SURPRISE

These boots were given to me so long ago I can’t remember when, in the hopes I would actually put them on and go for a hike.  Yesterday, I had to hunt for the box because I thought it would be a good idea for my newest jaunt to the wilds of a mountain top where there is currently a plethora of ice encasing everything and a slight dusting of snow.  Which has been a good decision on my part and the boots are actually comfortable.  Something about them brings out the pioneer spirit in me and the independent means to actually go where I wouldn’t have stepped before.  I am still proceeding with great caution.

When you arrive at your vista cabin and this sign is posted just off the veranda, it means business.  This same lovely park of dangerous cliffs also has a collection of danger bluff signs that we have

used to cause a little excitement when we realize it is not the name of the bluff.  Some folks in our family get excited about little red signs and more than a foot of water.

I may have the boots and a fearless spirit but not a stupid one.  The ground out back, which is a pleasant grass and dirt mix in the spring, summer, warm winter and fall (but still with the red sign) currently resembles an automatic sprinkler system left on atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire on a cool winter day.  This is the ultimate slip and slide and slide and slide with a few pines that might catch a bad streak but doubtless as to whether the momentum would change course.  The pity is in the spring, the natural beauty of this point could easily be seen just a tad closer.  I have only been off the back porch once, with a sturdy rope tied to me from the porch post and that was when I discovered this tumultuous falls. (Supposedly.)

Yesterday, sitting on the substantial back porch swing (sissy swings are just not my thing) I was praying out loud and thanking God for the beauty of this earth and I heard traffic in the background. I knew it couldn’t be traffic but I didn’t know I was anywhere near this falls. And it is very cold here.  18 degrees yesterday.  Everything should be frozen.  It was snowing and I just couldn’t see much.

The official tourist overlook is miles down the road.  Unfortunately, there are a couple of people every year who think the red signs aren’t meant for them.   It is often a fatal error.  But warning signs are posted everywhere.  If warning signs bring out your impulsiveness, this is not the mountain top experience for you.

Now I have to go to the Lodge to eat dinner.  I need the people factor and I would love a hot meal and the roaring fireplace which is in the room where I can get on the Internet.  Hopefully, this will go easily.

I see the expected snow is beginning to fall.  Here I was worried over where the traffic was coming from. 

God just loves to surprise me.  It is an easy job.