Change of Plans

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

Living in a Park is full of events and mysteries. The first week this month in the Park was another bike race. Not a triathlon this time, but an endurance race. There are some 13 miles of bike trails throughout the Park, many as narrow as two feet across. The first group raced through the woods for six hours. Around and around. That seems difficult enough to me, but the second group, well, they endured for twelve hours. From ten o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock at night. Now bear in mind, both groups are going at the same time, on the same trails, one group just ends at four o’clock. I cannot imagine racing through the woods in the dark with only a small light on ones head. But, that is just me. Or should that be “just I.” Sounds kind of weird. Let’s just stick with “me.”

The Park is used by many groups and organizations. One Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, a Private School group of 5th graders came to the Park for an outing. The group of kids were 120 strong. They had various activities planed, miniature-golf, playground, hiking and other activities such as fishing. I was drafted, along with other hosts, to help the kids with fishing.

Now, I am not a fisherman. I find the whole activity boring. But I have fished in my time, albeit not very well Fortunately for us hosts, the group divided up into twenties for the fishing action. So, here comes 20 nine and ten year olds, eager to get a line in the water, being held back by a teacher, until we gave the word to let the stampede begin. We had some 20 plus rods and reels complete with hook for them to use. And, we had worms. Some of the kids knew how to get a worm on the hook, some didn’t, and didn’t want to know. That was our job to bait the hook. We found each a spot on the boat dock for fishing. Helped them get a line in the water without hooking their classmate, and generally helped them in the process. One would fish for 30 to 45 minutes and then the next group would arrive, until everyone had a chance to try their luck.

The first picture above is of some of the group and two of the other hosts on the dock. I must say that all the young ones were well mannered and well behaved. The second picture is of the young lady that caught the first fish, a brim. They didn’t keep the fish. We let them go. I was the one who had to get the hook out of the fish’s mouth and let it go, but not before I had her pose with her trophy. She also caught a second fish during her time with the pole.

I have to tell you a story. One of the young girls approached Don, one of the other hosts, the one facing forward in the first picture, carrying her pole, and said in a low voice, what he understood as, “I have to tinkle.”

Don didn’t know what to do about that and told her, “You will have to see your teacher, and she will take you to the bathroom.”

The young girl shook her head and said, “No, I have a tangle.” So much for young voices and old ears. We separated many tangled lines that day.

So much for events. Now, the mystery. Numerous times we have been awakened in the night by a loud “squawk.” To be honest, it was Carolyn who was awakened. I don’t hear anything much with my hearing aids out. I did hear it during the day, but we could neither identify the sound or see what was making it. It was both a puzzle and an annoyance. The sound was similar to a duck, but different, and it was not a crow.

I asked the rangers about the sound and imitated it as best I could. They thought it might be a blue heron. They make a similar sound and nest in trees. There are blue herons here. I researched blue heron sounds on the Internet and found what sounded like what we were hearing. It was a Night Heron. A picture of a Black-crowned Night Heron is above. But the Rangers had never seen one. Whatever it is, it’s still squawking, but we haven’t figured it our as yet. Don’t you just hate it when you can’t figure things out?

Lots of interesting things and excitement happens in the park. On one Wednesday morning an eighteen year old young man borrowed his mother’s Chevrolet Suburban, without her knowledge, and along with a sixteen year old friend, drove into the Park when they should have been in school. The young man drove off a Park road and crashed the car into a tree. He says he was trying to miss an animal. A huh! He had some explaining to do.

That very same Wednesday, in the afternoon. A gentleman had borrowed his wife’s red 2007 Ford Expedition. He came into the Park to take photos of wild life for a photo contest going on in the Park. He was out at the boat ramp when he spotted a deer. He grabbed his camera and stepped out of the car to get a picture. He forgot to put the car in park. The car rolled down the boat ramp into the lake and disappeared completely. The last two pictures above capture part of the ordeal. You see a diver beside the pontoon boat with a buoy indicating where the car is. About 100 feet out into the lake. The last picture shows the car being pulled from the lake. Can’t you just hear him when he gets home, “Honey, I drowned the car.“ Too much excitement for one day.

I guess I need to explain what I mean by “Change of Plans.” We had planned to be here in the Park at Winder through August. Our plans are being interrupted by a trip back to Tennessee so I can have back surgery. Many of you know that I have had back trouble for years. It is time to have it fixed. Way past time according to my doctor. I have a condition know as Spinal Stenosis. For you who may not know, it is the narrowing of the spinal column by bone growth on the inside of the canal, pressing on the nerves. As a comparison of my condition with what is normal. Think of the normal opening as the hole in a large donut. My opening is about the size of the hole in a Cheerio.

The good news is that I am a good candidate for minimally invasive surgery. Meaning, the cut will be smaller and the recovery quicker. Hopefully, I am looking at two to four weeks of recovery instead of six to eight. We hope to be back in Georgia in early July to continue our life style of “Parking.”

The Parks in Georgia, as well as many other places, are having a tough time due to the economy. Many cutbacks and layoffs are occurring. Volunteers are needed more than ever. Sometimes it is hard to put in perspective the monetary situation in our world today. Billions and Trillions are being spent. Can you even imagine a trillion dollars. Think of a dollar as a second of time. A million seconds is 11.5 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. Mind boggling isn’t it!

Until next time when we will boggle you some more. While we are back in Tennessee, we will be at the Shady Acres RV Park in Lebanon.