Saturday was my father-in-law’s 75th birthday, and one of the things he was most anxious to do was take a good long walk through Petrifying Springs Park. . . and it fell to me to accompany him since Kathy was tied up with some important errands. What felt going in like a modest favor I was doing for my father-in-law turned out to be the best thing in the world I could have done for myself. It was a glorious fall day with not a cloud in the sky . . . and to spend fifty minutes away from laptop and cell phone and television, in the company of my father-in-law, and with my beloved camera in hand, was a special treat indeed.
Early in our marriage, Kathy and I rented a farmhouse out in the country, right across the road from Petrifying Springs- and I am embarassed to admit that in those two years we probably visited Petrifying Springs twice- if that. It would be like living across the street from the Louvre and only managing to pop over every eighteen months or so. Oddly enough, we’ve done better since moving into Racine- maybe because we’ve felt more of a need for those back-to-nature walks after leaving country life behind. And of course, we’re more fortunate than most in that we live amidst some rustic beauty of our own, with cornfields visible from our living room windows and coyotes as occasional visitors to our yard. (Of course, we can’t begin to compete with the wonderful country home which Matt and Randi are building for themselves six miles outside of Decorah. That will be an amazing place to live once it’s done. Pix of it can be seen on my 25th Luther Reunion page.)
Anyway, back to that wonderful autumn afternoon walk. . . We actually ended up straying from the paved road and walking right along the stream, and there were moments when it sure looked like we were a hundred miles away from civilization. Of course, right around the next bend in the trail we’d see a highway sign in the distance or hear a car horn but it was still fun to feel like Jeremiah Johnson for a moment or two. It was especially nice to be taking this walk without a spirited golden retriever trying to call the shots. This was just two guys on a wonderful walk.
And I’m still a little bit amazed- and more than a little bit impressed- that Kathy’s dad was game for such a spirited walk even after his ER visit early Friday morning. But he was feeling fine and thought that a walk would make him feel even finer – and it did. (I did warn him beforehand, however, that if his you-know-what shifted and started causing him serious pain, I had no plans to carry him back to the car on my shoulders. I love the guy, but that can only go so far. Fortunately, he was fine.)
This walk reminded me that Bob shares with my own father a complete disinterest in dwelling on life’s aches and pains, nor in allowing those aches and pains to slow them down very much at all. And there are plenty of days when I wish that I wore 47 years as well as those two guys wear 75 years. (Maybe a few more walks will help.)