  I just don’t understand that.

The trail winds along for a total of twenty miles.  We only did a couple of those miles this morning.  Even so, it took us a couple of hours for two reasons.  The first is that I brought my camera along, and that means lots of stops.  Secondly, a choice to do this on a Saturday morning was probably not the best decision.  I think half the people in northern Indiana were on that path this morning…jogging, walking, biking, and rollerblading.  Now throw the wild child into their midst, along with the squirrels and even a raccoon crossing our path, and the pleasant walk turned out to be a real workout for me trying to keep Emma in line.  It’s no wonder my right arm is stronger than my left. 

My favorite pic today was finding this shy sunflower peeking out from behind a tree.  Anyway, when we got back to the car, I noticed a sign for the Griffith Harvest Festival that was happening today.  So, I dropped Emma off at the rig, and headed to that.  Now when I think of a harvest festival, I think of pumpkins, apples, maybe some tomatoes and corn.  Stuff like that.  Well, this turned out to be a craft fair.  I would normally have to be dragged to something like that.  I was very disappointed to say the least.  I did the whole thing in about a half hour, and headed back down the road.

There was also a sign out for a model train show at the elementary school so I stopped to see what that was all about.  I found that much more enjoyable than the Harvest Festival.  SAM, that top left pic in the collage is for you.    Overall, it was a very good day today.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy