I went for a hike in the park today.  I started at one park, didn't feel comfortable (too many people) and went to another.  I drove in and everything suddenly felt right.  I was pleased to see a nearly empty parking lot and got out of the van and started walking.

Once I got warmed up the interesting experiences began.  I worked my way deep into the park and came upon a bridge that was on a bit of an incline.  I thought I was seeing things, or that I was disoriented, but I saw a woman running backwards up the bridge.  She was shuffling along at a quick pace and I was relieved to see that she was moving backwards.  When I passed her I commented that it was good for the mind to do that and she giggled and said, "I don't know why, but I love doing that."

I clipped along, soaking in the sun and enjoying the early signs of Spring.  A few minutes later I decided it was time to step up the pace and chose to run up the next hill I came across.  When I got there I had to stop. Another hiker had stopped as well, which alerted me to one of my favorite things about his particular park.  A lone doe was walking through the woods, she was beautiful and I looked around for more deer because they rarely walk alone.  Not seeing any I continued on.  When I got to a second inclined bridge, four young deer were coming the other way.  I stopped to let them pass, the other hiker, a man wearing headphones, stopped too.  We smiled at each other, but I was determined to run up a hill.  I looked at the gentleman, smiled again, said "Here I go!" and started running.  As I got to the steepest part of the incline, he started singing along with his music and it seemed to lift me up the rest of the hill.

When I got to the top, I looked down and there was a leaf shaped like a heart lying in the middle of the path.  Breathing heavily, I smiled at the synchronicity of it all and kept moving.

On my way out of the park, I saw a couple walking three dogs.  The woman had one dog on a leash and the man had two small dogs.  One was on a leash, the other was in a baby stroller.  I looked at him and started laughing, I couldn't help it.  He did not look pleased and was probably wondering what I was wondering: 

This had to be the woman's idea, so why wasn't she pushing the stroller?

 

Ha ha ha. What a great story. Who wouldn't laugh if they saw a dog in a stroller. I thought my dogs were spoiled. Maybe he was old,or had 3 legs or something. Still sounds like a great park. Full of life!

I wondered what you were typing so diligently while you were here Sunday while Daddy and I were talking in the background about adorable memories of Baby Latrelle. This was an interesting walk in the park. A dog in a stroller? Thought I'd heard and seen it all. Good writing job as usual. Jomamma:-?

Honestly, I think the stroller was so they wouldn't have to carry a tired dog. They were wearing bows in their hair and were obviously quite spoiled ;)

Well, we were watching HG-TV the other day. The setting was Slidell, LA just outside New Orleans. The couple had a little white fluff that they called a dog. Sweet little thing. It showed her pushing the dog in one of those little umbrella strollers several times. Their reason: the dog gets tired and she got tired of ending up carrying the dog when they went for a walk, so...the stroller. I thought you would get a kick out of this.
Love,
Mom