Our foresight the night before placed us within just a few miles of our next destination, the Little River National Preserve. It wasn’t necessarily a big place, just long. It followed the banks of the Little River. Hence the name. Imagine that.
We arrived before the welcome center opened, so we went old school and followed a paper map and road signs (yes, they do still make those. Helpful in areas with spotty cell service). And our first stop was a littler boardwalk hike to see Little River Falls. I chuckle as I type this. They certainly lived up to their name. Little. Not much to them, actually. I know the drought had a lot to do with that, but for someone who has seen some really big waterfalls (Niagara), this was tiny. Pretty, though.
As we returned toward the car, we passed an elderly lady (OK. She was probably our age. It’s weird being the same again as old people). She told us we were in for a real treat. The “real hike” started just behind her, but she couldn’t do it because of a bum knee. We thanked her and continued on.
Sure enough, we soon came to a break in the railings that led to a path. Ignoring the warnings about the 139 steps at the end, and how difficult it would be to turn around and come back up the hill, we jumped right in. Fortunately, we knew to watch for red marks on trees to make sure we stayed on the rocky trail. And they weren’t kidding about those treacherous steps. But we made it all the way down to the river. We even explored an old cave and walked around on on the river bed itself, much of which was dry. Then came the return. Yep. New lesson for all you prospective hikers out there: uphill is harder than downhill, especially after you have already done the downhill. I was about hiked out.
On our way out of the preserve, we took the canyon rim road. Supposed to have some amazing views of the canyon. The views were pretty good. After all, God does good work. My favorite part, though, were the six of eight raptors that were soaring around the canyon. Now THAT was majestic.
From the canyon rim we left the high places and began our descent back into the lower plains of existence. In other words, we jumped on the interstate and headed south and west. It was a long afternoon of driving, but fortunately the sky was overcast, so it wasn’t super hot with the sun in our eyes. We trekked across Alabama and almost all of Mississippi to stay the night in Vicksburg. The only excitement on this leg came when we accidentally turned onto a one way street - the wrong way. Fortunately we recognized the snafu right away (the car headed right for us gave us our first clue). We were able to jump the small median and get back to where we needed to be. Watch out for those confusing streets in Meridian, Mississippi. But on a positive note, we were able to use our accumulated frequent traveler points to get a free room.
Next target … Dallas, and a wedding to attend.
2 Peter 1:3 says, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Father, thank you for riding with us on long days like yesterday. Today will be another one. Please join us. Amen.
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