The park is shrouded in a thick layer of fog. The grass is wet, the trees are all dripping. It is a bit on the chilly side, but being above forty, it is not so cold as to actually require a jacket, a sweatshirt works just fine.
As of the .8" of rain that is sitting in the rain gauge this morning, we have had just over four inches of rain this month. That is more water than we have had for the first four months of the year combined. I mornings like this I like to linger, looking at the water dripping off the leaves, reveling in the foggy chill, enjoying the muffled near-silence of the morning. Foggy mornings like this always remind me of a trip I took many years ago.I was living in Memphis at the time and decided to head to Florida to visit friends for a long weekend. The drive was uneventful, I had left at what I refer to as 'butt-ugly-early-o'clock' and drove through the wee-small hours arriving at the Alabama-Florida border around sunrise.
The fog was settling over the paddocks of the farms in the Florida panhandle as I made my way across US-231 that glorious morning. I owned a convertible, it was my favorite car of all times…the morning was so still and so quiet, that I pulled off the road at a turn-out and put the top down to revel in the cool wetness of the dawn. A single Live Oak sat in the middle of the paddock; its leaves dripping the morning dew as its branches dripped the Spanish Moss. A chestnut mare trotted over to the fence to see what I was doing, perhaps hoping for some treat from the newcomer. Receiving nothing for the effort, she snorted and sauntered off into the fog.
It was a lovely morning and just one of the fantastic road trips I have enjoyed over the years. All the more cherished as it comes back to mind on a cool, foggy morning like this.
Wherever you are today, I hope that you'll have the time to savor a cherished memory!
Don Bergquist – May 20, 2011 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
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