The Score

The Scoreboard reads as follows:

Smart Phone - 1                 Dumb Human - 0

It all started simply enough. A beautiful 60+ degree day, the sun is shining and Mommy said it's a great day for a hike through the park or a walk in the woods (all depends on how you want to look at it.) Since she quit smoking she has to keep busy. And what a better way....

So Muffin and I get all harnessed up, Mommy grabs a bottle of water and Daddy grabs the leashes and off we go. Even tho little Muffin is NOT a walker, she will walk like a real champ (most of the time) when walking on grass or pathways. She is getting better and better at it each and every time. She doesn't do well on pavement.

Mommy found this walking trail on the internet called Monkey Run. She loved the name of it and it wasn't too far from our house. So after very little research on Mommys part, that's where we're heading.

We find the parking area at around 11:30 and head out following the path. We turn around the first corner and Daddy said "I don't think this is the right path because this is someone's back yard." "No it's OK Mommy says, the people allow you to walk through their yards to get to the main trail. That's what it said on the internet."

Daddy and me (Lily) are leading the walk. Mommy and Muffin are behind us and the people's homes are on the left (right out of the cameras view.)

Now we're getting into the forest. So we're walking and walking and walking. It was absolutely perfect weather for doing this. Up some hills, down the other side, even some really cool bridges to cross over.

You can do it Muffin! Heck, Mommy's wearing her Birkenstock sandles for crying out loud.

We're following a beautiful little stream as we wind through the paths.

And we're walking and walking and walking. And there are trails that go to the left, some go to the right, some go straight. Being such a great hunter, Daddy lets me lead the way and pick the trails I want. (I think that was Daddy's first mistake...)

It's a little muddy butt that's OK. Muffin is doing really well and hasn't started to freak out yet. There are lot's of good sniffies in here. Muffin and I even found some dead mice.

Then I found a great scent on the ground and just had to roach and roll all over it. As Mommy and Muffin were approaching Mommy's saying "P-U! Smells like a Skunk!"  Mr. Skunk must have sprayed something on the ground where I was rolling. I loved it! I didn't care that it meant B-A-T-H later.

Many of the hills are really steep. We're really hiking, just like Goose and his MOM. Hey this is really cool. We take a few water breaks along the way and the really nice thing was that most of the time we're in the shade of the trees.

Then we come to a clearing at the end of the path. What?? Hey, that's not where we parked the car! Heck, that ain't even our house!!

Daddy turns and looks at Mommy and Mommy just shrugs her shoulders. Where the heck are we? Well we're definately NOT in OZ anymore, that's for sure!

We find some shade, have some water and the human's discuss the situation. I can tell by the tone in their voices, they've not a clue.

Now we came in off the trail on the left of this house and we're standing in this rather large clearing behind this big ass large house mansion. Over on the right is more forest with another path that we can see from where we are standing. Mommy and Daddy are arguing discussing which way to go. So, Daddy pulls out his Smart Phone. Duh, the phone can tell him, I mean it is smart, right?

After a few minutes Daddy says we have to go to the right. Mommy shakes her head and said I don't think so. I think we have to go back to the left (the way we came) and take the first trail that veers off to the right. Daddy insists we go to the right. So we start walking again. Into the forest and up a large hill. Then down a large muddy hill. But we're on a path and Daddy said that's a good thing. And we're walking and walking and walking. Daddy keeps stopping and looking at his Smart Phone. Mommy keeps telling him they are going the wrong way. She just can sense it. After about 20 minutes, guess what? We back in the middle of this clearing looking at the same house but this time from the very bottom of a large hill! Mommy ain't too happy. I take it to mean that Daddy's Smart Phone is dumb.

Now it's Mommy's turn. So we follow Mommy up the large hill towards the mansion. As we get fairly close to this mansion, we see golf carts and golfers. Oh shit! We are not even close to our car Mommy realizes. Well, this ain't a good thing...

Mommy pulls out her Smart Phone and opens up the GPS app. In order to find where we parked we gotta keep walking the way Mommy said to go in the first place. We walked and we walked and we walked some more.

We followed the tree line around the outskirts of the golf course. The building on the right must be the ground keeping department. Our van is down the hill (straight ahead in the picture) then a hard left through the tree line.

By now Daddy is not happy so Mommy is joking about the entire hike. Daddy still isn't laughing. Muffin and I are keeping really well hyrated but our tongues are now hanging low. We've been lost walking hiking for a few hours.

Mommy cut's into the tree line which is not a hiking path. She didn't care at this point. She only knew the van was "that" way. Then after walking for a bit we come upon a beautiful house in another clearing. Yeah! Civilization. Keep following Mommy.

We walk through this person's back yard, down their long driveway, through some more woods and out the other side into a cul-de-sac. Daddy was impressed that the cul-de-sac is at the end of the street of where we parked. Hey Mommy may not be good at this north, south crap, but she sure can operate a Smart Phone!

 

 

Homeward bound now for our baths. Just look at all the stinky gunk on my ear! It was also all over my right side which you can't see.

Mommy told Daddy on the way home that tomorrow HE can pick the place we go walking or hiking or losting or what ever you want to call it! She don't want to hear him gripe anymore.

All in all we had a great day!

Hope you enjoyed our long adventure.  In case you were wondering, we started our hike at 11:30 and got back to the van at around 2pm.

Remind me next time to drop some bread crumbs as we're walking.....

Hugs,
Lily Belle