Life After 50 Hikes

Life After 50 Hikes is good! Selecting whichever trail I want from hundreds of possibilities, hitting the road and scouting out new locations, finding interesting places along the way... and apparantly forgetting everything I learned as a hiker during my first 50 hikes.

This past weekend Mom and Tabatha joined me for a Saturday hike. I chose Lake Louisa State Park, which I had seen on the way to another Clermont hike, Crooked River Preserve, last year with Lisa and Trevor. I figured we'd stop at Showcase of Citrus afterwards for ice cream, and I would be able to sneak in a visit to the Lakeridge Winery to satisfy my craving for pure Muscadine grape juice. I told them we'd be hiking in the open, no forest, so they could wear shorts.

Lake Louisa State Park is a beautiful place, boasting a variety of terrains criss-crossed with miles of both marked and unmarked trails. It also has plenty of forest.

We started our hike at 11 AM, parking near Dixie Lake and crossing the street to one of many trailheads we saw along the paved road. I left the bottled water in the cooler in the car. The temperature was already in the high-80's. We stepped into the cool forest, without bug spray. I had an air horn for the bears, but I didn't bring trekking poles to fend off the wild boars. I was wearing jeans, but everyone else was in shorts. I didn't turn on my GPS tracking, and proceeded to wind us in and out of trails with little care for a linear track. And the only snack in my bag was a single protein bar.

I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear that 30 minutes later we were hot, thirsty, swatting away mosquitoes and standing 10 feet from a coiled snake that I had almost stepped on while paying more attention to the recent rooting of wild boars than the path my feet were walking along. What, that doesn't sound like fun to you? Honestly - that's what I love. Not the not being prepared part - I usually pride myself on being prepared (and I did have my first aid kit, multi-function tool and pen and paper in my pack). But I love the excitement of the unknown. I don't allow a whole lot of unknown in my day-to-day life, but I can't stop it out there in the wild. The whole wild is somehow out of my control, and in a complete reversal of my very nature, I love it. I love that around the next bend there could be a beautiful meadow or an interestingly shaped tree or a piece of history that has survived salt and sand and hurricane-force winds to greet me on this day or an alligator who may or may not be waiting to take a bite out of my leg. I don't particularly love the spiders, but I respect their right to spin their webs (out of my intended path, of course).

In all it was a particularly satisfying day. I survived the snake, we tracked wild boar, we did not run into any bear, we hiked 4 miles that was mostly in the shade, and nobody passed out. Admission to the park was only $5 and the bathrooms were clean with showers available because of the camping facilities offered. Picnic tables and grills, a canoe launch, and many more miles of trails that we didn't cover, all make this place ideal for a return visit. We looked at the rental cabins and contemplated a family vacation next summer.

After leaving the park we did drop by the winery for my grape juice, and by La Fiesta Mexicana for a nice lunch/dinner to fill our stomachs. We topped the day off with a stop at Webb's Candy Shop, where we bought some chocolate and I had the chance to taste some desert wines made in St. Pete. Yum!

I Made It to 50!

50 hikes, that is! This weekend, in the company of Mom, Trevor and Trinity, I finished the last of the 50 hikes outlined in Sandra Friend's Guidebook "50 Hikes in Central Florida." And while some of them were admittedly harder than others, and on some of them we got quite lost (including this last one) and didn't exactly follow the trail laid out in the book, I'm still very satisfied with this accomplishment. Over the last 20 months I have:

• visited 50 places that I had never been before,
• discovered the joys of hiking in Florida,
• realized there are hundreds of hikes available in our surrounding area that can be explored as day trips,
• exposed my family to a world of outdoor fun nearly in our own backyard,
• pushed myself to physical challenges greater than reaching for the remote control,
• learned more about Florida's environment, wildlife, and history,
• glimpsed that wildlife in the form of fox squirrels, alligator turtles, gopher tortoises, alligators, deer, and even a not quite sighted Florida Black Bear,
• and become a more experienced (and safer) hiker.

I really am over the moon that I made my goal - perhaps not quite on my original aggressive timeline, but in a reasonable amount of time. So many people supported me in this endeavor, by hiking with me or by listening to my encounters after the fact - especially Mom, Dad, John, Lisa, Trevor, Trinity, Nicole, Dana, Logan, Libby and Bianca. In fact, of that list, only Nicole didn't actually make it onto a hike (but I know she wanted to be there). And now, before we move on to Life After 50 Hikes (did I mention there are over 600 trails in the State of Florida just waiting for me to discover them?!), let's look at a few more layouts from the hikes we completed.

Hike #6 - Lake Kissimmee State Park (broken up into 2 day hikes) - clicking on an image will take you to one of my galleries where you can view it larger and see the credits.

Hike #7 - Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve

Hike #8 - Hillsborough River State Park

Hike #9 - Lettuce Lake Park

Catching Up!

I've fallen behind on my scrappy goals all year (30 layouts per month was my goal), but as July draws to a close I find myself catching up, finally! If I keep going at this rate, I'll only be 5 short by the end of July and I'll be able to get ahead of myself in August! Ah, but there I go, already pushing my luck.

Here are a few of the layouts I finished this week:

Our nephew on vacation down by my dad this summer using the kit  Who Who Summer by The Busy Elf Designs.

My sister almost never gets in a picture, so I'm taking full advantage of all the candid shots I took of her on Memorial Day. Here she is with our other sister's oldest son. This layout was created using the kit - Seaside by GreenEyedLady Designs. The journaling is my take on the "conversation" between the two of them.

Thanks for looking!

Hike #5 - Split Oak Forest WEA

I guess it's been a long time since I shared a Hiking layout. With only 1 hike left on the 50 hikes goal, after 18 months of hiking, it's about time I try catching up. I've scrapped more than half my hikes now. Here's hike #5, which we completed while Lisa had a migraine and I learned how not to tell her the true distance of a hike. This is also the hike where we ran into a nudist, trudged through deep sand, and found a Split Oak tree.

Reliving Summer Vacation

Looking back at summer vacation, the majority of it happened before summer officially began. For example, Nicole and the boys were here at the end of May, and were gone by June 3. We had a blast, and I can't wait for them to come back. Those boys are FULL of character, and they got to meet some characters to boot.

Connor was not completely on board with character pictures, although he loved meeting them and even gave hugs. He just couldn't understand why we'd ever want to stand still when there was so much left to SEE!

Here's another layout (created with On the Go by Dee Bee Designs) - Logan loved the Where's the Fire game at Epcot, even if it was a little slow-paced for him. These boys are busy!

Bianca learned to walk the runway, and learned that she loves it! Here is Queen of 6-8 year olds in Miss Firecracker.

John and I just finished a quick Disney stay to celebrate our anniversary - that was so relaxing!

From breakfast at Boma's to drinks at Big River Brewery, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring Disney property, as we always do. We stayed at the Pop Century, my favorite value resort, and we were not ready to come home. A shout out to the events manager at Animal Kingdom who took time out of his day to teach John how to wear his Happy Anniversary button - it was hysterical and really set the tone of our morning that day. (This layout was created using Timeless Treasure by Algera Design).

There is more fun coming in July, see you soon!

A Successful June

June was a very happy scrappy month for me - so many layouts, and layouts I was happy with too. I finished 40 layouts for a cool 165 layouts in the first half of 2012. My goal for the year is 350, so I'm hanging in there. None of my paper layouts have been posted online yet, I'll get around to those in a few days, but here are a few of the digital layouts that are floating around out there.

Here's Logan in The Waves Roll In, created using SeaSide by StarSongStudio

Connor had his own beach experience in Escape to the Sea, created using SeaSide by StarSongStudio

This is Trinity in She Doesn't Need Pixie Dust, created using Blossoms and Fairytales by TheBusyElfDesigns

Proud to Be an American is about my sisters when we were younger; this layout was created using All American by GreenEyedLadyDesigns

Bianca recently had a proud moment, captured here in Bianca's Recital which is one of the layouts I created using the brand new Collab Kit A Moment of Thanks by the Nifty Designers

Tabatha also had a proud moment at her High School Graduation, and I couldn't help but reflect on her growth over the years into the lovely young lady we know today, captured in The March of Time is Persistent using the brand new Collab Kit A Moment of Thanks by the Nifty Designers.

Thanks for looking!

Which Dream Is Weirder?

So, I recently had two wacky dreams. I don't know which one was weirder.

Dream #1 - John and I were at home with my Dad and 4 talking dogs (two Rotts, one Dalmatian, and one Terrier). A talking alligator came to the house while I wasn't paying attention - a really huge, really ugly, really mean talking alligator - and John fed him and put him in a room. The talking alligator proceeded to tear the room apart, making a complete mess of walls and furniture. John and I relocated the alligator far from the house (a small yellow house on a large piece of land). A few hours later, I was sitting in the back room of the house with my Dad, the Terrier and the Dalmatian. Our back door had no door, and we notice the alligator is marching up to the house. I yell at Dad and the dogs to flee the room, since we have no way to keep the alligator out and he's hungry again. Hungry alligators tend to eat people and dogs, I tell them. The Dalmatian is assuring me that this alligator most certainly won't eat him, seeing as how it talks. Then the alligator announces that he's hungry and most certainly will eat anything he comes across. So then my Dad and the dogs make a mad dash scramble into the other room, hurdling over the dog gates in place to protect us from the outside. The alligator stomped in and John found the only way to keep him calm was to fill the room with containers of water - the kind of containers you find on a water cooler in an office. The talking alligator liked looking at those huge bottles of water. For the record, I would like to note that only my two Rotts behaved in this dream.

Dream #2 - John and I went on a roadtrip with his cousin and a friend. We drove to Atlanta (GA), then to Jasper (AL), then to another city in GA which I don't believe exists, but which I kept referring to in my dreams as The Home of the Braves (I am aware they are from Atlanta). From that city we took a train out to Arizona, where we were visiting with Woody, Buzz and Jessie (yes, the characters from Toy Story). In Arizona I was attacked by two talking geckos - they were fierce. And John's cousin shrunk to the size of a Barbie doll. It was mad chaos out there, although we did get to see our Toy Story friends.

The moral of the story seems to be that talking animals follow John. That can't be good, lol.

And by the way, I think the spelling of the word weird is... well, weird.