The Walk

Yesterday was, as we say in the South, "dog hot!"  So hot that a dog won't leave the shade to retrieve a bone.  It was the day we decided was perfect to make a trip to Cedar Falls.  Cool water cascading over a towering cliff into a deep pool of equally cool water.  It was very refreshing, very refreshing indeed.

It was a good thing it was refreshing because the falls entailed a two-mile, strenuous hike - a two-mile strenuous hike in weather so hot that a dog wouldn't walk two feet to retrieve his favorite bone.  Yes, it was the perfect day for a dip in the water under the falls.  I was also a perfect day for heat stroke.

Nobody actually succumbed to heat stroke, but out of the nine of us who went, aging fro under one year to over 60, several were ready to be carried out before we actually made it back to the van with A/C, which turned out to be second only to the falls themselves as an attracttion.

Two of the crew, myself and my son-in-law, were not to experience the benefits of the mini-van's refreshing ventilation.  As it turned out, due to the fact the van only held seven people, we were riding motorcycles, following the crisp fall-like weathered induced mini-van.

We both love riding bikes, but our ride back home was akin to riding in an oven.  The wind we felt blowing across our bodies as the bikes roared beneath our seats was very close to the breeze produced by a a heater vent.  The refreshing dip in the fall fed pool was all but forgotten.

Was it worth the walk?  Yes!  It was hot, dog hot, but it was a memory that will long rest in our hearts and the vision of the falls enjoyed with grandchildren will not soon be forgotten.  The walk was the price of the memory.  What are lifelong memories worth?  More, much more.

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you: (Lk 6:38).  What we gave in a hot, tiring walk to the falls and back, will be returned over and over again in fond memories, memories that will last for a lifetime, and even beyond my lifetime.  Jus' Say'n.