Shawnee Forest
On one of our hikes.
Woke up to this view each morning of our trip. Breathtaking!
We're back! Got back last night. Had a fabulous time! Hiked, relaxed by the Ohio River in our cabin, shopped some quaint southern Illinois towns and it was wonderful. Glad we didn't have to drive. I worked on a couple of cross-stitch ornaments in our downtime. Wrote a bit.
I was also moved to buy this:
Always thought this was a cool idea, but never felt moved to purchase one. Glad I did because it was Poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge! Haven't made it all the way through the book yet, but I love it so far and hope it provides the inspiration I need for NaNoWriMo this year (which is not a poetry book, but will include some poetry and vignettes).
We went on 3 hikes total and I loved each one! The last two were guided hikes--Millstone Bluff and Cave In Rock. Both gorgeous! I'll have photos of those added at some point. The first one was unguided in Giant City. I ended up leading that hike with another woman (Tracy) because we were the hiking afficianados according to my sil Donna (who was our awesome escort on the tour). The sweetest lady bought me some S'mores on a stick from The Chocolate Factory (one of our stops) as a "tip." I am directionally challenged, but I have AllTrails on my phone, so was comfortable leading the hike. Except we lost our caboose--Tracy wanted to take photos so I led while she brought up the rear. One of the ladies was struggling so after we waited for Tracy & her crew for about 8 minutes, we thought they must have turned around before the midway point to go back to the bus. In hindsight, she & I should have exchanged phone numbers so we could text each other because as a group we decided to forge on ahead and when we got to the bottom of the trail (it was a loop) Tracy & her crew were not there. So I went traipsing backwards on the trail until I caught up with them again. Turns out they got some inaccurate info about a "shortcut" and got off-trail. But these folks were total troopers. We ranged in age from Tracy (maybe 50 years old) to almost 90! There were a few who turned back early on in the hike but about 15 of us made the loop and no one complained once.
I think my favorite thing about this trip was the sunrises every morning over the Ohio River. I loved the hiking. The history. The natural beauty. Even the shopping because it was all small town and fairly quick.
Another happy part of the trip was that I reconnected with my former co-worker & running partner, Danita. It had been 20 or so years since we were last in touch--she has since found love again & remarried, so I got to meet her husband too.
It's a small world after all. 💕
The only downside is that I came home with a pretty bad head cold. So, sigh, I am home convalescing once again after a trip...