Running With Gloria. . .

So, Gloria and I have taken up running.  And I use that term VERY loosely.  We've decided to run a 5k together sometime in the fall.  Or Spring.  Or sometime in the future.  So far we've run every night this week.  It's only Tuesday, but still. . .

So far we've had a couple of interesting adventures.  On Monday, we visited the KOA camp ground that is 5 minutes from our house.  It's a camp ground in the middle of town.  I don't think you can call it a camp ground unless there is some body of water and at least a couple of pine trees.  And dirt.  There should be dirt at a camp ground.  This KOA had lots of grass and pavement and even an indoor pool but no dirt and no water.  I'm not counting the pool as a body of water.  The "camp ground" was also full of VERY fancy RV's that all had satellite dishes on their roofs.  One even had a fold-out plasma TV - on the outside!  These people weren't camping.  They were sitting around in lawn chairs watching TV.  I was really curious about their stories. . .

ANYWAY. . . for our Tuesday night run, we decided to go into the nearby forest.  I didn't know we had a forest but I guess if we have a camp ground, anything is possible.  We walked toward the commercial area again that is just a few blocks away and Gloria pointed out a bunch of trees off to the south by the dead end road.  As we got closer, we noticed a path.  A PAVED path.  It curved off behind the storage unit building and had a creek running through a patch of trees.  Maybe it was a canal but it was disguised as a creek. . .

So, here we are on a pretty shady path with a storage building on one side surrounded by a chain link fence and this pretty little creek on the other.  There was even a little bridge. . .

Around a curve in the path, there was this kind of creepy building. . .

And that's when we decided to run. . .

The path came out on a nice little lane that was lined with farm houses and open fields. . .

Now, I've lived in this neighborhood for almost 17 years.  I've walked, I've run, I've driven just about every where around my house over the years.  All of this was 10 minutes away from my house and I didn't know it was there!!

We continued down the lane until we came to a dead end.  And another paved path.  The path opened right out into a neighborhood. . .

Now, at least, I knew where we were.  This was part of the neighborhood that Lucy and I used to run in but it was a street that we hadn't been on before.  I knew that if we kept walking we would eventually come out on Linder.  I knew we were still quite a ways from Linder so when I saw a gravel path that looked like a short cut, we decided to take it. . .

I texted the above picture to Zach and said, "I thought somebody should know where we are".  Even though I didn't really know where we were.  Gloria and I decided that would be a good time to run again. . .

The road was actually a canal bank with warning signs on the other end that warned against trespassing.  We climbed over the little chain that blocked our way and ended up on Linder.  Another 10 minutes or so from home. . .

I have a feeling that running with Gloria is going to be quite an adventure. . .