Hiking and barbeque

After writing up my blog post last night, it took an hour or more to actually post it. I don't know why it was so slow. Plus it would not post without saving first and the 'save' kept failing. Somehow I got it to go through without the picture. Then I tried to go back and add it, but with no luck. It was almost midnight when we went to bed.
I woke up and wasn't sure if the light seeping below the curtain was daylight or light from the parking lot. I tried to go back to sleep and might have dozed lightly. Eventually nature got me out of bed. I discovered that it was indeed daylight at 7:15. We got dressed and went to the lobby for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs and an apple and a banana. The TV was playing news from Huntsville. When we got back to the room, I had a cup of hot tea and took my supplements. Chris told me he had changed which network he was signed into. When I did that, the internet got a lot faster. I posted a pic to my blog post. We read our e-mail while checking the overcast sky for signs of rain.
A little after 9 we got ready to leave. Chris packed his backpack. We got as far as the lobby when I realized I wasn't wearing my rugged shoes. So we went back to the room to get them. Then we got in the car and went to the visitor's center again. They were in the middle of hosting a half-marathon. The parking lot was slap full so we parked around back. We used the restrooms and filled our water bottles from the filtered water dispenser.

We asked about the trails and we were given instructions for one across the back parking lot. So we walked past the car and found an unmarked trail. But it was the right one. We walked through the woods for awhile, then it turned into a series of bridges, and then up along the roadway. There was another parking lot with bathrooms. We took a descending trail that took us to the river. We roamed among the rocks and found a place to sit where I could dangle my feet in the water. It was very cold so I was not going to swim in it. I would have walked around in the water, but the rocks were slippery. As I sat, three little fish came out to see my legs. It was like they were waiting for something. After a while, I noticed a snake holding his head above water by a rock 4 yards away. I alerted Chris so he could take a pic, but the snake went under the rock.
Over the course of an hour, the snake came out several times to breathe. I explored the rocks closer to the bridge. On my way back, I saw a man with a big camera and asked him if he'd seen the snake. I pointed to where Chris was waiting. So he and the man had a conversation while waiting for the next breather.
Eventually I got bored. Chris let me wipe my wet feet on his jeans so I could put my shoes on. Then we went back to the parking lot and took a different trail which lead to a view of the falls. The guide there told us about two trails that led into the canyon, one was a quarter mile long and one was ¾ miles long. He did not recommend the steeper one.
But Chris wanted to do the steeper one. So we went there first. I said go ahead and I'll see you when you get back. But he insisted I take a look at it before refusing to go. So we went a bit and then I said no, I didn't think I could get back up it. He would not go without me, so we went back to the car.
We drove to the less steep trail. As we climbed down the rocks, it seemed kind of steep to me. But then we came to a graveled road. So maybe that was a short cut. The gravel road was hard to navigate due to the loose gravel and all the acorns. Kind of like walking on marbles. It was easier to walk backward. It was slow going no matter what. My legs hurt when we got to the bottom. Then the path flattened out and led to the river. It was covered in rocks of varying sizes, most of which were stable, but some were not. I went slowly so as not to twist an ankle. Chris went on ahead and climbed a big rock. He laid down on it. I was too tired to climb, so I sat among the smaller rocks. The water was kind of slimy so I did not put my feet in. I sat for awhile until I realized that I was slowly being surrounded by spiders. I drew the line at three and moved away. I picked my way back to the path, intending to call Chris and tell him where I had gone. But there was no cell signal. My ankles protested against going all the way back to him, so I cupped my hands and shouted. Eventually he heard me over the roar of the rushing water and climbed back to the path.
I found a walking stick and slowly started up the path/road. I had to rest often. I did not want to push myself so hard that I would regret it the next day. We followed the gravel trail farther than we had taken it, which was less steep than the way we had initially come. When we got back to the car, Chris' app said we had walked a mile.

When we left the trail, we followed the GPS in town to a barbeque place. But it was closed. So we went back to one we had passed on the way – Sally's Smokin Butt Barbeque. It was definitely a down home place. We ordered from a menu at the register. I got the beef brisket, highly recommended by another customer. Chris got pulled pork. We sat outside at a table, listening to three men talking over their meal. Then a lady brought our meals out. Our entrees had the wrong sides, so we traded meats. I ate the baked beans and chipotle slaw. Chris had the fried potatoes and chipotle slaw. The men had been telling me how it was the best brisket they had ever had. So when it came, they asked several times how I liked it. Well, it was good, but a little dry. However, the sauce was excellent and covered up the dryness.
Then we went back to the hotel. Chris stopped in the lobby to get a cup of coffee. When we got to the room, I made some tea. I snacked on sunflower seeds and dried apricots. I checked my e-mail.
After listening to the last Future Mapping episode, I laid down and meditated with the included paraliminal, and fell asleep. When I woke up, I turned on the TV and scanned through the channels until I found something called Wisdom of the Crowd – another high-tech murder mystery kind of thing. Chris came and watched it with me. Then we saw a CSI derivative. After that, we watched Ancient Aliens on the History channel. The second episode of that involved humans mating with aliens or demons and that was not something I wanted to see before I went to bed. So he turned the TV off.
We relaxed in companionable silence for awhile and then he went to sleep. So I got up to post to my blog, hoping for a much easier time than last night.