Who says God doesn’t read my blog?! Only crazy people, that’s who! We woke up this morning to a torrential
downpour raging outside…the forerunner of the incoming cold front that is
sliding across the state. Imposing black
skies, rumbling thunder, and massive raindrops were the players in the drama unfolding
outside. (Which really sucks when you’re trying to sleep in for a change!) In addition to all of this, the temperature
had also dropped 20 degrees over night!
I’m so glad I brought that ONE pair of long pants. I guess I’ll be wearing them for the rest of
the trip. It’s a good thing we’ll be outside,
so at least they can air out the smell every day.
So, let’s recap. Much-needed
rain? Check. Cooler temperatures? Check.
Actually, this is eerily like our first anniversary here, which did exactly
the same thing. We still have fond
memories of snuggling up together under a blanket on the porch in the morning,
sipping our hot chocolate and watching the puffs coming from our mouths as our
chocolate-warmed breath steamed the frigid air.
Maybe tomorrow morning.
So, already tired of almond butter sandwiches, beef jerky,
and chocolate/oat protein bars for breakfast, I decided to go crazy and change
it up. So, I had almond butter
sandwiches, beef jerky, and dried apricots instead! We ate out on the porch again, swaying in our
porch swing, watching the storm along with a myriad of God’s creatures who
apparently also wanted out of the rain.
We had walking sticks, leaf insects, millipedes, spiders, mosquitoes,
and slugs all living in harmony with us as we ate (to be completely honest, the
mosquito wasn’t being harmonious, so he got squashed pretty much right off). We also had a nice long chat with the woman
in the cabin next door, who was from Houston, TX of all places. (It should be noted that this woman gets a
special place in my heart, because she not only asked what I did for a living,
but continued to probe me for more details after I told her I was a software
developer. On top of that, she was just
as interested in me as she was by my exotic, Greek wife…which is completely unheard
of!)
We had to change cabins today, a side-effect of waiting
until the last minute to decide where you want to spend your money…uh, I mean
vacation. So, we furiously packed our
stuff, by which time the rain had stopped, and restuffed the car. We then checked out…and then checked back in
again…before heading over to Cedar Falls Overlook. (At least the same woman did both parts. It would have been strange if one woman
checked us out, and then someone completely different had to check us back in
again.) We wanted to see if the
overnight rain had had any effect on the Falls.
It hadn’t. It’s going to take
more rain than that apparently.
This was followed with a scenic lunch in the Mather Lodge
restaurant before heading to Davies Bridge.
This was where we found our second gem of the trip. While trying to get a better view of the
bridge, we hiked a little bit of the Boy Scout trail. This part of the trail was beautiful, but the
gem we found was a local photographer who was hiking the trail from the
opposite direction. He was stopped for a
smoking break, and he engaged us in conversation as we went by. He proceeded to talk to us about the area,
where the best views of the park were, where the best photographs of changing
leaf color were, and how the Forest Rangers have been getting lazy about
cleaning up the fallen trees in the creek (he seemed very passionate about
this, that’s why I mention it). We
followed him back down the trail, so he could point out some amazing sites that
we would have missed otherwise, like a cool rock overhang and a breathtaking
waterfall nestled deep in the woods.
On our “gem’s” recommendation, we headed down the Red Bluff
Drive, which takes you to several overlooks that look out over the surrounding
forests and valleys. The drive ends at a
site called Rock House Cave, which is a massive Native American shelter formed
from the river eating away at the rock over thousands of years. In the back, with the help of a flashlight,
we were able to see pictographs left from the previous occupants. I wonder how many people miss these, because
it’s too dark to see. The other cool
formation in this area is the Turtle Rocks, which are these huge round mounds
sticking out of the ground that have square-looking plates all over them. These were formed by water bubbling up from
below the rock as well as water cutting the patterns from above. Obviously, as you probably guessed from the
name, they resemble hundreds of giant turtle shells on either side of the
trail.
Now, it’s back to the cabin to cook all of the food that we
brought…yes, this one actually has a full kitchen! Yeah!
The smells emanating from the kitchen, even as I type this, are making
me crazy hungry. Any minute now, I’m
expecting raccoons to show up on the back porch, holding out plates.
