HUDSON PARK WALK

This morning dawned with river fog and mist spray; for a while it looked like the planned hike would have to be called off. But by the time we topped the Rainier hill, and parked in the graveled parking lot … the heavy river fog had begun to lift, and the heavy spray mist had stopped completely:

A little bit of turquoise sky showing through the parting clouds.

There was a lot of flowers (tiny wild roses, foxgloves, goats-beard, daisies, wild sweet-pea vines, pink velvety puff-ball type of flowers) and blackberry brambles along the path; but I got a phone call before I could capture most of the flowers – all I managed to capture before the call came and picture taking was waylaid, was this field of wild daisies …

Ed and Trudy are 13 and 15 years older than I am, but they still enjoy getting outdoors, and hiking – so they came with me. They are fun, and they are a wealth of hiking information. Bob and I did hiking on a small scale … these 2 have been all around the world, and have done B.I.G. hikes.

It doesn’t matter how old a person gets to be, there is always something older people can enrich your life with … because they have lived longer, and have information from experience they can share.

I am all about learning from experience.

So, I listen when they talk ;-)

The woodland path we walked: Trudy telling me about the type of hiking boots she wears … I'll have to make do with my sneakers until inslee's mask mandate fades away and stores get back to do rational business again.

My "back fence neighbors" and friends, Ed & Trudy: 78 and 76

I look pregnant with my fanny pack on under my blouse; but I didn’t want to have my backpack-purse along with me; and I needed to have my wallet, comb, rain poncho (just in case), chap-stick, Ibuprofen, Benadryl (for bee stings: I am severely allergic) – I needed the fanny pack … no matter how I looked with it on ;-)

Me wearing Bob's windbreaker; I like feeling like he is with me in some small way. This is a new solo lobo venture ... Bob & I never did this hike.

The phone call ended before we reached this mud patch – if it hadn’t … I would have had to end it, because I needed all my attention focused on getting safely across those slippery poles:

Trudy was the smart one … she wore boots.

Not happy to see this – this is why most trails are gated off.

Just a little bit further along, we came to a picnic area near the backside of the Hudson Park Elementary School playground; here, we cut across the school grounds to the blacktop and walked back to the car …

Trudy; she said the Hike Club donated a picnic table to this spot.

This was a steep incline: the heart and lungs really got worked – but that’s okay; that why I hike ;-)

(https://www.fridayhealthplans.com/hiking-is-so-good-for-you/#:~:text=Hiking%20boasts%20all%20of%20the,and%20helps%20control%20your%20weight.)

The Horizon in the distant gravel parking lot …

It was an enjoyable walk with fun companions.

And the rain held off for the entire 1½ miles – as soon as we reached the car, the raindrops started :-D

Because of the fickle weather, we didn’t walk through the Hudson Park trails as planned (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2020/06/dovetailing-details.html) – we shortened our “outside time” back, and just skirted the school grounds. I’ll come back and increase my mileage ... and do the Park when the weather is more stable.

DOVETAILING DETAILS

Bob would call dove-tailing, ‘splicing’ … and they are basically the same thing ;-)

A few days ago, I was rummaging around in the table desk in the bedroom when I came across some disks with Bob’s handwriting on them – so I swallowed past the lump in my throat and opened the baggie with shaky hands. Then I whooped with delight and started viewing them:

THANK YOU BABE!

I slipped a disk into the laptop player Wednesday evening after Supper and watched the pictures play out; I did not cry …

BLESSINGS. I did not know Bob had done this ... like kisses from Heaven!

The disks hold 8 years of pictures Bob had saved from my previous computers – all the way back to the first one! There were pictures of Bob, our granddaughter, Alyna; our Pomeranian, Tyson, and my wolf, Precious. There were daytrip & vacation pictures – there were home remodeling pictures from our 2 Longview homes before this one. There were pictures of my homesteading years with my nice big garden area … and the chickens I finally got to have :-D Pictures of the elk heard that crossed our back yard and stripped the plum tree of every single plum – we caught them in the act! There were pictures of the racoon family that sat in the sugar pine shadowing my Hen Pen and drooled over my chickens.

I never hoped to see these pictures again, but Bob was always thinking and planning ahead; I wondered when he burned these disks off.

And I smiled – a lot :-)

My heart is healing.

18 months/13 days/14 hrs. & 55 mins. without Bob: I miss him like mad, but the tears are not falling every hour anymore, and I can look at his handsome face and not feel like I am having a heart attack with the missingness of him. Elohim is faithful, and the peace Yeshua gives is a soothing balm. I am blessed; greatly loved, and highly favored.

Because the way the pictures were downloaded to disk, I was able to select and save the pictures I wanted. Finding these picture disks made my heart sing – I was able to save more pictures of Bob.

From Wednesday morning, until today’s morning; I have been dovetailing the past with the present, and smiling nonstop. Wednesday morning after finding and viewing the 1^st disk, I went to bed happy to have spent the entire day with Bob’s presence all around me – remembering the moments each picture captured. I woke up Thursday … and this morning … anticipating watching another disk and spending time with my husband: even if only in memory. Those were GREAT memories :-D

Yesterday I woke up excited to see what other memories would wrap love around me; but before I settled into Bob’s recliner to view the 2^nd disk, I went outside to water my garden before I lost track of time and the sun got too high in the sky. I have been saving coffee grounds all year for my garden; so, while watering yesterday, I put a ring of coffee grounds around all my cabbage family plants:

I noticed ripening tomatoes on my hanging-basket-tomato plant …

And I placed sunshades on my lettuce patches. It was nearly 90-degrees yesterday, the lettuce needed the sunshades:

Lettuce sunshade. Broken pin - cheap from $ store; I have more.

I ordered a pizza for pickup after I finished watering the garden area: Bob loved pizza, so pizza seemed like the perfect Supper fare to view the 2^nd disk: dovetailing happened on every level yesterday ;-)

This morning I viewed the 3^rd – and final – disk. And early afternoon, heart and thoughts full of Bob and missing the hikes we’d done together for decades; I got itchy feet; so, I crossed the river to Oregon and scoped out a Park there, because I want to walk the hiking trail. I was in for a surprise – the Park is not as small as it appears to be! I assumed from glancing at it in passing, that it was a Day-Use-Park where families could have picnic fun and walk a family-friendly trail – I was surprised to see tents and RV’s everywhere this afternoon.

I took a cross-over-backroad into Rainier from the park, and will not be doing that again! Bob had driven that road in the truck, but things are different in a car - even a car designed for off-road travel: the pot holes were deep enough to fall into, and the road was poorly maintained - I seriously worried about the car's chassis!

Back in WA, I decided to stop at Winco and grab a couple cases of water. When I saw the store had restocked their shelves with actual ‘worth going to the store’ items again (instead of the slap-dash and over-priced items that had previously greeted my eyes since inslee’s decrees), I was delighted … and I also bought food stuffs and TP, to restock at home – I’m not really running low; but since there seems no real end to inslee’s demoncrat party-line-mandates, I figured I’d better get what I can get while it’s available so I can eat healthy, and wipe my butt, if at some time in the future months stores are closed to the unmasked people like me. The obamanite puppets are determined to have a prolonged perpetual ‘shutdown mandate’ forever. I don’t think they ever plan to reopen the States until they can permanently reign with an iron fist, and control the pliant masses:

Restocking my pantry. I didn’t need anything specific, so I bought food stuffs that appealed to me and looked interesting. As you can see – I like color! Even with my food ;-)

While I was shopping, I got a text from the grandkids asking if there was anywhere to set off fireworks: they were hoping for Willow Grove beachfront – I said I’d check it out (no go). The 4^th of July celebration at Lake Sacajawea has been canceled due to the coronavirus, and places to set off fireworks is practically nonexistent in Longview – there would be no problem if I still lived in the country; but I don’t, so now there is a problem.

But, we’ll find somewhere …

New sign at Willow Grove.

Obviously 1 Park Rule concerning trail is are not being obeyed.

2 ships waiting to dock at Longview’s Port. I noticed when I crossed the Bridge that there were 2 or 3 anchored ships on the upper end of the river too.

Can’t read the name on this ship – and zooming the pic up at home wasn’t helpful either.

Hammock loungers look settled in for a cozy afternoon.

Tomorrow I will be hiking in Oregon.

Maybe the walk will help me think of someplace to set off fireworks to celebrate the birth of our Nation.

Dovetailing the past with the present ;-)